Sentimental

Happy Friday!

Here is a darling song for you, this Friday. This was a friend's first dance song, and I've loved it ever since! There are two versions...I like the "sentimental" version (the one posted below) but take your pick!

Swept Me Away by The Avett Brothers

Peace,
Jen

Down the aisle

We've been slowly picking the major tunes for our day - which ended up not being many songs at all! We have a song to walk down the aisle to and a first dance....and those are the only stand out special songs! Otherwise its all just a free-for-all mix!

I knew for walking down the aisle I wanted to use Sigur Ros. First - um, amazing? Yeah, thats them. Just amazing. Second - when we first met, we used to just stare into each others eyes while we listened to Sigur Ros. The music filled the space and allowed us to forget words. Third - AMAZING.

So for our 'dance dance' Friday post, here is our walk down the aisle song. We did think about having this as our first dance and if you are still looking - consider it! Its beautiful and soaring and uplifting - Its Við spilum endalaust by Sigur Ros.


(check out some of the other "Take Away Shows" - they get these great bands and have them play in random locations, giving a unique show to whoever is lucky enough to be around!)

Happy Friday!

Dance Dance cuz Its Coming Soon!

Happy Friday!

For today's Dance Dance its The Roots, yo! Collaborating with Cody Chestnutt on a grooving little bit called The Seed (2.0)



Have a great weekend!

Tomorrow, we are going up to the north shore for a friends wedding. This was our dream destination, so I'm super excited to see what they do with it! Plus, I'm excited to dance with my beau and practice our mooooves!

xoxo,
J

Baby, I'm about to have me some fun!

Good morning, ladies and gents, and happy Friday! I am currently posting to you from the PAST! Because today, I took work off and am hopefully not sleeping in an instead doing all sorts of productive things! In fact, I took all four Fridays off this month before the wedding! Thank goodness I work somewhere where I get bomb vacation benefits and have been saving up vacay time! These days off will definitely help me progress down the to do list and ease my mind. Plus, by taking an extra day off each week, that invariably means that I work one day less and four day weeks are the BEST! Almost as good as three day work weeks.

In other news, this weekend is my stag weekend! WOO! My double trouble maid o' honors have planned what sounds like an amazing weekend - from what I know at least! And all I'm going to tell you right now is that it includes guns, grilling, boozing, and possibly a river in there, too! yes, yes, yes!

If I have any energy left in me after this weekend, I'll post a prompt recap! But. I promise nothing!

To keep you satisfied until then, listen to this love song by Amos Lee called Sweet Pea. And have a great weekend!

xoxo,
J

Winners and Dance Parties

TGIF for serious, folks! And its looking like a pretty bomb weekend with fireworks and roller coasters and water parks in my near future! I love me some good Minnesota fun!

But forget that biz for now, we got a giveaway to square up!

Thanks for all your comments and thanks for the patience with my super-casual-not-quite-planned giveaway. I just felt the spirit of blog land love move me and I was all "I wanna give you stuff!" and share the love and jazz. So. Now...with the help of a random number generator (thanks interwebz!) the winner is....*drum roll*....comment number 2!

Which translates to the winner being...Lisa of CraftMyBride!

*cue music* Come on down, Lisa! You've won whatever jazz I've decided to send your way!

And readers, if you haven't yet, check out CraftMyBride - do it! Not only is this gal super adorable in a way that just makes you want to interwebz hug her, she is super de dooper crafty and clever and is just chalk full of good vibes (and love for her dude) that just wafts off the screen. Love it! The world needs more good vibes!

So Lisa, e-mail me (memyselfandbride [at] gmail.com) and we'll get your prize off and on its way!

And since it is Friday, here is a tune that I just cannot stop playing. I am totally hooked on Janelle Monae and here is another great tune from her called Many Moons. Enjoy!

Friday Diddy

I was driving along yesterday, scanning the radio and then KAPOW! Beats where like bambambam and TI was rapping and then I was dancing my ridiculous white girl dance in the car.



And the video isn't full of naked people, so I can officially like this song now! yay! Way too many songs are ruined by skeezy lyrics and even worse videos.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm excited for my shower tomorrow and some fun birthday action this weekend with one of my ladies of honor! Oh, and don't forget to comment for the giveaway!

Friday Slow Dance and 50 days!

Happy Friday!
I'm gonna be quick in and out today. But I wanted to bring you a good slow dance song. I love the lyrics and think this song is adorable. Plus, what a cute video!

Its First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes


Peace all! Have a good weekend!

I'm hoping to have some good stories to bring back. Tomorrow I am in a friends wedding - the first I've been to since planning our own! - and then on Sunday we have our engagement session! WOO!

It busy busy around here as we count down! Did you know that our wedding is 50 days away!? FIFTY! That is SO SOON! And I'm definitely stressing. I had a wicked wedding worry nightmare last night, so that was exciting.

Ok, I'm gonna go before this short post turns into a weird and long ramble.

Peace,
Jen

Friday Favorite

I almost forgot about a song for today! How could I!

So if you are putting together a playlist for your DIY dance party, chances are your main concern is about having a good mix that will get all the variety of guests dancing. Its a tricky thing to do!

I've got lots of pop and hip hop...but I'm guessing a lot of our older guests are not gonna get excited when Missy Elliot starts bumping. (Their loss!) But then, when I go to pull some songs for those guests....I just end up with lots of Frank Sinatra and Van Morrison. Don't get me wrong, those fellas got some great stuff! But there is only so much of them that I can play!

Well, I found a good comprimise: covers! yay! So I've been checking out covers of some of my favorite old school tunes and I think this is a great way to keep some of the classic songs in there (how many weddings have you been at without Sinatra? huh? none? yeah, me too) while also keeping it maybe a little bit fresher.

The favorite one I found, and the one I have for you today, is a cover of The Way You Look Tonight by Maroon 5. Still the same song, but a little fresher!



Happy Friday all!
Now, go celebrate your independence this weekend by blowing sh*t up, drinking lots, and getting burnt in the sun! WOOO! God bless Amurrica!!!

Friday POP!

Oh, Friday, I love you! Just having you here makes me feel so much better!

Today I got some lovey, poppy feelings going on where I just wanna snuggle and tickle and giggle and feel care free! With that in mind, I've got a song with so much pop you'll think you were actually chewing bubblegum. Add on top of that the 'ouch' factor of bad 90's hair and fashion, enthusiastic boy band dances, cheesy acting, and cheesier lyrics and we've got a classic, folks!

I give to you: Color Me Badd singing All for Love! WOO! Hit it, boys!

Color Me Badd @ Yahoo! Video

Friday Fine and Dandy

Happy Friday! And it couldn't have come soon enough! I was convinced (multiple times) that yesterday was Friday. Severely disappointing (multiple times) to find out it was not!

Anyway, as with every Friday, I got a tune for you!

There has been a lot of talk in blog land among those of us who are doing our own dance music about how hard it is to put together a versatile playlist to make a wide range of people happy. We have tons of fresh dance music on our playlist, but its mostly comprised of hip hop, club mixes and slightly techno stuff. Not quite the best to get Grandma groovin.

Plus, we are trying to stick mainly to songs that people know. Yeah, this means cutting out a lot of the quirky music that we love, but we want people to dance...not just us! And people like to dance to stuff they know! So lately I've been exploring some older music, some more slow songs (because I don't know any good slow dance songs apparently), and trying to get some variety.

So for this Friday, I'm playing an old classic and a great slow dance song. By none other than Van Morrison. This dude's got some amazing songs and I'm sure a few will make it into our playlist. For today: Someone Like You

Romantic, not too cheesy, has a nice sway, and Van's smooth voice. Enjoy!

Friday Felicity

Happy Friday, friends! I have a great band and a great song and a great video to share on this Friday. While I'm at it, I'm going to make this another double. Because its Sigur Ros and they are magic in my ear. The songs for today: Hippipolla and Glosoli.

The songs alone are great, with such emotion in them, but then add some beautiful story telling in the videos and they just capture me completely. Good luck not getting lost in these. Oh, and can I just say how cute all the people are in these? Both the adorable elderly and the adorable children. Loves it.

Sigur Ros has a special place in my heart. They make up a significant portion of the soundtrack to the beginning of our relationship when we would stay up late together listening. Often not talking much, just letting the music speak for itself. We were just enthralled with each other and happy enough staring into each others eyes.

This was also when I saw that certain look start to come across his face. I'd ask, as innocently as I could, "Whatcha thinkin?" and he'd say, "Oh, just enjoying the music" with a little shy smile. But I knew what he wanted to say was "I love you".*

So thats what I think of when I listen to Sigur Ros. I'm also hoping to find an appropriate song from them to have our first dance too.** Their music is just pure emotion and I'd love to think of both of our 'beginnings' when I hear them: the beginning of our relationship and the beginning of our marriage.***

See you next week!
Jen


*all together now! "Aawwwww"
**any suggestions? The tricky part is knowing what they are singing about - I'd like to avoid sad lyrics. Also, a lot of their songs start really quiet and then built into a crazy crescendo and aren't quite the typical pace for a slow dance. Maybe I just have to expand my dance song boundaries?
***Again! "Aawwwww"

Tuesday's Tender

Lets slow it down a bit with some Ray LaMountain and his steamy, dreamy voice. I've got two songs for you today from this dude. First, a nice slow song that, despite its title, is quite sweet.



Then we got one with a little more groove. This song is bomb and so is that beard. Way to be awesome, LeMountain.



See you tomorrow when I come back from my northern MN vacay!

Peace,
Jen

Monday Movin'

I'm off on a long weekend enjoying the fresh air of northern Minnesota but I wanted to send you all a little something today and tomorrow! I've been slackin over here and I apologize. I'll try to be more thoughtful soon. But for now, I'm just gonna keep sending you some awesome tunes from our playlist to enjoy! We can never get enough good songs and I hope you like some of our selections!

I'm all about a good dance song and try not to discriminate, but it seems like I have. All the past songs in the Dance Dance collection have been newer, with lots of hip hop or techno beats. We are working really hard to include music that everyone will enjoy - to get the grannies grooving right along side all our friends! That's a tough slot to fill though.

Here is one for the older gen. that hopefully gets younger booties moving, too!

Friday Frenzy

For this Friday's sound, I'm hitting up one of my favorite dance tunes ever. And it is by none other than Madonna! woop! woop!

This song makes me want to open my own dance club. A club where drinks are strong and cheap, where there is no pretense, sweaty people just wanna have fun dancing, and where the songs just won't quit! If I had any interest in owning my own business, that's what I'd do. But instead I'm kinda lazy and would rather stick to a minimal 40 hour work week. :)

Happy Friday, everyone! Hope this gets you pumped for the weekend! Rock out with your socks off!



(Can we just give props where props are due? Madonna, how can you still be rocking that high cut leotard? Not my first choice of attire, but rock it if you wanna!)

(oh and PS, I'll be out for a trip up to the cabin this weekend - be back Wednesday! Peace, all!)

Friday Freak Out!

Ahhhhh, freak out! Its friday, baby! Lets get our weekend on! And I hope all of you get to enjoy a long weekend with memorial day!

What am I going to be doing? Enjoying an early summer in MN with some biking, boating and sun bathing. mmm, yes! I heart summer hardcore! Nothing wedding related is planned and nothing wedding related is going to happen. Maybe my brain can follow along and take a wedding break.

Here with some awesome grooves and some awesome moves, I have !!! or Chk Chk Chk or whatever they are going by with Heart of Hearts. This song just makes me wanna dance! And ski. Since I found this song off the latest TGR ski video, Re:Session. (omg, I know I just got done talking about how awesome summer is, but I get a little lady-in-the-boat hardon watching these ski videos. So amazing!)

Enjoy the song and enjoy your weekend!

Friday Funky

Happy Friday, ya'll! I can't wait for what looks to be a sunny weekend here in MN! Some gardening, some grilling, some biking on our lovely network of trails, maybe getting some color on my poor pasty Minnesotan skin? Winters are rough on our complexions over here! But damn, when the summer comes, Minnesota and all its inhabitants are beautiful! For real! The more I travel the more I love my Twin Cities hometown!

Anyway. I'm feeling less bloggy lately, so maybe I'll make a new tradition with a dance dance party every Friday! If you are lucky like me, you can close your door or plug in your headphones and have a little chair boogie in your office!

Enjoy my new favorite song:

Gals got style and some smooth moves!

Music Makes You Lose Control

Last night I went through our entire music selection for HOURS to put together our preliminary playlists (more to come on this later). Phew! So much groovin and movin! Note: Its really hard to stay focused through so many bomb dance tracks!

I don't got much to say today, but I do want to share this...

I must learn some of those dance moves. So spunky!


*I was only a munchkin when this came out. So while I know the song...the video and dance moves are new and wonderful to me! I never knew what I was missing!** Have mercy on me while I go back in time and enjoy something many of you were aware of all this time!

**I have also discovered the Beatles in the last few years. They really do have some good stuff!