Dancing at your wedding

ampafc

Getting married approx 10 months from now, and feel like I need to learn to dance properly! Our band will mean a mixture of scottish ceilih dances and 'normal' modern dancing.

Just wondered how many of you went for dancing lessons in the lead up to your big day? I think it's quite important, and the bride and groom should both be up dancing with the guests throughout the reception.

Also, did you do anything choreographed for your first dance together? naturally, this is usually a slow dance, so the two people can normally just kind of hug! But I think that always looks very awkward!

neilcrook

We searched YouTube and found our song being choreographed by professional dancers, we practice when we are a little tipsy and have adapted it to suit us. I'd suggest looking on youtube before you book anything - its saved us some money anyway

Idiophreak

We decided against the traditional "awkward shuffle" and decided to do something more upbeat. We just had a mess around in the lounge for a few hours until we felt we were on the same page - worked well in the end - and you only need to do half the first dance (90 seconds?) by yourself - then you can invite the rest of the bridal party to join

LalaGomay

I would ban dancing at my wedding, as both of us despise it.

ampafc

LalaGomay wrote: »

I would ban dancing at my wedding, as both of us despise it.

We have 230 people at the reception - how boring would it be if nobody was up dancing!

LalaGomay

Boring only for the people who like dancing! A lot of people don't.
But yes, I would only have 50 or 60 guests so maybe it would be different

The thing is, I don't mind other people dancing, BUT, at some point in the evening a small number of the dancing types WILL come over to the people who hate it and who are minding their own business (ie me) and try to drag them on to the dance floor, accusing them of 'not joining in' and being 'boring'. Which is unbelievably annoying and unfair.
(Just to be clear, I don't mean you or anyone here would neccessarily do that! But there's always one that will.)

Trust me, this happens EVERY TIME.

And to be honest, on my wedding day of all days I could well do without that.
Hence the no dancing at my wedding.

Some people just cannot comprehend or understand that there are people who HATE dancing. It's not that they are shy, or need encouragement, or forcing into it, they just simply hate it, and would be much happier to watch or do something else.

Zimm190

My OH and I are cuurently trying to learn a swing routine for our wedding, as we've got a (really amazing!) swing band booked for the evening. We've been going to classes for a few weeks and had one private lesson so far but to be honest it's terrifying us both and we don't have time to practise! It's just another stress added on top of everything else. Having said that though, we've probably left it a bit late as our wedding is in just over three weeks!

Considering that I'm not exaclty flexible and my OH could not dance to save his life I'm amazed at what we can do already! So even if we chicken out of "performing" for the first dance we'll still be able to bust out some moves during the evening and surprise our guests!

MaggieBaking

LalaGomay wrote: »

Boring only for the people who like dancing! A lot of people don't.
But yes, I would only have 50 or 60 guests so maybe it would be different

The thing is, I don't mind other people dancing, BUT, at some point in the evening a small number of the dancing types WILL come over to the people who hate it and who are minding their own business (ie me) and try to drag them on to the dance floor, accusing them of 'not joining in' and being 'boring'. Which is unbelievably annoying and unfair.
(Just to be clear, I don't mean you or anyone here would neccessarily do that! But there's always one that will.)

Trust me, this happens EVERY TIME.

And to be honest, on my wedding day of all days I could well do without that.
Hence the no dancing at my wedding.

Some people just cannot comprehend or understand that there are people who HATE dancing. It's not that they are shy, or need encouragement, or forcing into it, they just simply hate it, and would be much happier to watch or do something else.

I enjoy dancing sometimes, I even enjoy dancing all night sometimes. But to some music, when the mood takes me, when I am in the right spirit.

These drag you up to the dancefloor types I *hate*, my mother was one of them and her and her friends had sharp mean grips.

At our wedding we danced the first dance because my husband (surprisingly) wanted too, and then I didn't dance all evening, except with my nieces when actually I just ran around the dance floor after them. I was feeling unwell, my friends tried to cajole me onto the dance floor and then got the hump when I wouldn't. Actually I'm still bitter about it, it was *my* wedding day, and if I wanted to sit and relax (and boy did I deserve to) it would have been nice if my friends joined me, rather than giving me evil looks from the dance floor.

Phew, glad to get that off my chest!

No, I don't think it's the bride and groom's responsibility to dance all evening, isn't there a big thread on here that basically says - have it the way you want it and what is right for you as a couple?!

I ended up having a minor barny with my Dad too about the DJ and how "he isn't getting people up and dancing, this needs sorting."

No it effing doesn't, if people want to chat around the bar let them!

LalaGomay

I do love watching swing dancing. A swing band sounds like fun!

MaggieBaking wrote: »

my friends tried to cajole me onto the dance floor and then got the hump when I wouldn't. Actually I'm still bitter about it, it was *my* wedding day, and if I wanted to sit and relax (and boy did I deserve to) it would have been nice if my friends joined me, rather than giving me evil looks from the dance floor.

How annoying!
Why is it that people seem to think you're the devil incarnate if you don't feel like dancing. It's like they take it personally or something. So weird.

shellsuit

Me and my husband did our first dance, then I didn't dance again till the end of the night, and that was to 'Relax' and 'Whole of the Moon' from what I can remember. My husband didn't dance again as he hates it!

I love dancing, but this was our wedding, with our guests, so dancing was the furthest thing from my mind.

I much more preferred to chat and mingle with our guests, and grab the odd 5 minutes to spend with my husband just watching everything and everyone.

RainbowDrops

We didn't want the akward shuffle either.
We're both up beat rather than slushy slow dance, and picked Together in Electric Dreams as our dance.
After a bit of looking around expensive dance studios, we decided to go with the online company First Dance UK.
They offer a range of packages - we went for 2 x 1hr30 lessons for £150. Our teacher was fab, she taught us half of the routine in the first leasson, then we practiced every night for a week, then taught us the 2nd half in the following lesson.
We had a routine to last the whole song and it was soo much fun - really glad we did it & money well spent!