When you’re getting hitched, one of the biggest and most important considerations is your music.
Whether it’s for walking in, tying the knot, your first dance, or leaving the ceremony, you want to curate the perfect atmosphere, and the easiest way to do so is through song.
Exit songs, in particular, can be a great way to get everyone excited and help dry up any stray tears left over from the ceremony, which also serves the dual purpose of creating some prime shots for the photographer.
Your venue is booked, your DJ is ready to go, but you still don’t know what they’re going to play whilst everyone cheers and applauds as you leave? No worries, we’ve got three songs from every genre you could think of to help spark your imagination.
If you’re in a hurry, we’ve also compiled our 24 best wedding exit songs into a Spotify playlist for you to enjoy. Feel free to listen here or scroll further to find out why we choose these songs for our top song for the wedding exit list.
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Cliché Classics
Okay, so these songs have probably been in millions of wedding ceremonies, but do you know why? Because they’re absolute classics!
Surefire crowdpleasers certain to have everyone singing as you walk back down the aisle having tied the not. People might get too distracted by these tunes to throw their confetti!
All You Need Is Love – The Beatles
This repetitively lovely track was born when the Liverpool legends were asked to write a song with a universal message that everyone could understand, using basic terminology for the biggest chance of success. And hey, what’s more universally understood than love?
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Best Lyric: ‘There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be / It’s easy’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Beautiful Day – U2
Lead vocalist Bono says this song is about losing everything, but still managing to find joy in what you have left. Perfectly poignant for marrying your soulmate, which might cost a lot financially, but at least your love will always be free.
Best Lyric: ‘After the flood, all the colors came out’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
At Last – Etta James
Arguably one of the most famous love songs of all time, written for the musical Sun Valley Serenade in 1941, Etta James’ rendition recorded in 1961 may have only gotten to number two in the charts, but it’s number one on the list of wedding songs.
Best Lyric: ‘My heart was wrapped up in clover / The night I looked at you’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Romantic
What’s a wedding if not the ultimate chance for romance?
Every love song is romantic in some way shape or form, but if you want to remind everyone in attendance just how much you love each other as soon as you’ve said “I do” then you need to get as soppy as possible with one of these dreamy crooners.
All of Me – John Legend
Dedicated to his wife Chrissy Teigen, John Legend’s biggest hit is a soulful declaration of love that will beautifully reiterate the promises you’ve just made in your vows, in a handy song format
Best Lyric: ‘You’re my end and my beginning / Even when I lose I’m winning’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Let’s Stay Together – Al Green
Topping the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks in 1971 and voted the sixtieth greatest song of all time in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, Al Green’s classic hit has been covered countless times, so there’s plenty of versions to choose from, and all of them are gorgeous, but we prefer his.
Best Lyric: ‘Cause you make me feel so brand new / And I want to spend my life with you’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours) – Stevie Wonder
This eponymous album track was the first single that Mr Wonder produced on his own, as well as the first to feature his female backup singers, a group that included Lynda Tucker Laurence, who would eventually join the Supremes. Voices like honey and lyrics to match, everyone will be swooning over this one.
Best Lyric: ‘You got my future in your hands, baby’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Pop
Your best chance at playing a song you both enjoy that everyone else will know and love, should that matter to you, is with a pop(ular) song – the key is in the name!
We’ve chosen three tunes that we think are befitting of the big day, but each offers a different kind of vibe. Singers are so versatile in their music these days, you’re bound to find one you love!
Love Story – Taylor Swift
If you’re not a Swiftie, hear us out. Taylor’s modern retelling of Shakespeare’s classic, Romeo and Juliet, is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, sure to get everybody up and dancing as you exit your ceremony, making for some incredible pictures. Even grandma will know it!
Best Lyric: ‘This love is difficult / but it’s real’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Shut Up And Dance – WALK THE MOON
This one will be in everybody’s head for the rest of the night, which is actually a good thing, as it perfectly sets the tone for what’s about to happen. Lots of dancing with people you love, with no time for awkward small talk! And it’s a banger, too.
Best Lyric: ‘I felt in my chest as she looked at me / I knew we were bound to be together’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Marry You – Bruno Mars
Too on the nose? Not in our opinion! You literally just got married! It’s a happy, silly, joyful song and you can lovingly shout it at eachother as everybody pelts you with confetti. What’s not to love?!
Best Lyric: ‘Is it the look in your eyes, or is it this dancing juice / Who cares baby, I think I wanna marry you’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Indie
If an indie exit song is what you’re looking for, chances are you’ll be too cool for whatever suggestions we offer you, or you ‘only listened to that band in their early days before everyone else liked them’, but we’ve put together a list of suggestions anyway.
Florence and The Machine – You Got The Love
Originally performed by The Source featuring Candi Staton in 1986, this festival classic covered by indie royalty Florence Welch and her Machine is pitch perfect, and if you want something a little dreamier, the acoustic and piano versions are spot on.
Best Lyric: ‘Now and then it feels that life is just too much / But you’ve got the love I need to see me through’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
One Day Like This – Elbow
The pivotal lyric ‘one day like this a year would see me right’ was written in Guy Garvey’s diary for years before it went from paper to song, but thank god it is. Emotional like no other, it brings out the goosebumps, the tears and the smiles.
Best Lyric: ‘Kiss me like the final meal / Kiss me like we die tonight’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Home – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes
Used in several TV adverts, most notably the Blue Cross in 2011, this beautiful country-style classic features an adorable monologue from two band members, and even though they broke up, you guys won’t, so it’s okay. In total, this song has three minutes of whistling, and all of them are incredible.
Best Lyric: ‘Barefoot on a summer night / Never could be sweeter than with you’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Former Emos
Don’t be ashamed, the best of us have been there, and if your Spotify listening habits are anything to go by, we’re all still deeply into the black eyeliner tunes of our youth.
It doesn’t have to be heavy, and your uninitiated guests will thank you for sticking to something on the lighter side, but you can still give a nod to your former self, sweeping side fringe and all.
Still Into You – Paramore
Sweet and sugary (but not too sappy) vocals about finding your true love from lead singer Hayley Williams are backed by some strong, catchy guitar lines that created one of Paramore’s most commercially successful hits. It reached mainstream radio for a reason, guys.
Best Lyric: ‘Let ‘em wonder how we got this far / ‘Cause I don’t even need to wonder at all’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To – Weezer
Alt-rock legends Weezer offer a powerful riff not too dissimilar to The Jam’s ‘Town Called Malice’, an dit was their longest charting song on the Billboard Alternative Rock Chart. It’s peppy and punky, but full of love. Your parents probably won’t like it.
Best Lyric: ‘Through smeared mascara / I looked into your eyes and saw a light’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) – Green Day
Possibly too sombre for some of you, this poetic, poignant Green Day classic has Billie Joe bearing his soul to us all, and it’s a lovely setting to promise to love each other as best you can for the rest of forever. Sorry, this is the emo section, and you know… marriage is a commitment.
Best Lyric: ‘It’s something unpredictable but in the end, it’s right / I hope you had the time of your life’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Country
Yeehawing is for every day, even more so on special occasions, don’t you think? Just kidding, but there are some truly lovely country songs for those who want to tip their hat (hahaha) to their favourite genre on their special day. Here are three that we think are suited to tying the knot.
Love Is A Wild Thing – Kasey Musgraves
Working to personify love as a magnetic, unstoppable force, Ms Musgraves will embody everything you adore about the lucky person you’re about to marry, and those synthy chimes at the end will help you twinkle as you leave for the reception.
Best Lyric: ‘Coming through the melody when the night bird sings / Love is a wild thing’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
All I Want Is You – Barry Louis Polisar
Well-known for opening the coming of age classic Juno, this harmonica-filled tune never fails to put a smile on our faces, and will surely help you flash those pearly whites at your photographer. Also, it mentions getting married, so… continuity.
Best Lyric: ‘If you were a castle I’d be your moat / And if you were an ocean I’d learn to float’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
The Story – Brandi Carlisle
Offering out some of the finest ‘scream-singing’ since Janis Joplin, Brandi Carlisle’s 2007 hit was featured in Grey’s Anatomy, so you probably already know it. If you don’t, why not? Go and listen to it – with tissues – enjoy the emotional catharsis, and then play it at your wedding.
Best Lyric: ‘These stories don’t mean anything / When you’ve got no one to tell them to / It’s true / I was made for you’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Disney
Whether you’re eight or eighty, the musical stylings of Mickey Mouse and friends are certain to be crowdpleasers that everyone will recognise, and Disney has been pumping out wedding day appropriate classics since the 1940s, so there’s plenty of choices.
At Last I See The Light – Tangled
The story of Rapunzel was never told so sweetly, and if you can get some sky lanterns to set off while you walk out (or maybe just some regular lanterns that don’t hurt the environment, but we’re not the boss of you) this beautiful love song will have everybody crying.
Best Lyric: ‘All at once everything looks different / Now that I see you’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Tale As Old As Time – Beauty and the Beast
Mrs Potts stole our hearts when she performed this for Chip in Beauty and the Beast, and she’ll steal it them again at your ceremony. Unless you decide to opt for one of the more romantic offerings, like Ariana Grande or Celine Dion, that is, but we won’t judge you if you want the movie version.
Best Lyric: ‘Certain as the sun / Rising in the east’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Can You Feel The Love Tonight? – The Lion King
Best Lyric: ‘It’s enough for this wide-eyed wanderer / That we’ve got this far’
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
If you didn’t cry when Simba and Nala were reunited in the middle of the jungle to the dulcet tones of Elton John, are you even a real human being? Okay, maybe it’s just us, but this heartfelt ballad will pull at even the hardest heartstrings.
For some people, there are not enough words — or no words that are good enough, anyway! — to describe their love for their partner.
The following songs are perfect for those who prefer melodies to poetry, as they say so much without speaking (well, singing) a single word. For obvious reasons, we haven’t highlighted our favourite lyrics here!
Classical
‘Wedding March’ from A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Felix Mendelssohn
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
‘Spring’ from Four Seasons – Vivaldi
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
Ode to Joy – Beethoven
Listen on: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube
YouTube Playlist
And here’s our 24 best wedding exit songs playlist, for you to listen to all-in-one place.
