First Dance - do you practice or just wing it?

Some people take dance lessons before their wedding or choreograph their dances, but many just wing it. I personally wouldn't want to do a choreographed dance because 1) it's not my thing, 2) I'd get really focused on "doing it right" instead of just having fun, and 3) I wouldn't want to listen to my wedding song on repeat a whole lot before that special first dance moment.

We ended up just winging it and while we didn't have any super graceful or photogenic moves, our first dance was my favorite part of our mini-ceremony (thanks Covid). Also I had never danced in my wedding dress before (fit-and-flare style) and ended up carrying the train over my arm instead of bustling it (because our whole ceremony was super short) so even if we had practiced those things would have thrown me off anyway.

View Quoted Comment That’s awesome! I don’t know much about country music but I’m assuming once you get a few of the steps and rhythm it’s easier to dance along!

View Quoted Comment I am not a fan of country music myself. When we were going through the moves, however, I was smiling the entire time.
The basic dances were simple enough to learn with practice and he does offer a higher level class and is working on an advanced class version.

View Quoted Comment That’s a very good point about the dress! I bet your train got in the way even if someone practiced unless they practiced with a similar train it can throw the whole dance off. Did it bother you holding your train? I could see that happening to me as it’s pretty long as well

View Quoted Comment Found the link https://showheroff.com/

View Quoted Comment Plus you can always apply those dances to any dance situation now that you’ve learned them 😃

We are doing a slow dance and are just going to wing it.

View Quoted Comment What great marketing! I don’t even care for country HOWEVER that pic alone on their front page with him sweeping her off her feet like that would make anyone want to learn!

View Quoted Comment There is a way to pin or bustle the train up with help from the bridesmaid's or someone else willing to help. That is what I will have to do with mine, even though it's a very small train.

DH hates to dance, and he got super anxious about it, so I made him practice the night before.

...He sneezed in my face.

After that hilarity, we did a quick practice, and then I let him be. We didn't do choreography or anything, we just wanted a feel for the song. Day of? We were both way too emotional to think of what we were doing, and mostly swayed. (That's ok, my dad and I rocked out.)

For my FH and I, he doesn't know how to dance. I mean AT ALL LOL and I LOVE to dance LOL so I plan to teach him even though we are slow dancing. I think its always a good idea to practice something because I am a perfectionist and just have to have thing good to go LOL I think if you do just have fun with it! I know if you guys go with doing a fun choreographed routine you would have fun with it and practice!

My FH and I are just going to do a slow dance and sway back and forth and relax and soak up the moment with each other instead of trying to do a choreographed dance.

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No it wasn't really problematic, I'd say. Our first dance was 3 1/2 minutes and a slow song, so I was able to have the train draped over my arm and dance without issue. If we had had a faster song and I wanted to throw my arms over my head I would not have been able to. Also the liner of my dress showed in some photos, so just something to keep in mind.

In general, you'd probably have your dress bustled for any and all dancing. The only reason I held the train instead of bustling it was because we did a mini-ceremony due to Covid, so we a first look then did vows, exchanged rings, popped a bottle of champagne, cut a cake, and did our first dance, then did more photos. Because we did a mini ceremony, I just didn't want to take 5 minutes to bustle it for our 3 minute dance and then spend another 5 minutes taking apart the bustle to do more photos. If we didn't have to change plans due to Covid, the dance would have happened sometime around dinner and toasts and before dancing (with all the guests) so my dress would have just been bustled at that point for the rest of the night.

We took dance lessons and I'm so happy we did. I'm not a fan of watching couples sway back and forth for 2-3 minutes with nothing else going on.

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What a stunning dress and photo! You made a lot of good points I never even thought of like if you put your hands up while trying to dance and hold your train.

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Did you guys do a fun choreo or a just dance lessons on a classy slow dance?

Hahaha...I've been after my husband to try this dance instruction video with me where we can practice at home, but he's been super reluctant. Well, thankfully our "first dance" happened in private with just us, our photographer and a venue manager. He realized how uncomfortable it was dancing with any kind of audience and admitted he wants to practice before next year.

We postponed our big re-do wedding and reception to next summer, but went forward with a small elopement style wedding almost 3 weeks ago. Then we went to a local favorite hotel/bar/restaurant complex nearby and had arranged with a manager to take photos in some of their closed bars. He ended up surprising us with access to their closed ballroom, let us up on stage and worked lights/music/fog machine for us during our wedding photos. So that was our "first dance".

Fun, SUPER COOL experience, but definitely kinda awkward with the dancing. :-/ Great photos though!!

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That's the one we're planning to try out!

View Quoted Comment Oh my gosh those photos are everything! The stage is so grand and the lighting so beautiful. What great memories you made!

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It was definitely a highlight of the day, ALMOST as much as the actual wedding. LOL. I can't wait to see the rest of pictures from the photographer in a couple weeks! These weren't even edited. She sent them to us later that night!

But I'm glad it happened in private. The photos help disguise some of the awkwardness. And we can now practice for dancing better with a real audience next year.