The vows have been exchanged. The rings have been placed on your fingers. The stressful part is over, right? Well, maybe. Did you forget about that short amount of time between the ceremony and the actual start of your reception? It's alright – this is the time I call “cocktail hour”, and it is surprisingly left off of the agenda more often than not. What to do about it? Here's the answer:

Create a playlist that you can start after the ceremony is over. My favorite genre for cocktail hour is Jazz. The style of jazz music provides melodies that are up-beat and slow, PLUS you can mix it up with instrumental songs too.

Some cool facts about designing your jazz playlist:
- Save money by putting these songs on your ipod
- Music makes it feel like time is moving quickly
- Find Jazz CD's at places like Target and Best Buy



But before you go out and venture upon the world of music, take a look at my playlist below. These are my top 20 favorite cocktail hour jazz songs. You wont be disappointed. And the best part – these 20 songs equal 1.5 hours of music...just enough to cover your cocktail hour and then some!

1. Sophie Milman – “I Can't Give You Anything But Love”
2. Rick Braun - “Sao Paulo”
3. Renee Olstead - “A Love That Will Last”
4. Oscar Peterson - “Easy Does It”
5. Norah Jones - “I've Got to See You Again”
6. Michael Buble - “The Way You Look Tonight”
7. Juan Carlos Quintero - “Alma Libre”
8. John Stevens - “I Only Have Eyes For You”
9. Frank Sinatra - “In The Still of the Night”
10. Erin Boheme – “What Love Is”
11. Diana Krall - “The Look of Love”
12. Deborah Cox - “What a Difference a Day Made”
13. Dean Martin - “Just In Time”
14. The Chris Sidwell Quartet - “Satin Doll”
15. Chris Botti – “La Belle Dame Sans Regrets”
16. Billie Holiday - “More Than You Know”
17. Taylor Eigsti - “Love For Sale”
18. Caro Emerald - “A Night Like This”
19. Etta James - “Sunday Kind of Love”
20. Corinne Bailey Rae - “Breathless”


Cheers,
Benjamin