What is the most romantic moment of the wedding day? Some will say it’s the ceremony and vow exchange, some — that it’s the first time the groom sees the bride. We say it is the first dance. After all, music has an incredibly strong influence over us humans, and when it connects two loving people in their first-ever dance as a married couple, it is a very strong emotional moment.
Over the years of us planning some amazing destination weddings in Thailand, we have witnessed so many dances, yet each time it brings a wide smile or happy tears. If you are unsure of how to approach your first dance or want to make it extra special, we have gathered a few tips on the topic, so read on!
Be Yourselves
Some people think that a first dance needs to necessarily be a heavily orchestrated and immaculately choreographed classic or ballroom dance affair. In fact, the only thing that first dance needs to do is: make you both happy! So don’t think about obligations and traditions, and instead channel the music and genre that you love. Maybe you’re both very much into R&B? Latino music? As long as it’s you two sharing the dancefloor, it counts as a first dance.
Setting Matters
The first dance is the moment you’ll likely remember for years and years to come, so it’s important to have the best possible photos of the moment. Consider making the area for the first dance a special décor focus, adding some lighting and florals works quite nicely. If you like a grand gesture: pyrotechnics and fireworks make surreal backdrops for a first dance, and we’ve done a few of those, especially amazing at private villa weddings.
If you don’t want to spend extra on an additional décor, you can have your first dance in front of your ceremony arch, just make sure that the area is quite well lit. It’s best to have soft warm lighting, and not the colourful disco lights, as the latter make it difficult to photograph nicely.
Include your parents
If your family is very important to you, consider making your parents a part of the first dance as well. The father-daughter dance is one of the sweetest traditions that exist in weddings. You can either start with it, then having the father pass the bride on to her now-husband as a symbolic gesture. Alternatively, once you finish your first dance as a couple, you can each invite your parents to the dancefloor: bride — her father, and groom — his mother.
Value the time
If you are passionate dancers and are committed to create a dance show for your first dance, consider not having to do the whole song, but only the 1.5 to 3-minute long piece that brings out the best in you both. That way, you will focus on making this piece a perfection and not spend too long on the dancefloor. After that, you can invite all the guests to join in!
As a bonus to this article, we’ve gathered a list of our favourite first dance songs of all time, so you can get inspired and use one of them for your special romantic moment as well.
- Calum Scott, Leona Lewis – You Are The Reason (Duet Version)
- James Arthur – Say You Won’t Let Go
- James Morrison – You Make It Real
- Arctic Monkeys – I Wanna Be Yours
- Ellie Golding — How Long Will I Love You
- Snow Patrol — Chasing Cars
- Take That — Rule the World
- Robbie Williams — She’s The One
- U2 — With or Without You
- Ed Sheeran — Thinking Out Loud
- John Legend — All of Me
- Norah Jones — Unchained Melody
Featured Image: Alen Karupovic
