The best songs for your wedding ceremony

If you want the room emotional before you even appear, vocals are powerful. If the thought of hearing lyrics while trying not to cry sounds like torture, an instrumental version gives you the same melody with a little more breathing room.

And please time your entrance. Let the music play long enough that the person waiting at the front can actually hear it, breathe and have their moment too. Family and friends will inevitably be talking to you until approximately four seconds before you walk in.

This is where I’d stop trying to engineer one giant emotional moment and simply choose music you like. Instrumentals are lovely because people can chat quietly underneath them; vocals are equally fine if the lyrics mean something to you. Have more music than you think you need — nobody minds if the final song gets faded out.

This is my favourite place to stop being polite. The ceremony is done, everybody wants to cheer, and a song with immediate energy gives people permission to do exactly that. You do not need to save all the fun music for the evening.

I keep this playlist broad on purpose: vocals, acoustic covers, strings, piano, classics and a few songs that are definitely not what your grandmother expects when the doors open.

Use it as a starting point rather than a prescription.