So let's face it, not everyone can afford to have a band at their wedding. But the great thing about technology now is there are some great DJs out there and you can find and download almost any song you want to play with the internet and
iTunes. One of my favorite places online for music now is
Last FM. If you want to make your own playlist (say you're having an iPod reception) and you're not exactly sure about songs you want to play, you can type in a keyword on the site, and a radio station for that key word will play! For instance, you type in the word "wedding" and a radio station of wedding songs will play. You can also type in the name of an artist and the radio station will play similar artist. Or if you type in the artist in the search box and select that artist, the site will recommend other artist you might be interested in based on your search.
Another site that does this well is
Pandora. A lot of people know about
Pandora because of its mobile feature. You can get the
Pandora application on your phone. This site is great and is a great resource for music. It works similar to
Last FM. If you want to have Jazz at your reception during cocktail hour, you can select a station by genre and let it play. Or you can do the same thing as
Last FM, type in an artist and the station will play similar artists. For example, I would type in Michael Buble for my reception, and just let the station play.
What's even better about
Pandora, each song that plays, you can either give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down and then the station will know what your likes and dislikes are.
Also if you are making a playlist for your DJ, this is a great place to find new or related songs for your list. I would suggest downloading the songs yourself, burning a CD, and then giving it to your DJ of the songs you want played. Make sure you include a label of the songs on the disc.
Even if you just wanted to use the stations for a party, the holidays are coming up- you could play the station called Jazz Holidays (that's one of my favorites). So there's so many resources for music out there nowadays, don't go spending loads of music on a band that's not going to play all the songs you want anyway.
So let's face it, not everyone can afford to have a band at their wedding. But the great thing about technology now is there are some great DJs out there and you can find and download almost any song you want to play with the internet and iTunes. One of my favorite places online for music now is Last FM. If you want to make your own playlist (say you're having an iPod reception) and you're not exactly sure about songs you want to play, you can type in a keyword on the site, and a radio station for that key word will play! For instance, you type in the word "wedding" and a radio station of wedding songs will play. You can also type in the name of an artist and the radio station will play similar artist. Or if you type in the artist in the search box and select that artist, the site will recommend other artist you might be interested in based on your search. 
