How Much Prep for the First Dance?

We used https://weddingdancelessons.com/ to learn a choreographed dance and it was definitely a highlight of our wedding! We subscribed for 3 months and that was a great amount of time to learn the steps and prepare. I highly recommend the website if you’re looking to jazz things up.

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Not sure if I meant to jazz it up. I guess you mean that it is something people also enjoy watching. Are these then pre-designed based on the song? Funny, i was watching a orchestra performance of "can't take my eyes off of you?" They have that song on the website.

View Quoted Comment We danced to “How Sweet it is to be Loved by You” by James Taylor. It went so well and they break it down really nicely for you. You can look at different songs they have on YouTube to check it out first and see if you like the dances.

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It might be easier with the online option. There are some places around here that instruct for a first dance but I don't have the details. But we can check out some of the dances on the site you gave.

My fiance and I use youtube! Theres really good wedding couple dances that look super advanced but are actually easy steps! You can impress all of your guests this way! And its super fun learning!

Https://youtu.be/vZnQf2fIIrU here's the link to my favorite youtube account that shows you fun wedding dances!

So I wanted something a little choreographed from YouTube but my fiancé wasn’t having it haha(thought it was too hard) so we just came up with our own steps sorta thing which he liked as well so I guess we got some ideas from vids from what we liked and also mixed in some of our own

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It is great you both are into that preparation. You can then figure out the second dance and third and.... Thanks.

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Did you keep it simpler or just with moves that he was used to?

I can see that easily happening. It is better than just an impromptu dance style.

It might have been interesting if you learned this with a live instructor.

View Quoted Comment Yesss we used moves he was already comfortable with and also used more simple moves combined.
Definitely does give more confidence than going in impromptu
A live instructor would’ve been great except we are long distance so it wouldn’t of worked out for us personally

We’re taking dance lessons (only 3 sessions) to get basic steps. Just don’t wanna stand there and sway lol

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Right. don't want to just sway. Maybe we can do regular lessons later.

do they guarantee the results after 3 sessions?

View Quoted Comment It’s a basic ballroom dance (teaching the guy how to lead/what to do with your hands ect) so theoretically, we can just start dancing bc it’s not really a routine per say. The teacher suggests 3 but some don’t need as many/need more.

My Husband and I also used youtube. We danced this routine to unchained melody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2U_RXmCAlM
It was a hit with everyone! With private lessons we learned the waltz in three 1 hour lessons. Our teacher did make some parts easier as we are not professionals at all and this was my Husband's first dance performance ever, haha. We had a blast!

We are doing a choreographed dance. We won dance lessons at a bridal show so were using that promotion for 3 dance classes and will just buy more if needed.

We decided to go for it and bought 10 one hour private lessons. So far both of us love it! I don’t think you HAVE to do it but I prefer that over just swaying and it’s honestly a fun little date night leading up to the wedding!
FWIW, I do think you need more than 3 lessons. Both FI and I are decent but it helps. Looking awkward and out of sync is as bad as just swaying.

We signed up for private dance lessons. My fiancé' did NOT want to even do a first dance, but finally gave in and now he doesn't "hate" the idea :-) We are about eight classes in and I can see so much progress. I'm not stressed about our dance and all eyes on me. That was my biggest fear!!! I know that if something goes wrong, I can at least wing it. We won't look like we're on Dancing With the Stars, but I didn't want that anyway!

We didn’t want to subject everyone to 4-6 minutes of the high school prom Frankenstein dance, so we did two things:


•We took our song (“I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz) and removed the second verse and an extra chorus, which brought it to 2:58
•We enrolled in dance lessons. The dance studio not only choreographed our first dance for us — incorporating more than just box steps in circles — but they also practiced social dance moves with us.
Honestly, signing up for in-person classes turned out to be more of a gift than we anticipated. We knew we wanted the dance instructor to help insure we don’t bore our guests or make them wonder what to do with their eyes and hands after the first 2 minutes of awkward dancing; mission accomplished. But we didn’t realize we would have so much fun and that it would be so romantic learning our dance and other dances together. The dance lessons became standing date nights that brought us back to calm and each other in the midst of chaotic planning, and now we have our own dance that we can share forever. I highly recommend!

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Chelsea,

Great picture. The video appear very romantic. Thanks for sharing.

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Thank you! I wish you well on your first dance endeavors. I know it will be magical