Dancing at wedding

I've only been to one wedding where there wasn't any dancing and it was my BFF's wedding. Instead there was board games and giant Jenga to play through out the night. The night went by pretty fast with that kind of thing going on. But if you don't plan on having anything to do in place of the dancing, I'd expect a lot of people leaving early.

As much as I don't wish to have the big wedding, I love dancing and I can't wait to do so at my own wedding. My family likes to dance too so it's a win-win. It's a know your crowd thing. If your crowd doesn't dance then you can get away with the no dancing. On the other hand, if they are used to dancing at weddings they may be shocked at the no dancing.

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Dropping pure brilliance on WW. :-)

This is exactly what we did. We had tons of different music playing on a play list over the sound system, then had a first dance, and just let music play, and no one left early. We wanted more of a dinner party vibe, so we didn't need a DJ. I think you can do it no problem, if you are not having a DJ.

eta: however, we didn't prohibit it, it just wasn't that type of atmosphere, and the dance floor was super small, so people didn't seem to mind.

Not everyone likes dancing. My fiance and I are planning other entertainment because we have no interest in having a dance at our wedding. We think they are boring.

ETA though we are having no dances at all. I think having just one dance is a little weird, but if it works for you then do what you like.

Maybe clear out a small space for your first dance but not enough room for everyone to dance? You know your crowd better than we do and how they will react.

What else would you do?

I know of a wedding where they did only a few "specified" dances, such as mother-son, father-daughter, and then the "anniversary" dance. They were trying to compromise between a dancing family, and a non-dancing family, for conservative religious reasons.

What it did do was leave out the young, unmarried people from dancing at all, and that was a bummer.

Personally, I'd be disappointed if there was no dancing at any wedding I went to... it's my favorite part!

Well, I certainly hope our guests aren't disappointed by the lack of dancing, hopefully the fact that so many out of state friends are face-to-face instead of in our usual Discord channel will be entertaining enough.

Our families and friends arent "dancy" people, they're more party minglers. so we're going to do our dances and keep music going in the background in case people want to dance, but we're more just going to be mingling and hanging out.

this is entirely up to your crowd. i feel like no music/dancing offered after your dance would be a little weird, honestly. just keep it going and if people dance, great! and if not, great!

I don't understand...your FH family is so conservative that they would be offended if your family and friends danced, even to the electric slide? I'm sorry but this is insane. A wedding is to celebrate the two of you, not your families. I'd leave right after dinner. Dancing is boring? What type of parties do you go to? If you're paying a DJ they can direct the evening to the type of music you want. But no dancing? That's literally the only thing I look forward to at weddings, and cake. If you're paying all that money for your evening and it only lasts an hour or two I'd be highly disappointed. I know people have been asking about other activities like a photo booth but I'm not waiting in like for 5 minutes for a photo booth and calling that as fun or equal to dancing.

Also, your wedding is not a club. That said, you can't control how people dance, but I've also never seen twerking at a wedding. People usually know this is a classier event than that.

My Wife and I attended a wedding not too long ago where there was only a first dance and then nothing. It was strange and felt very disjointed.

Bummer that your guests' enjoyment of the reception (which you are throwing for them as a thank you) isn't Christmas romantic. It's a real shame when people fail to meet expectations.

If I did not attend a wedding where there was no dancing I wouldn't have much to say about this subject but I did attend a wedding over a year ago where the couple did not have dancing for specific reasons of older family health (which we still didn't agree with) but they choose not to have a loud dance filled party. More of a sit down dinner with lots of apps and dessert and social talk. The grooms still had their best man's speak, cake cutting, and their first dance and the dance with their mothers which was super sweet. They played back ground music through the whole reception but nothing you would dance to today.
It was strange but we got over it to be honest. Open bar solves 99 out of 100 problems so we left when it was over and partied at home lol If you choose to have that style wedding, expect a little pushback but its ultimately what you want.

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I agree! I've never seen 'inappropriate' dancing at a wedding. Mostly just people goofing around.

I'm going to be honest here. I dance all the time. I'm just one of those people that moves around and fidgets when music comes on. Even if you put on music intended for slow dancing I WILL find a way to sing and dance. Especially if there's alcohol.

Just read some of PP comments. I haven't seen grinding since a formal dance in 10th grade. That's not dancing

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What do you mean by anniversary dance?

We’re having both our wedding and reception in a church. The church only allows the first dance, father/daughter dance, and the mother/son dance during the reception. Other than that, dancing isn’t allowed. It’ll be a dinner reception with classic oldies will be played in the background,but nothing that would cause anyone to get too jittery. We plan on having a pretty short reception with a max of 60 people, so it shouldn’t be too bad. I feel like if it were a much bigger wedding, THEN things would get a little awkward.

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The anniversary dance is a special dance for all the married couples at a wedding. Throughout the song, the DJ names off number of years being married, starting with less than one year [That's when the newlyweds are off the dancefloor]. (from google)