Question about Father-daughter and Mother-son Dance

At my brother's wedding, he had the traditional mother-son dance then he danced with my sister and I. He danced with me for the first half of the song (since I'm the older sister) and my sister for the second half. His wife's dad decided about a month before the wedding that he wasn't attending and she didn't want to dance with anyone else. I do think given that your fiance's mom will be in attendance that might make things a bit more tricky because she might be expecting to have the traditional dance. Other guests might also question it even thought it's really none of their business, but I wouldn't force your fiance to dance with his mom. If he isn't comfortable I would skip it and you just dance with your dad. But I would recommend that your fiance sit down with his mom prior to let her know otherwise she could be completely blindsided at the wedding and cause a scene.

We're only doing my father/daughter dance with my dad, but my partner's mother will be in attendance. My partner doesn't want to do it and I'm not going to force it. It's our day and we're comfortable setting that boundary. She doesn't know yet so I can't tell you how it's going to go over, but it is what we want to do.

Have your father daughter dance and don’t worry about it. Unfortunately, when you aren’t a good parent, you give up the honor of having a spotlight dance. Unless she’s the type to cause a scene at the wedding, I wouldn’t worry about it.

My fiancé is doing a mother son dance but I am not doing a father daughter dance. My relationship with my dad has been on and off my whole life and I don’t want to make myself uncomfortable on my wedding day. I would suggest to have a conversation with her to make the situation less awkward

I would say to do your dance with your dad and if he’s not comfortable then don’t push it. Hopefully she understands where she stands with him and doesn’t cause a scene.

Many people just do a father/daughter dance nowadays! I’ve been to many weddings where there is no mother/son. The only reason we did that was because my mother-in-law begged to dance with my groom. He did not really want to, and I honestly wasn’t even expecting to have one!

I'm doing a father/daughter dance as it is something very important to me, while my FH is not doing a mother/son dance as his relationship with his mother is not one where that would be natural. Instead of creating an awkward moment of them struggling on the dance floor we are just skipping it. To make up for it we might make our dance a little longer or have something else happen.

It would definitely be okay to just do one and not the other. I would leave the final decision about the mother/son dance up to him and support him regardless. Either way, you can have your daddy/daughter dance.


I am not having a father/daughter dance, but my fiancé is still deciding about dancing with his mom.

I have been to a few weddings with only a father/daughter dance when the mother was there and nobody seemed to notice or mind.

View Quoted Comment Honestly this is how I felt too. I don’t want to make decisions based on bitterness, but she doesn’t deserve a dance, and it would only make him uncomfortable. Thanks for the feedback!