Things to Consider for Your Father-Daughter Dance

Considerations for Your Father-Daughter Dance

Your wedding ceremony is complete and you’re enjoying the reception. Now, it’s time for the Father-Daughter dance! You’re about to spend some quality time with your father in front of all your friends and family and … Oh no! What do you do? How do you prepare for this dance? Here we have a few things for you to consider to help ease the pressure of planning your Father-Daughter dance.

1. Choose a Father Daughter Dance Song

First step: choose a song! You’ll want to choose a song that has some history or meaning for both you and your father. Maybe choose a song together or give your dad free reign to choose the song for you two. You could also consider dancing to a mashup of 2 or more songs that might satisfy you and your Dad’s different tastes in music.

2. Bring in a Professional Dance Teacher

We recommend taking some dance lessons and to at least learn the basic steps. Assuming you will have both a first dance and father-daughter dance in your wedding, we suggest that you and your father start by taking some dance lessons around the same time you and your fiancé start taking lessons. That way you’ll have plenty of time to practice both dances with both partners and ensure you feel comfortable and confident on your big day. You’ll want to remember once you learn the basic steps and the proper dance frame, to keep your dance frame even while you practice. Learning and keeping your dance frame will not only provide you and your father with the proper dance form, but it will also help make you look like pros in all of the pictures and videos.

3. Keep it Short and Sweet

Same as your first dance, you want to keep your father-daughter dance short and sweet. Try to keep it to around 1-2.5 minutes, so that it doesn’t get too long for you or your guests. You could even decide to personalize your father-daughter dance with a favorite memory(s) video montage. Another idea is to share the spotlight and invite other fathers and daughters to join you on the dance floor about halfway through your dance. It would relieve some of the pressure of having all eyes on you and give you a chance to make others feel just as important on your special day. Or you could offer to share your father-daughter dance with your spouse and your mother-in-law. Choosing a song that works for all of you and shares the spotlight is a good way of creating an inclusive family dynamic right off the bat.

4. Communication is Key

Make sure to communicate with both your photographer and your videographer! If you want this special moment between you and your father captured, make sure both vendors understand that this is a moment you specifically want captured on film. Practice your dance or block it through with your vendors so they know which way you’ll be facing and at what time during your dance they should be ready. That way they can best prepare to capture all of your special moments.

5. Emotions are Okay

It’s important to remember that it’s okay to get emotional! This is your father and you are his baby girl. At least one of you is bound to get a little emotional, just make sure to keep things moving and don’t stop dancing. This intimate moment may be yours to share together, but try not to forget that there Is a whole crowd watching you and rooting for you too. Be prepared for your crowd to get a little noisy, encouraging and possibly even hooting and hollering at you. Remember that they will want to share in this moment with you and let you know how happy and excited they are for you. Take a deep breath and remember: you’ve got this.