How To Prepare For Your First Dance

Wedding days are exciting, thrilling, heartwarming, and a little nerve-wracking. A lot of time and thought usually goes into the wedding date, the wedding dress, the location, and so on, but often the wedding dance is a bit scary and intimidating.

Preparing for your wedding dance should be fun. Even if you claim you have two left feet, your first dance as a married couple is a sweet and tender moment that people will remember for a very long time. Give yourself plenty of prep time so your first wedding dance goes off smoothly and gracefully.

Here are six tips showing you how to prepare for your wedding dance:

Decide on the type of dance you want to do.

Are you both comfortable just doing a sweet and slow dance where you just circle around each other in the center of the room, or do you have plans for a kick-ass wedding dance that goes viral on YouTube? Once you decide on your style of dance, you can then go to the next step.

Find a suitable dance instructor for your wedding dance choreography.

If you are new to partner dancing, a skilled dance instructor will help you find the right dance to pair up with your favorite song. There are many dance instructors who teach a wide assortment of dance styles. To find one close to you, do some research on Google.

Give yourself at least 3 months to practice your wedding dance.

The tougher the style of dance you take on, the longer it will take to nail down and polish your wedding dance choreography. For example, a Foxtrot or Nightclub Two Step can be fairly easy, and take 3 months to learn well. If, however, you want a more difficult dance, like West Coast Swing or Argentine Tango, you had better plan on devoting at least one year to attend regular dance classes. HINT:  If complicated dances scare the heck out of you, stick with simpler partner dances that have easy footwork.

Consider your wedding attire for the dance.

If you both decide that you want a wedding dance that has a lot of athletic moves, make sure your wedding attire allows you to follow suit. A wedding dress that has a long train may not be appropriate for a Tango. A poufy, strapless, and floor length wedding dress is not going to work well for Lindy Hop. If you’re not sure your wedding attire will hold up for your dance, take it for a test drive when you practice your choreography.

Do you have the right dance shoes?

Dance shoes are designed to help you turn easily and articulate your foot steps. Make sure you have the appropriate dance shoes for the surface of the floor you’ll be dancing on. If you’re dancing on a wood floor, you should be okay with ballroom shoes. If you’re dancing outside on packed dirt, leather bottomed boots and closed-toe shoes should work just fine. Tile floors can get grippy or too slick on humid or wet days, so be careful to have shoes that will stand up to the moisture. If you’re not sure what shoes to dance in, check with your dance instructors and seek out their advice.

Remember to have fun!

If you relax and have a good time while you do your dance, everything will look great. There is no need to worry about a perfectly executed dance number. Your friends and family are not going to remember any little mistakes. Instead, they will enjoy seeing the two of you on the dance floor, and will always remember those tender moments.

Whatever your wedding dance turns out to be, Adrian Tamblin Photography will be eager to snap lots of photos and/or video throughout your first dance. If you have specific information about your wedding dance that you would like to share with us, give us a call at 707-322-2233 or adrian@adriantamblin.com. We look forward to hearing about your wedding dance plans.

Filled Under : Weddings