Wedding Dance Questions Answered

Now that the holidays have come and gone, it’s the beginning of what we in the industry call Wedding Season in Orange County! Brides and grooms-to be are busy planning and making important decisions in preparation for their big day. One of those considerations is the first dance, since many would like to get beyond the “eighth grade sway” for that important moment when all of their guests will be watching them. We receive many questions from our Orange County wedding dance couples regarding preparations for the first dance and we’d like to address one of them today:

“How long should our first dance be?”

This is a very popular question and the short answer is that it’s up to you! It’s your wedding day and your first dance and you are welcome to dance for as long (as or short!) as you would like. However, there are a few thoughts you may want to keep in mind. If you are doing an involved choreographed routine, for example, it may feel overwhelming to learn full choreography for an entire 4 or 5 minute song. As a frame of reference, “Dancing With the Stars” routines are only 1 minute and 10 seconds long. If you plan to do a lot of rehearsals, then it is still possible to learn a routine for a whole song. In general, we recommend keeping the song to under 3 minutes. There are a few different ways to do this. A popular option is to do a “fade out” where you slowly fade out the song at around the 2 or 3 minute mark. Other couples opt to do a professional music edit (this is something that we provide at our dance studio) where they may cut and edit together different sections of the music. For example, you may want to cut out the middle bridge section of the song or shorten repetitive parts of the music. With a professional music edit, the song will sound like it was meant to be that way and likely only the couple will know that it’s been shortened. Other options include walking onto the dance floor during the introduction of the music or using the end of the song to make an exit.

Keep in mind these are only suggestions and it is always up to each couple and their personal preferences for their wedding. A first dance song can have significant meaning for many couples and because of this they may want to dance to the entire song. That’s fantastic! The most important thing is that couples feel great for their first dance moment and have a wonderful time dancing together for the first time as a married couple.