The cocktail hour can be one of the best parts of the wedding. All the pressure from the ceremony is off, and if you took your wedding photos BEFORE your ceremony (which I HIGHLY recommend) you can just drink, nosh, and socialize. It’s also a great time to play your favorite music, as you don’t have to worry about whether or not guests will dance to it (or if it’s going to put them to sleep).
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Originally I thought about having a cocktail hour band, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for: A great blues band that could play all the Mississippi/Chicago blues I loved. Being in Miami, it was hard to find a band that fit this description that wasn’t super cheesy. So I just decided to make my own cocktail hour playlist (which the DJ played). That cocktail hour playlist also doubled as our wedding favors for guests. We had our mix duplicated onto 100 CD’s (if you have the resources and the time, I suggest making your own at home. The quality is pretty much the same, and it eliminates the awkward conversation with the CD duplication place about whether or not you “own” the copyright to the music). It cost us $150 to have the CD’s made, and they were able to put our names and wedding date on each. Obviously CDs are WAY less popular than they were back when we got married, but back then we still had CD players! 🙂
If you do want to try this old-school wedding favor, here’s how I did it:
Instead of using plastic jewel cases, I ordered recycled CD sleeves from a company called ReBinder that ended up costing around $30. I also ordered CD labels from them to go on the back of the sleeves, and printed the track list on each. TIP: Order more than you need of these. It took about 10 screwed up label sheets until we could get the alignment somewhat correct. Those cost around $30, not including shipping. So all in our favors cost us around $220
To decorate the front of them, I bought a birds and nests rubber stamp set on Amazon and stamped a bird on each (birds were a recurring theme in our wedding). We placed them near the exit alongside a sign that said “Please Take One” so guests’ could grab one on the way out.
If you’re more interested in just playing our playlist instead of making them a wedding favor, the cocktail hour playlist I made is below. Have fun!!
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How did this work out for you? My fiance and I were planning on doing this, we bought the CDs and covers, and then he got too nervous about the copyright laws. I love this idea and want to still do it, but I am researching new favor ideas.