Fairytale of New York – No Use for a Name (Creepy random YouTube video, I know.)

I have a thing for any sort of Christmas media. I watch Christmas movies year round, and love making ridiculously long Christmas mixes.

I’ve accrued a great deal of songs over the years, and every year, I revamp my “select” Christmas music mix. (I still retain a full playlist of all of them, but a girl’s got to pick some yearly favorites!) One year it was only jazz and swing music, one year it was only punk covers, one year it was Christmas movie soundtracks, one year it was only super-pretty indie. This year? A mush of all of it. Without further ado, here’s this year’s mix of 26 of my favorites, in no particular order.

1. Angels We Have Heard on High – Relient k
2. Better Do It Right – Smash Mouth
3. Christmas of Love – Little Isidor and the Inquisitors
4. Come Though Fount of Every Blessing – Sufjan Stevens
5. Deck the Halls – Relient k
6. Do You Hear What I Hear – Rosie O’Donnell & Elmo (Ridiculously adorable. I can’t help but love it. Irritates the mess out of some.)
7. Fairytale of New York – No Use for a Name (Ultimate favorite non-traditional Christmas song. Played year-round.)
8. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Relient k
9. Handel’s Messiah – Relient k
10. Hark the Herald Angels Sing / Carol of the Bells – SHeDAISY
11. The Hat – Ingrid Michaelson (Another super-favorite. When I worked at Old Navy, this was a part of their mix, and I loved hearing it every time it came on.)
12. I Saw Three Ships – Sufjan Stevens
13. I’ve Got a Boner for Christmas – Nerf Herder (Completely inappropriate, but it always makes both of us laugh. It’s just, yeah. NSFW.)
14. Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming – Sufjan Stevens (Adore this song, any version, so much so that we had it played during the unity candle lighting at our wedding.)
15. Lonely Christmas Eve – Ben Folds
16. Nuttin’ for Christmas – Smash Mouth
17. O Come O Come Emmanuel – Sufjan Stevens
18. O Holy Night – Relient k
19. Oi to the World – No Doubt
20. Peppermint Winter – Owl City
21. Silent Night – Priscilla Ahn
22. Sleigh Ride – Relient k
23. So This Is Christmas? – Mxpx
24. We Wish You a Merry Christmas – Relient k
25. Zat You, Santa Claus? – Smash Mouth
26. Pennies from Heaven – Louis Prima

Hope you can add some of these to your Christmas playlist! Everybody loves new Christmas songs, right?

All of these songs are available via iTunes and for a listen on YouTube, and if I weren’t such a busy bee I’d probably link to all of them. Later, I hope!

Lovely. By the creator of the Upular mash-up, which will always hold a bit of my heart.

We’re moving this week, so I’ve been packing and cleaning like mad for the past week. Said cleaning and packing has been punctuated by design work and impromptu dance parties. One of the choices? Cameras by Matt & Kim. Listen, smile, all that jazz.

First up, is the song for the bridal party intro. This… well… I lied. This we haven’t decided on. There are two options. One is the cover of “With a Little Help from My Friends” by Jim Sturgess and Joe Anderson from Across the Universe.

For the rest of our songs, keep reading after the jump!

Our other option for this is “Time Warp.”

The first of our choices seems like the more appropriate song for this, but JP and I originally wanted us all to enter doing “Time Warp.” As we’re less than two weeks out, there’s no way we could figure out a dance number for that. We also would be able to save it and boogie down to it later in the evening. We’ll see!

Next up is our entrance song. Remember how we didn’t want to use “Obsessed with You” by The Orion Experience for our first dance because of the whole sex thing, even though it is “our song?” Bah. We’re going to use it anyway!

After that is our first dance, which I’ve already revealed to be “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy” by Queen.

Awkwardly bounce around, awkwardly bounce around, then it’s time for the father/daughter dance. During this dance, I will cry like a baby. Boo-hoo. Ugly cry face. Sob. It’s Loudon Wainwright III’s “Daughter.” A fairly popular choice as far as father/daughter dances go, but only because of it’s amazing and appropriateness. If you haven’t heard it– seriously. Play this. Cry. Hug your daddy.

After my daddy and I dance, JP and his mama will take to the dancefloor to the Scissor Sisters’ (!!!!) “Take Your Mama Out.” They had a hard time figuring out a song to use. JP’s mom is nervous about dancing, so I suggested that they do a fun song and then we’d get everybody to start dancing halfway through. They loved the song, loved the idea, so sold!

So we’ll dance for a good while, and then it will be time for the toss-time! For the bouquet toss, we chose “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen for clear awesomeness, Queen-action, and, well, it’s just hilariously perfect. I wish I could get some of our friends to promise to dive on the floor, but I doubt that’ll fly.

Garter toss was both a hard and easy decision. We had two that we wrestled with — “Short Skirt Long Jacket” by Cake and “La Grange” by ZZ Top. Ultimately, ZZ won out because, well, it’s ZZ Top, and we’re in LG. (Ok, LaGrange, GA, not La Grange, TX. Close enough, right?)

The last song before our faux grand exit [More on that later, but basically we're going around the block at 10:00 pm, then coming back to the house for more dance-party.] will be “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers. IMHO, this is the perfect last dance song. It’s a well-known song, fun to dance, and has great wordies. Win all around.

There you have it! Our “big ones.” I hope this has given ideas to those still trying to decide on their “big ones!”

What are your “big ones?” Any overlaps with ours? Also, which should we choose for the bridal party intro– “With a Little Help from My Friends” or “Time Warp?”

Yes, yes we did. Oh, didn’t you know that it was good to make big changes a month before the wedding? Well it is.

If you remember, our original first dance song choice was Ingrid’s “The Way I Am.”

It is no less sweet, no less perfect, and no less of an amazing song. We just realized we had a better choice right under our noses. “ORLY?” you ask? “LET ME SEE!” you say? Hokay.

The song that bumped Ingrid from the top spot is “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy” by Queen.

Why this change?

1. Um, it’s Queen. JP and I both have a serious love for Queen. Serious. Freddie makes me die.
2. This song is one we actually listen to. I’m not gonna lie– “The Way I Am” isn’t on our big playlist of life. It’s a great song, great lyrics, etc., but we don’t rock out in the car to it. GOFLB? We do. I turn my fist into a microphone and JP rocks out on the air guitar.
3. It’s a fun song, lesser-known but (in my opinion) instantly lovable.
4. Queen. Freddie Mercury. Ok, moving on. Point made.
5. The lyrics? Get out adorable.

There’s a great beginning…

I can dim the lights and sing you songs full of sad things
We can do the tango just for two
I can serenade and gently play on your heart strings
Be your Valentino just for you

Ooh love- ooh lover boy
What’re you doin’ tonight, hey boy?
Set my alarm, turn on my charm
That’s because I’m a good old-fashioned lover boy

Or how about a mushy middle…

When I’m not with you
I think of you always
(I miss those long hot summer nights)
I miss you
When I’m not with you
Think of me always
Love you- love you

And a strong end…

Ooh love
(There he goes again just like a good old-fashioned lover boy)
Ooh lover boy
What’re you doin’ tonight, hey boy?
Everything’s all right
Just hold on tight
That’s because I’m a good old-fashioned fashioned lover boy

Wonderful.
Thankfully MOH Laura is a rock-star dancer, and will teach us how not to fall all over ourselves trying to boogie to this. It’s not exactly a stand-there-and-sway song, so wezagunnahaffta practice. We’re lucky that it’s a fairly short song.

Did you change your first dance song, or were you solid from the beginning? Those who are doing “faster” songs, how are you handling the dance routine?

Yes.

Ceremony music is something that I’ve been sort-of dreading for months, because I wasn’t sure what to do. I don’t think I’ve ever shared this, but I’ve been playing the violin since I was six. I played in my first wedding when I was 11. I’ve been around the traditional-wedding-ceremony-music block. I think the music is beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve just been there done that. I glaze over a little bit. (Said music will remain nameless, to protect the innocent, or people that haven’t beaten it into the ground yet as I have). Our church also has quite a few rules with respect to what can and cannot be played, so that also made me nervous.

Today, we had our first official meeting with Callie, the girl who is heading up our ceremony music. I’ve known her for what feels like forever, and we played violin together for about 100 years. She’s amazing, super talented, and has fantastic taste. Going into our meeting, I had my list ready, and my “Oh God, please don’t let my ideas be crazy” hat on.

She loved my ideas, and, well, I don’t think it could have gone better. I’ll skip the detailed blabbery parts, and get right down to the meat. For the ceremony, we’ll have Callie, a cellist, and a pianist.

Let’s take a look and a listen at our music, shall we? I’m not going to go down the prelude-music-road today, because, well, I’m just not. We’ll save that for another day. All of this is not set in stone, of course, so if something changes, don’t beat me.

We do not have any grandparents attending the wedding, so the only people being walked down the aisle in the processional will be our two mothers and the three bridesmaids. Two separate songs for the both would be too chopped up, so I suggested one for both– the Handel-Halvorsen “Passacaglia.” It’s for cello and violin, and completely amazing.

This will most likely be shortened and fiddled with a bit, given its length. I think it’s just an incredible piece of music.

For the bridal processional, I wanted something that sort of said, “I’M HERE, Y’ALL! PAY ATTENTION! LOOKATMELOOKATMELOOKATME!” I think the piece of music that best does that is Handel’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” from Solomon. (More Handel, look at that!) We will have only violin, cello, and piano, not the full orchestra that is heard in this version.

The tempo will be slowed some, as well. I’m not going to gallop down the aisle.

The song idea for a during-the-ceremony piece is going to sound strange, but just work with me here. When I watched the Time Traveler’s Wife, aka the movie that partially butchered my favorite book, a song that was played at various points throughout was “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen,” or more commonly known in English as “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.” Yes, it is traditionally a Christmas carol. Pretend this doesn’t have a vocalist in it, and throw in a cello and perhaps piano.

I think it will be lovely, but let’s see what JP says once I run it by him.

Now, for the recessional, I will 100% lose my shit. It will be game over. I will be grinning, crying, and generally flipping the heck out. Remember before how I was worried about being able to have “All I Want is You” played? Well, worries gone, because we have someone to sing it, play the guitar, and play the harmonica. Plus, homeboy sounds like Mr. Polisar. Win win win win win. Just imagine this (again) as we all go back down the aisle.

I can’t think of anything more perfect.

(Okay, maybe I can, but this is just a tiny thing. I’d like to change the “was” parts in the song to “were,” because it should be in the subjunctive, damnit).

So, there you have it! We have our not-quite-as-commonly-used music, along with the ultimate recessional. I am thrilled.

What do you guys think? Did choosing your ceremony music go more easily than you expected? What are you using for your big pieces?

This is probably one of the best mash-ups I’ve ever heard or seen. Beautiful video, awesome music. It made my Monday morning, to say the least.

Listen and watch repeatedly for best results.

Watch and enjoy. And giggle at an Italian butchering some German.

This one certainly brightened up this dreary Monday.

Lately I’ve also been getting carried away about thinking of what music to have at the reception. When this came up on my playlist, I (of course) instantly had a “OMGTHISWOULDBESOFUNTODANCETO” moment. I’m having too many of those moments lately. I think it would be prudent for us to have a good mix of the fun songs and the more general-crowd-pleasing songs. (Or as JP calls them, “the after 10pm songs”).

I guess this is why we hired a DJ.

Anybody else get stressed out over the music ratios? I don’t want a boring wedding, but I also don’t want the older crowd to feel alienated and scram after 4 seconds.