What kind of dance during your wedding reception?

The wedding dance, you probably have seen it, heard of it and by this point pictured it for yourself. During the wedding reception, there are a few key activities that most of the couples choose to have on their special day. How important is dance? What kind of dance should it be? Do you have to dance at all? Well, as it is your day, this is up to you to decide. We do recommend it, as it is a fun, romantic, special moment, which doesn’t have to be difficult at all. Here are some tips to keep it fun and easy! 

The moments to dance

When working on the wedding rundown with your planner you will get a super detailed and clear schedule of your day. Either the DJ, band or someone from our team will make sure the right music is played at the right time and our team will help with coordinating between the MC and all dancers involved to make sure everything flows well. The music selection and choreography you have to prepare yourselves though. Depending on how much dancing you like, you can prepare for the following parts:

- Grand Entrance

Your guest are already waiting for you at the dinner reception area and you will be reintroduced as husband and wife! Picture yourself walking through the guest tables towards your bridal table, as you will be moving from point A to the bridal table, it’s best to keep it simple here. Enjoy the music and applause from your guests while walking to one of your favourite songs. 

Song suggestion: upbeat and happy for the couple. Same for the bridal party, it can be even a funny song to surprise your guests and have a good laugh.

- Father & Daughter, Mother & Son dance

A fairly traditional moment is the father and daughter dance. However, since a couple years we also see more mother and son dances! You can choose if you want to do this at the same time and same song, or start with the mother and son dance on one song, followed by father and daughter dance on another song.

Song suggestion: there are various songs about the relationship between parent and child or you can choose a song with personal meaning like from childhood memories with you and your parent.

- Opening dance

This is the part were some couples are a slightly (or very) nervous. Which makes sense as most people are not professional dancers/performers. You can choose for either a simple improvised dance from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, or a full choreography with multiple mixed songs for 10 minutes, while feeling relaxed. As long as you decide before your wedding day and take the neccesary amount of time to prepare according to the difficulty of your choreography, you will be fine! This means taking lessons and practising your choreography before coming to Bali, or just enjoy the moment and dance as you like if you choose to improvise.

Song suggestion: With the choreography you can make a mix of 2 or more songs and go for example from slow dancing to party moves. Without choreography you can choose a more low tempo, romantic song to slow dance. You can finish the song or have it cut at a certain point to be followed by a more upbeat party song to open the dance floor if you want to get your guests dancing.

- The bridal party

They can be included with the grand entrance, with the opening dance and have a separate dance somewhere during the reception. If they want to dance, they will probably let you know;)

If you want them to dance or dance with them, the groom usually does a dance with the grooms men, and the bride with the bridesmaids. But off course you can mix this up if you want.

Song suggestions: upbeat party songs for funny dance moves, R&B jams for seductive moves, top 40 songs or classics to get your guests to sing along, a combination of these

- Garter toss

Another moment where the groom can show his dancing skills. If you have this moment and how seductive it will be is again up to you off course.

Song suggestions: 90’s R&B classic

The dance selection and preparation

It all depends on you as a couple, and automatically you will choose what will feel right on your wedding day with your wedding guests.

Make sure you think about this at least a couple weeks before the wedding, so you can select the songs, inform your bridal party, parents, and practise if required. As you will probably only come a few days before your wedding to Bali, it’s best to learn any choreography beforehand so you only have to do some practise rehearsal without a dance teacher needed. Dance teachers are limited in Bali and taking lessons in Bali will make your schedule before the wedding less flexible.

Time to shine

It is your day, take your moment and make it how you want it. From a simple, short and sweet improvised dance with just the two of you to an elaborate choreography with the whole bridal party and everything in between, it is all good. Just make the decision at least a couple weeks before the day so you do have enough time to prepare if necessary ;) Enjoy!