Helpful Tips for Your First Wedding Dance

Determine Your Dancing Tastes

You and your prospective spouse are the ones in charge of the wedding music. Decide between yourselves beforehand, which opening song best suits your ability to dance together. If dancing makes you uncomfortable or if you feel you don't know how to dance, consider taking a few dancing classes or practicing with your fiancé, a family member or friend.

You Don't Have to Wow the Audience

Knowing how to dance will certainly boost your confidence, especially since for this particular day in your life, you and your partner will be the stars of the show. Certainly you'll want to exhibit some grace and style, but you don't have to be as amazing as the Blues Brothers or offer yourself up as a candidate for dancing with the stars.

Most couples, even among skilled dancers, begin the first dance with something that is slow paced and easy to follow. They are symbolizing the harmony between each other and it's this moment of closeness that the audience anticipates, not your fancy footwork. If the footwork is there, you have the whole evening to exhibit it.

Length of the Dance

How long you and your partner remain the sole couple on the floor is also a matter of your own discretion. Some couples complete the first song to the end, while others break mid-way through the first song to bring the next couple out to the floor.

In both traditional and non-traditional weddings, the second couple usually consists of the groom asking the mother of the bride to dance and the bride dancing with the groom's father. After a few minutes, the parents then bring their own significant others to the floor. Once this has occurred, the room is open to all who wish to dance.

Memorable Moments

You want that first dance to be perfect and it will be as long as you remember the one you're truly dancing for is your partner. Choose music that closely follows the style of how you and your partner fit together, whether it's a tender love song, a formal dance that requires intricate moves or follows the patterns of genre music, such as country western or rock and roll. If you plan to break in the middle to draw others into the dance, make sure the parent of the spouse is comfortable with the music.

Weddings are a joyful occasion. While the first dance might feel solemn, it's also filled with breathless anticipation. The audience is waiting to dance happily. Bring them out onto the floor with some hard-to-resist dancing music and what they will remember is a robust celebration and some very tender photos of the bride and groom performing their first dance together.

By Akhilesh Nawani