Choosing a first dance song sounds romantic until you actually try it. James arrived with a spreadsheet. I arrived with a list of songs that made me cry in the car. Somewhere between row forty-seven of his spreadsheet and my third tissue, we realised we were doing it wrong.
So we made a rule: no debating, no skipping, no phones. Every Sunday for a month, we cooked dinner together and slow-danced in the kitchen to one candidate — the whole song, start to finish, even the awkward middle eight. Most of them felt like auditions. A few made us laugh. Exactly one made James put his forehead against mine and go very quiet.
“You'll know it because you stop performing it. You just stand there, holding on, while the song does the talking.”
Our three-step method
First, each of us picked five songs that already belonged to our story — road trips, rainy days, the proposal hill. Second, we danced to all ten, full length, no shortcuts. Third, we slept on the finalists and played them once more over morning coffee. The winner was obvious both times.
We won't spoil it here — you'll hear it open the dance floor on the night. But here's our honest advice to any couple starting the search: pick the song you already love, not the song you think a wedding should have. Your guests will remember how you looked at each other far longer than which track played.