Dances before dinner or after?

That makes for some tricky planning...I went to a wedding a few years ago in an old mansion that was spread out over 3 rooms...wasn't too bad but I would make sure you have some seating available in the room where dancing is..people will not want to stand and watch others dance. (At least I wouldn't)

Regarding your question, I would definitely do your 1st dance in the room where everyone will be doing dinner. I think how you are thinking sounds like the best option and I think it will flow nicely!

@Mrs. Fall Bride it's actually an amazing layout and beautiful venue. It's one of the reasons we fell in love with it when we toured it! There is some seating in the dancing room but there won't be as many tables/ chairs in there as there will be in the dinner room. The dinner room is strictly for dinner.. there's no room for a dance floor! The dance room is incredible with huge windows and high ceilings! @HorseGirl thank you!! Should we do both father/daughter and mother/son dances too or just do our first dance in there and then we can do the others after dinner in the other room?

I LOVE the 2 rooms because it allows people who aren't a fan of loud music and just want to talk to do that. We also will have a handful of breastfeeding babies and I love that it gives the moms an area to feed their child without everyone being around if that's what they prefer!

My layout was sort of like this except the dining room opened up directly to the main ballroom. The way we did it was that after the ceremony everyone went to the main ballroom for cocktail hour. There were just a few tall tables there. Before cocktail hour was over they announced us and the wedding party and we did our first dance. All of this was in the ballroom. Then everyone went to eat and came back to the ballroom for dancing. No one went back to the dining room after.

Are you doing the first dance and the other dances one after the other? What is the timeline on this?

@MJ oh I love how you did that!! I might have to steal that timeline of announcement into the cocktail/dancing room and do our first dance and then go eat! I hadn't even thought of that! I assumed we would do the dances following one another but realized we don't have to either. We haven't worked out the specific timeline except for the morning of for getting ready!

I didn't have father/mother/son/daughter dance but if I had I would have actually done those after dinner once everyone was on the dance floor. I think that would be better than interrupting people while eating dinner to do a dance and everyone will already be on the dance floor around you.