Sure, anthems are great- but what do you dance to? (Please don't say "Ke$ha".) Nick and I have been going back and forth over first dance songs for a while now, but before he even popped the vague question, I was drawing up my own list of possible first dance songs:
Galaxies, Laura Veirs
In The Backseat, The Arcade Fire
The Swimmer, Sleater-Kinney
On The Edge Of, Low
Midnight Radio, Cyndi Lauper OR John Cameron Mitchell
Can't Get You Out Of My Mind, Everything Changed, Gentle, Aqualung
Angels and Angles, Isn't It A Lovely Night, The Decemberists
Middle Cyclone, Neko Case
A Heart Needs A Home, Shawn Colvin & Loudon Wainwright
Once we started planning for reals Nick listened to all of these songs, and said that they made him cry and we could not use them. :| So I looked at what I had, and tried to find a common thread, aside from that they all date me tremendously in terms of my music tastes. I came up with Naked As We Came and Each Coming Night by Iron and Wine.
But now that this is a Recession Wedding, with the '30s theming and venue, we've started wondering if lo-fi indie acoustic is really the way to go. Nick started digging through Ella Fitzgerald tracks; I offered I Didn't Mean A Word I Said because the vibe of that song is consonant with the vibe of our relationship (constant sass-fests), but Nick doesn't like it because it sounds bad (like we are constantly sassing eachother). Nick countered with Dream A Little Dream of Me, which I find a little chintzy. Here, as in every other area of life, we struggle to bring our differing sensibilities to some sort of agreement.
I guess this is where I'll open it up: which of these songs, if any, would you pick? What's your ideal slow dance song? (Please don't say "Ke$ha".)
Edited to add: This post originally credited the poster, Ursula Owen, for considering "Brighter Than Sunshine" by Aqualung as a possible first dance song. That song was, in fact, raised as an option by her fiance, Nicholas Beaudrot. We regret the error.