First Dance- Before or After Dinner

Dinner and then dancing for us since guests will likely get pretty hungry waiting for bus to take photos

Following! Also looking at ideas for timing

Planning on doing ours after dinner. I don't want hangry family and friends.

I'm also planning on doing all the dancing after dinner for sure. We're going to come in, do the introduction and all that, then sit down for dinner. I think the dancing starts off the party!

Weddings that I've been to have had the dance after dinner. My plan is to do our dance right after our entrance into the reception. I also am planning to eat beforehand so I can mingle while people are eating dinner. Still haven't worked out the fine details.

Following because I'm wondering too
I was thinking
Ceremomy
Pictures
Then dances
Maybe dancing during dinner?
I want to get the dancing, cake cut, flower toss done so that my photographer doesn' stay too long

We will be doing our first dance after we are introduced into the reception. I’m not worried about our guests starving because during cocktail hour we have about 4 appetizers being passed around along with a whole fruit and vegetable table and chacuterie (sp) board so lots of food even before dinner!

What comes first
Dance or cake cutting???

I've never seen the dance after dinner, it's always before. The venue we checked out looked at us like we were crazy for asking about it before. But thats when we want it. Get it out of the way. FH said he'd be too nervous to even eat if he had to wait to do it.

We are doing our first dance right when we are introduced into the reception and then will serve dinner. We have an hour long cocktail hour with a hefty selection of hors d'oeuvres right before the reception while we take our pictures.

What's tough about this is that people will finish eating at different times. So you may have people still finishing dinner. If you're coming from cocktail hour, they should have had enough to keep them from starving for an extra 15 minutes or so, and this should not take longer than that. The catering staff can use this time to bring out the food and get set up.

I'm not going to make my guests wait for dinner. We will be doing our dance towards the tail end of dinner. FH and I will be served first that way we can eat and then dance while everyone is seated and fed. Our band told us this is "unusual" but I get hangry at weddings watching the first dance when I just want to eat. Our venue set up our timeline so everything flows nicely. I feel like when the dance is first everything gets really clunky and it doesn't flow.

We did not do an introduction into the reception, I do not like that portion, honestly. Felt more comfortable, and genuine by joining the cocktail hour. We did the first dance after dinner. Everyone got to finish eating, the servers cleared the plates, and everyone was moved over to the dance floor, so no worries of guests not finishing their dinner. 😊

We will be doing the first dance after our introduction. We have plenty of food for cocktail hour (2 stations and 12 passed apps), so no one should be starving.

We're doing a first look, so will be doing the majority of the photos before the ceremony, and some during cocktail hour.

Ours will be after dinner. We will be having dinner in the garden area of the winery and then moving into the barrel room for dancing.

We are planning on doing ours after dinner!

We will be doing the first dances after our introduction. Everyone should have had enough to eat during cocktail hour to hold them over.

I'm a wedding singer and we always do the first dance right after the couple is introduced to the reception. All the weddings I've attended as a guest were done this way as well. I think it's anticlimactic to wait. You make your grand entrance, go straight to the middle of the dance floor, everyone is already on their feet and circled around, and you go right into your dance. Then you sit for dinner, toasts, etc... What people don't get is that your guests are just coming from cocktail hour, where they ate a good amount of food, and entrees aren't going to be waiting for them on the tables when they enter the reception area. That takes time to get out, so you do the first dance while the chef is preparing the food. The guests won't be "hangry".

After dinner! We're going to do our cake cutting about 30 minutes after dinner starts, and then we'll go right into our first dance, directly followed by mom/daughter dance and FH's dance with his mom.

I had the same thought, I think we have decided to do the dancing after dinner. If you are having a cocktail hour with food served then maybe you could do the first dance before and save the father daughter and other family dances until after.