Food or Dances First?

There's no one way that works better than the others, it's really just your preference. We plan to go straight into our first dance after entrances, then dinner will be served, then parent dances. You can do it however you want!

We did dinner then dances, I think it’s just a matter of preference. But I wouldn’t start the meal and then interrupt it with dances and finish it. Either do it all before or all after.

I did dances and then dinner. We did dances first because we made our grand entrance and went into it so everyone's attention already on us

We are doing dinner then dances, because I feel like our dances should be what "opens the dance floor" for the evening.

We are doing

Grand Entrance into First Dance

Dinner/Toasts

Shoe Game

Father/Daughter, Mother/Son dances

Floor Opens

Cake Cutting

Dollar Dance

Bouquet Toss/Garter Toss

Dance Continues

Send Off

It really just depends on your own opinions though, and what works best for y'all.

We did our first dances right as dinner was winding down as a way to open up the dance floor.

We have a cocktail hour too. We will do welcome speech and a blessing, and then salad service will begin during the best man and maid of honor speeches, followed by dinner service

Whoops I totally sent that without finishing it:

We have a cocktail hour too. We will do introductions, dances, welcome speech and a blessing, and then salad service will begin during the best man and maid of honor speeches, followed by dinner service

IMO, it's best to do first dance, dinner, then parent dances. That way your guests don't have to sit through 3 dances back to back, and get to eat sooner.

We did:

Cocktail hour

Grand entrance

Speeches (FOB, MOH, MOH, BM)

Dinner

Cake Cutting

Mother/son dance

Father/daughter dance

First dance

Opened up the dance floor to everyone

We're doing our first dance right after introductions since it will only be 2 minutes long. Then as dinner service is winding down we'll have father/daughter dance, speeches, and then cake cutting. Then back to dancing!

We're doing the first dance first mostly because I needed to try and get everything in before we lose the photographer due to time constraints.

Traditionally the dances signify the open dance floor. If I could I would do it this way but it's just not possible.

We are doing everything all together at the beginning to get it over with. Entrance, dances, toasts, dinner. I don’t worry about guests having to wait 30 minutes for dinner because they are just coming from cocktail hour where there will be a ton of food.