Dollar Dance?!

Do it!! great way to get spending money for your honeymoon.

you could wear an apron or pouch on your wrist and have people put the cash in there, or have your best man and maid of honor stand on either side of the dancing and collect the money and kind of regulate the length of time with each guest by sending the next to dance.

Its so funny that you just brought this up because I was wondering the same thing. Im kind of uncomfortable with the idea of it...like begging for money LOL...but FH is dead set on it...he says its tradition. So I was just online trying to find songs for it

I think your mom maybe be right in that it's usually seen as tacky, unless you're Hispanic or of any other cultural background in which this is common. It may sound like fun to you, but some guests will perceive it as money grabbing. FYI, I'm Puertorrican and although half our guests will be my Puertorrican relatives, I won't be following this tradition since I don't want to offend anyone (and I don't need any drunk pinning anything to my dress ;-). But good luck and I hope you have a blast at your wedding.

I filmed a wedding last fall where they had a dollar dance. It was great fun for everyone at the reception. The bride tucked the money inside her bodice - the groom in his pocket. Then periodically, they would put the money in a purse/pouch thingy that the maid of honor had charge of. Made for some great video, too!

I think it depends on whether your family or his are already used to this dance. I saw it done at one cousin's wedding and it was fine. However I'm choosing to not do it since it's not the norm in my family or my FHs.

I think it dpends on your families personal I hate dollar dances i think they are tacky. but its your wedding the only opions that really matter are yours and your fh's . A lot of families do the dollar dance as a sort of way of sending the bride and groom off on their new life togther. what should do is talk to other member of his family and yours and get their opioins on it then deiced what to do.

I have seen this done at many weddings throughout the years (and I have been to more than I can even count) and I always thought it was a good idea for a little extra cash and to try and get everyone up off their seats and join the party. You always have those few guests that never get out of their seats all night. It also gives you a few moments to chat with your guests one on one instead of the "hi, thanks for coming, hope you enjoyed the food" conversation that you normally have. This way you get a dollar and you get to interact with a few guests that you probably wouldn't have if you didn't have the dollar dance. If you don't feel right about keeping all the money that was collected you can always donate it to something like your local animal shelter or even give it to your bartenders at the end of the night for serving all of your guests thoughout the reception.

It doesn't matter what I think, it only matters what you guys want. But from the weddings that I have been to and have seen the dollar dance at, it might get some guests out of their chairs but unfortunatly the dances go on for too long (3 songs is too long) and guests that are not participating have a tendency to leave at that time cuz they get bored. You put all that time and effort into having a beautiful weeding, you dont want people to get bored and leave. So, if you have it make it short & sweet and if you don't, it will give you time to walk around to each table and talk with your guests. Good Luck and Best wishes!

We are having the dollar dance too. In our town, it's very common. In my FH's area, it's not so much. SO.. we are doing it later when most of the people who might have a problem with it will be gone. We are having our honeymoon in Vegas so we figured it'll help us have some extra money to spend. (Hopefully we double it! lol!!)

The way we see it, it's our day, we want to do it. If they (the guest) don't approve, then won't get in line!

The MOH and BM are going to take the money and keep the line moving. There is no way anyone is going to stick a pin in my dress!! My mom is making it and I plan to keep it forever! Unless my daughter wants to wear it, but I don't think she will.

If you feel uncomfortable collecting money from people but want to do the dance anyway as a way to be able to talk to people and get them up, I've heard of people doing the dance without the dollar.

I think what they did was just call it a chance to dance with the bride and groom. They said please don't bring money, we just want a chance to visit with you one on one for a few moments. If anybody insisted on giving them the dollar, they asked them to go add it to the card box so that the other guests in line didn't feel uncomfortable for giving nothing.

I do hate when the dollar dances go too long though... soo boring for everybody, because even those who did participate only got maybe 30 seconds and then you just have to sit and watch through like 5 songs.

We haven't decided if we are doing one yet or not.

Anne&Tim, here is a playlist of songs you could use for the Money Dance, IF you want a song that has something to do with money:

http://www.squawkboxsound.com/Money_Dance.html

We have had a lot of brides do the Money Dance, and it's been a lot of fun! I would suggest not going longer than two songs. We always have the couple pick out a song they want, then a second song in case there's still a line.

If you want to do it, then do it. There is no way you're going to please everybody at your wedding, so you may as well just do what YOU want! We have guests offended if it's done, and we have had guests offended if they couple DOESN'T do it. There's no way to win!

Oh, and in response to your question of what to do instead of pinning it to your dress:

We have a cute little white purse that we have the bride hang on her wrist, and then we put a garter around the groom's upper arm. That way those that dance with the groom can stuff it in his garter, and the bride's dancers can put it in her purse.

It's worked out very well.

I have shot weddings with all kinds of things done with dollar dances.

Some have the money pinned to the bride and groom. Others will have the best man and maid of honor collect the money and see who collects the most, as a sort of competition. They will add it up in the end and announce if the bride or the groom made more.

If you dont want to do it that way, another thing I have seen is where the tables are divided (one half representing bride, and the other the groom). From each table one person is selected to dance around their table and the room and collect money. This can be VERY hilarious - I have seen many guests get really "creative" with their dances. LOL. And again at the end the money is counted, and it is announced if the brides side of the room made more or if the grooms did.

I dont think any of these options are tacky - and every time I have seen them done the bride and groom, and their guests looked to be having a blast!

Also, in cases where it might be lasting a little long - you can always have your DJ try to hype it up, and keep non-dancing guests interested, by making comments about the competition between the bride and the groom and who looks like their "winning".

These are all great suggestions, and most people know that it's tradition even if they don't participate, but one thing I would highly recommend doing is NOT having the dj count the money and then announce a winner. I went to a wedding where they did a dollar "dash" where the bride and groom literally ran around the reception hall (that was split based on family) and snatched money out of peoples hands (completely negating the benefit of spending time with the bride and groom) and then the dj announced which family gave the most money - down to the dollar amount. I was mortified for them, it was so tacky, especially since everyone knew that the bride came from wealth. Most of the groom's family was mad, too, because it appeared like the bride's family was just trying to rub their money in everyone's faces. So by all means have your dance, but don't announce any amounts or who "won."

In response to "wowjunkie" - when they announced who won at the weddings I have attended, no dollar amount was ever said out loud. THAT would certainly be tacky.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I still haven't decided if we are going to do it as both my FH and my mother think its tacky but the rest of the family thinks it will be fun. So we are really torn. I think its going to be one of those things that gets decided at the last minute.

My husband really really wanted to do it at our wedding and my family really really didn't (they bring nice gifts, some fly to the wedding, hotels . . . they've spent enough!). So, we didn't do it. Here are a couple alternatives that I've seen since then:

1) As one poster said, do the dances but no money. It's nice to spend a few moments with guests individually.

2)A couple weddings I've seen a bride kidnap. The groomsmen get men-in-black-ish sunglasses and "kidnap" the bride. They made phone calls to the DJ with things for the groom to do to get the bride back. Such as, sing a goofy song, dance the macarena or chicken dance or get a kiss (on the cheek) from ten women (usually the grandma's). Finally, the last task was to collect a specified amount of money from the guests for the honeymoon. Set the amount low so that it doesn't look like begging for cash. One couple that I saw do this got 3 times what they asked for and everyone had a good time.

I know that I am doing it! But that is because it's in my families tradition to do it! My FH and I are both Polish and although he has never heard or seen it, it's a mustin my family! It's a FUN thing to do! You get to talk to the guests that want to participate a little plus your uncle that does not hit the dance floor, will when he knows it's going to a good cause! Now in our families it is usually said it's going towards any future babies and a carriage for them but we are going to use it as we see fit. Plus my dream honeymoon is to go to Australia so we also are doing the Honeymoon registry! It's called a dollar dance for a reason because you are only expected to give a DOLLAR! If people choose to give more then GREAT!!But I am sorry for anyone who thinks it is TACKY is ignorant to the fact that 1) its a tradition for some and 2) it's only a dollar!!! I am pretty sure it WON'T BREAK THE BANK!! I love the game in the above post the 2nd one, think i might do it! without the $$$!

The bride kidnapping certainly sounds cute! FH liked it, except he said he wasn't singing!