No, it's much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of poise and rationality...

Sorry to go on about the wedding, but there's now less than 5 weeks to go, so it's starting to loom rather large on the horizon. Today's been a good day though. Not only have I found a pair of shoes (subject to them finding a pair in my size), but I have also spent a happy hour or so watching Mark Selby's lazarus-like comeback at the Crucible and thinking about the music that will be played at the reception.

I've left most of the detailed planning work for the big day to C, but as music's plays such an important part in my life, this is one area where I have been happy to get involved. I also thought it was an area where it would be nice to get everyone else involved too, and so the wedding invitations went out with space on the RSVP for people to request a couple of songs to be played at the reception (subject to veto, obviously - how stupid do you think I am?). We're having a couple of fantastic DJs on the night too: C's brother Jake (a sometime professional musician) will be taking a shift, as will Statue John, who will -- I hope -- be ensuring that the cheese quotient is kept high enough by playing classics by legends like Lionel Richie, Falco, Ray Parker Jr and Ultravox (of course).

Jake asked us to each put together a list of ten songs that he can use to get a flavour of the kind of things he should play on the night. This isn't a trivial task by any means, and it certainly isn't one that I'm going to take lightly.... so I had a good think about this whilst I was watching Mark Selby's fantastic comeback in the snooker.

Here's what I've got so far:

> "Apply Some Pressure" - Maximo Park
> "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" - The Arctic Monkeys
> "Son of a Preacher Man" - Dusty Springfield
> "This Charming Man" - The Smiths
> "Blister in the Sun" - Violent Femmes
> "Substitute" - The Who
> "Feel Good Inc" - Gorillaz
> "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley
> "Nutbush City Limits" - Ike & Tina Turner
> "My Sharona" - The Knack
> "Mr E's Beautiful Blues" - Eels
> "And She Was" - Talking Heads

... and I was also thinking of adding something like "Back in the USSR" or "Twist & Shout" by the Beatles.

I know that's not ten records. Bite me. My main selection criteria were that I wanted a good range of songs and quite a lot of jump-about-ability. Beyond that, anything goes....

Anything you'd add? I'll stick any good suggestions onto the playlist.

We've also given some thought to what should be the song for our first dance. Again, not something to be taken lightly. Sentimentality is to be avoided at all costs, as is something that will require me to actually do any proper dancing. The favourite at the moment is "Fell In Love With A Girl" by the White Stripes. It ticks all the boxes: it's apt, it rocks and -- crucially -- it's only 1 minute 50 seconds long.

Perfect. Now this is what bank holidays should be all about.