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Picking the Last Song For Your Wedding Reception

The Fun Wedding Planning Detail I Almost Overlooked (and I'm So Glad I Didn't)

There's a whole lot of attention paid to the first-dance songs at weddings, but what about the last song everybody dances to at the end of the night? It's a detail I hadn't thought about when I was planning my wedding, but when our DJ asked whether we had a preference for that final song, it became a point my husband and I returned to again and again. What kind of vibe did we want to go for? How did we want our guests to walk away feeling?

We considered several ideas for the last song to play at our reception, and as a pop culture fanatic, I half-jokingly mentioned "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing. Too cheesy, we agreed. Or . . . just cheesy enough? Maybe we got tired of thinking about different options, but eventually we decided that it would actually be a great pick to get people of all ages onto the dance floor. We were right, and to add to the film-inspired charm, the DJ asked our wedding guests to form a circle around us to start, then join in as the song picked up. It ended up being one of my favourite moments of the night, and more than a few guests mentioned that it ended the party on a perfectly romantic, nostalgic note.

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