Dance formalities: how to pull it all off seamlessly and nail your first dance
Ah, a couple’s first dance as newlyweds – it’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it? Well, if we’re being honest, it isn’t always, and most of the time this is simply due to the transition between the dances and getting your full D-Floor pumping.
Quite frankly, it can be a little awkies when the transitions between key moments aren’t smooth. But don’t worry, we’ve got your back ;)
In all our years of experience, we’ve worked out a rock-solid structure which ensures silky smooth transitions and no awkward moments (unless Uncle Bob decides to take his shirt off and bomb your first dance with his drunken version of the Flashdance routine – this structure probably won’t help with that, soz). Let’s nail your dance formalities!
First and foremost, the DJ handles the tunes. While having your first dance song played live is a romantic idea, it just never works in reality. We’re here to get you from the ‘formal’ part your evening to the fun time party – so let the DJ work their magic so that you can stay in yours :)
Secondly, a live song will always be a little different to the version you’ve been rehearsing to or are expecting so it’s a risk that’s really not worth taking. Also, if you have any of these moments played live, the band will be packing up gear around guests while the DJ starts (which is about as smooth as granola!).
Part 1: Start with the father/daughter (and/or mother/daughter, mother/son) dance. It’s a really nice way to get everyone’s attention, and it presents an opportunity for a beautiful moment where the father hands the bride over to her new husband – which leads us to the next step:
Part 2: Flow straight from the parental dance to the first dance. We’ve seen it go all different ways, and in our experience, this always works the best as the moment has already been established. Everyone is already feeling all the warm fuzzies after watching the parental dance, and when the DJ transitions to the first dance song and the father hands over his daughter, it brings the house down.
Part 3: When the first dance concludes, transition straight to the dance floor segment of the evening – all the formalities are done and it’s party time. You can do this one of two ways: invite your guests up to join you (or ask the DJ to do this over the mic) while your first dance song is still playing and have everyone up on the dance floor to finish out the song, or get the DJ to crossfade into something that will make the dance floor go off as soon as your first dance finishes. Either way, having a bonafide banger lined up to play directly after the first dance is a wise idea.
There you have it – your guide to nailing all the dance-related formalities and avoiding a whole lotta cringing: parental dance > your first dance > guests come to join you and it’s party time. Easy peasy!
So go on and dance like nobody’s watching… but also, know that everyone will in fact be watching so prob keep that in mind too (in case you were planning on beating Uncle Bob to the punch).