No Mother or Father Dance

Both of my parents have passed away, I plan on dancing with my grandparents. I would choose anyone who you are close with or you don't necessarily have to do the dance at all.

Maybe a fun game or make a speech to thank guests but I don't think you need to fill that time particularly.

I'm sorry to hear about your parents, I can't imagine how hard that must be. I would say if you want to do the dance, you could choose another family member. Maybe your future FIL if you'd be comfortable with that? Otherwise, you could skip the dance altogether. People skip "traditional" wedding events all the time, like the bouquet/garter toss for example. Just whatever works best for you

Maybe have a dance with your siblings if you have any? I think that would be beautiful!

Maybe you could do a slideshow or pictures or video montage of your parents and you? If your venue allows that or has the space/capabilities. The they are still involved in a special moment even if they aren't there.

If you have siblings that you're close with I think that's a good option! Or you could ask a close friend or family member (grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc) to dance with you. Otherwise there's no shame in just forgoing it all together. There's no rule that says you have to have a father/daughter dance.

My sister-in-law isn't close to her dad so he didn't even attend the wedding she didn't have a special dance because she didn't want to. Instead, my brother had the traditional mother and son dance then he danced with me for half a song and my sister for the other half. My brother-in-law's wife danced with her uncle since her father is in a nursing home and couldn't make it to the wedding.

You don't have to replace it with anything. Guests actually tend to get bored with a lot of spotlight dances. Just have your first dance, and call it a day.

I would say pick a fun game to play. Or dance with your new FIL while your husband dances with his mom and mid song, switch partners and then ask others to join the dance floor.

My nephew asked for couples to join based on how many years they have been married.

“Anyone married 50 years or more...”
anyone married 40 years or more...”

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That last one is called the Anniversary Dance. It's a good substitute for something like mother/son, father/daughter. We're doing First, M/S, F/D, Anniversary, and Dollar. All of that is traditional in my family, so I'd have a lot of people confused without it.

First, I am so so sorry.

We are skipping the mother/son & father/daughter dances. We got legally married in a small backyard ceremony in August to make sure his mom could be there (stage 4 pancreatic cancer and failed chemo attempts) but, per her demand, are still celebrating as planned in November. We did do a couple of short dances with our parents in August, but his mom passed almost 2 weeks ago and I dont want to draw attention to that. We are going to do a "first dance" but no parent's dances as my dad doesn't care and neither of us care for the extra attention. Also, I feel like most guests find that 10 or so minute stretch deathly boring, so no one else will care that we skip it.