Planning Your Wedding Dances in 5 Easy Steps
What better way is there to celebrate a day all about your love than dancing at weddings? There are many dances you can include in your wedding, from the romantic first dance to the open floor where guests can get down and dance the night away.
With all of the stressful wedding planning activities to deal with, many couples feel intimidated by the idea of planning their wedding dances and then dancing in front of all their family and friends. (Imagine having 100+ pairs of eyes watching you when you have no idea what to do?!)
So which dances should you include in your wedding?
What are the 5 easy steps for planning out your wedding dances?
We are expert wedding dance choreographers here to answer your questions and make this part of your wedding planning a fun diversion from the rest.
Read on to find out how to nail your wedding dances and make your wedding a night everyone will remember!
Table of Contents:
Which Wedding Dances Can I Include at My Wedding?
There are 4 traditional wedding dances that are popular at weddings: the first dance, the parent’s dance, the anniversary dance, and the money dance.
Different cultures have additional dances you can consider including at your ceremony. Examples are the Raas Garba that takes place before Indian weddings, the Cheildh Dance from Ireland, and the Horah circle dance that is practiced at Jewish weddings.
Many weddings will also host an open dance floor for all guests after the traditional dances conclude.
The First Dance
This is the big one, that special romantic dance between the newly married couple after they make their grand entrance. As the title implies, it’s traditionally the first dance of the wedding. The song and vibe of the first dance are up to the couple to choose. Of all the dances during the wedding festivities, this one is the most traditional and meaningful.
The Parents Dance
After the couple’s first dance, the parents will then dance with the newlyweds. Traditionally, a bride will dance with her father while a groom dances with his mother. Some couples dance with each other’s parents afterward, to signify unification between the two families.
The Anniversary Dance
The anniversary dance is a popular inclusion in weddings that celebrates couples who have been married for some time. Married couples will be invited to take the dance floor exclusively. This dance will often be limited to couples that have been married for a specific number of years.
The Money Dance
The money dance is the most inclusive of the 4 main wedding dances. Guests can pay money to have a dance with the bride or groom or simply shower the newlyweds with money. This dance invites all guests to participate and traditionally takes place near the end of the reception.
❤️🔥Take the guesswork out of your wedding dances!❤️🔥
With our wedding dance choreography, you will dazzle your guests, and truly enjoy yourselves!
Is it Required To Do All the Wedding Dances?
While these dances are traditionally included, there’s no obligation to do them all at your wedding It’s your special day! You get to decide what suits you best. You also might want to add non-traditional group dances to your reception, such as flash mobs or line dances. Those can really liven things up and get the party started!
Choose which wedding dances are important to you. After all, it’s your wedding!
How Do I Prepare for My Wedding Dances in 5 Easy Steps?
1. Book Your Wedding Dance Lessons with a Choreographer
At Steps to Love, we create custom dances that make your big day absolutely unforgettable!
It’s what we’re all about! It’s what gives us the butterflies and special happy feels: to see you and you're beloved deeply bonded, smiling and awash in romance while dancing in harmony together. (Yes, that’s the inevitable result when you learn to dance with us.)
You might be wondering if you need help with your wedding dance or if you can just “wing it.”
Sure, you can wing it if you want to spend 3 long minutes (that will feel like they’re stretching into eternity) swaying side to side awkwardly as 100+ pairs of eyes watch you, and you wonder when it will be over
OR, your first dance can be…
“The most special experience of my life!”
“Truly the highlight of the wedding.”
“I’ve never been so happy as when I danced with my husband.”
(Actual texts we received from clients after their wedding day).
Preparing for your wedding dance with us is the perfect lead-up to your wedding day. So that you can step onto the dance floor, and into your new life together, as a comfortable, confident, and harmonious team.
(Oh, and have some amazing dance skills to boot that will keep you dancing together for the rest of your lives!)
Schedule a consult call with us here to see which package is best for your wedding.
2. Chose Your Songs and We Will Choreograph To Them
Decide on a song that's special to you, or that you both simply love and want to dance to together. If you have a few ideas and can't decide between them, we can try them both during your first session and we can help you choose.
You can also choose a few different songs and we can combine them for you into a truly unique surprise dance! (That would be our Wowza! Package).
Using your choice of songs, we will create your custom choreography on the spot! You can have no dancing experience and two left feet. That statement describes 95% of our clients. We are experts in making it fun, non-intimidating, and totally possible for you to learn to dance together.
At Steps to Love, we specialize in making dances custom to you. Our instructors can draw from many dance styles as we make your choreography. We dance the swing, foxtrot, waltz, salsa, cha-cha, mambo, disco, funk, hip hop, contemporary, and country-western 2 steps.
You will be privy to our brilliant coaches crafting unique steps for YOU in a never-seen-before combination, and you will marvel at the wonder of the creative process in motion (with YOU as its STARS).
3. Reach Out To Your Dance Participants
Do you want a parent’s dance, anniversary dance, or group dance at your wedding?
If so, then be sure to reach out to everyone who will participate. Give them plenty of time to prepare for their dances and choose their songs.
We can teach you to dance with your parents just as harmoniously as you will with your betrothed.
We can even choreograph a flash mob or wedding party with our Deluxe Package. For those dances, we create an online teaching video that participants in different locations can learn in advance of your wedding day.
4. Practice Your Steps with Us
It’s generally a good idea to start practicing for your wedding dances a few months prior to your wedding. Lessons can be spread across multiple sessions or a one-day experience depending on which package you chose.
You might be wondering how your first session will go, what you should wear, and if there will be a lot of complicated choreography to learn right away. Answers to these questions and more are on our frequently asked questions page.
Long story short, we will ease you into learning choreography, and “complicated” isn’t on the agenda. We hear over and over again from our clients how non-intimidating, interesting, and FUN the whole process is!
5. Enjoy the Wedding Festivities
On your wedding day, you will feel totally prepared and confident (and yes, even excited!) to dance, so you can dazzle your guests!
Here is what our clients have to say about their wedding dances:
From the very first spin in the slow dance people were whooping and cheering. They totally got it, and then when we busted out of the disco they were beside themselves. Everyone kept coming up to us all through the night saying how awesome it was.
— Lee N.
We went from knowing nothing about partner dancing to having a full song choreographed! Preparing our first dance was the most fun of the wedding planning, and our dance surprised all of our guests!
— Camila L.
BONUS. Develop Connection, Intimacy, and Romance with Your Betrothed
Most of the wedding planning process is flowers and cake at best, a million stressful decisions at worst. At Steps to Love, dance sessions are more than an item on your wedding checklist.
We provide you with a special time where you’ll be looking into your partner’s eyes, synchronizing your bodies and movements with each other, and learning to do something together as a team.
Our clients walk away from their sessions realizing they were really able to connect, have fun, and make this a joyous part of their wedding process!
Sometimes we feel like we’re also in the marriage counseling business (based on direct feedback from our couples)!
In the midst of stressful wedding planning and preparing for marriage, dance lessons ended up being a really romantic and fun activity for us, and Erin became a part of our wedding planning support system leading up to the wedding. We realized that this might actually have been one of the first times that we learned something together with a common goal. Our lessons gave us all the warm and fuzzy feelings. In the whirlwind of our big day, we were able to slow down and enjoy this beautiful moment.
— Tammy R.
Wedding Dance Lessons In San Francisco
Invest in the epic wedding dances of your dreams!
We can help you become totally prepared and confident to dance with your partner. You’ll be ready to dazzle your guests and truly enjoy yourselves during the big moment of the most important day of your lives together! And create an iconic memory you will cherish for the rest of your lives.
