Your First Dance at Yor Wedding

As newlyweds you will have your first dance at your wedding as a married couple. This is traditionally danced to a tune that is special to you.

The dance is the highlight of the reception, and it is traditional to have the dance after the first course has been served, it is become more common now to have the dance after the cutting of the cake.

When we got married for our first dance (actually it was four) we preformed a floor show for our guests. We are not professional dancers but we do love dancing. Six months before the wedding we started practicing the routines every day. A friend of ours who was a professional dancer worked out the routine for us and polished up our moves.

The dances that we did were the Cuban Rumba, Cha Cha, Jive followed by the Bridal Waltz. We kept it a secret from everyone. When the time came to dance my legs became like jelly, I was so nervous and I almost forgot the steps, but because we had rehearsed and knew the steps so well it all went smoothly. And to this day thirteen years later our bridal dance still is in the memory of our guests because it became the highlight of the wedding.

Since all eyes will be on you when you dance, you don’t really want to stumble across the dance floor in front of all your guests. It is worth having lessons and at least learn the bridal waltz or another dance for your first dance at your wedding. It will make it all the more special rather than doing a sway on the dance floor.

Have professional Ballroom dance lessons and learn the basic steps of the waltz, fox-trot, cha-cha- rumba and tango for fun, try to get in two lessons a week if you can.

Give yourself time to learn a dance. I am not saying start six months before like we did (but it would be ideal), learn long before the wedding and practice often to the music you are going to dance to on your wedding, (if you have your wedding shoes practice in them) and when the time comes you will be comfortable with the dance.

Here is one possible order of dance for the 1st dance.

It is not necessary to dance through the entire song before switching partners.

1. First the bride and groom dance together.



2. The bride’s father then cuts in and dances with his daughter.



3. The groom asks the bride’s mother to dance.



4. The groom’s father cuts in on the bride’s father and dances with his daughter in-law.



5. The brides father cuts in on the groom and dances with the bride’s mother.



6. The groom asks his mother to dance.



7. After a few minutes the MC will invite the guests to dance.

However, if the parents are divorced or widowed, there are no rules for the first dance, just use common sense for your situation.

The bride should try to dance with each of the ushers and the groom should try to dance with each of the bridesmaids before the evening is finished.

It is also traditional for each of the groomsmen (ushers) to dance with as many of the single women present, and to dance with the bridesmaids and both mothers.

Helpful Hint

A thoughtful gift that you as the bride could give your father is to take him out to dinner and dancing a few weeks before the wedding. It will give you a nice break and is also a way to practice the father-daughter dance.

Tips

• Stand tall and straight when you dance.



• Keep your frame solid.



• Look at each other and smile as you dance across the room.



• Relax and have fun.

You can find a selection of First Dance Wedding Music here.