Beach destination wedding- is a 30 guest wedding/reception too small for dancing?

Knottie1465938460

We're having a destination wedding with about 25-30 confirmed guests. I'd love to have a night of fun dancing but I'm worried that with such a small guest list the dance floor would just be empty and it'll be awkward and boring. We're probably not going to have a dj and were going to plug our ipod into the speaker system, but we still run into the potential problem of no one wanting to dance. Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation?  

charlotte989875

Knottie1465938460 said:

We're having a destination wedding with about 25-30 confirmed guests. I'd love to have a night of fun dancing but I'm worried that with such a small guest list the dance floor would just be empty and it'll be awkward and boring. We're probably not going to have a dj and were going to plug our ipod into the speaker system, but we still run into the potential problem of no one wanting to dance. Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation?  

Is the crowd big dancers? A lot will depend on your group of people. If you and your H are out there, and your friends are big dancers you should be fine, but simply being at a wedding won't make people start dancing if that's not who they are, regardless of size 

Knottie1465938460

I'd say probably a third to half of them would be into dancing, and they often do need a little push to get them going, so I'm not sure if that'll be enough

jacques27

Is there a club that those of you who are into dancing could go to for an after party instead?

Personally, every "DJ iPod" wedding reception I've been to has sucked for dancing. I think it's fine for dinner music and background for cocktail hour, but a good DJ knows how to read a crowd, provide a good mix of slow and fast, has a good handle on current trends and popular classics, knows what is danceable, and keeps the party moving.  Every iPod reception I've been to has been either so focused on one genre that the bride or groom loves that it is boring and alienates those who might not be fans, or there is little consideration for what is actually danceable because they are too busy picking their favorite songs overall and it gets awkward.  

If you think you got the time and skills to avoid those pitfalls then have at it.  But also if you just don't have dancers in your crowd they aren't going to suddenly start and the ratio of dancers to non-dancers will be more pronounced the smaller your guestlist gets, so you have to know your crowd.

XrebeccaX

We had 30 at our destination wedding and based on the crowd decided to skip dancing. Everyone mingled late into the night and we had midnight snacks. As others have said, know your crowd. For us it would have been a big expenditure with very little payoff.

STARMOON44

I don't think people will dance. Second the suggestion to just go to a club after the reception. 

LadyCatherineDB

Do you love to dance? People are more likely to dance if the couple is on the dance floor the whole time. 

In general, I would recommend skipping dancing for weddings that have fewer than 20 people who you know will want to dance. I recently attended a wedding of about 40 guests. Some of the guests didn't like to dance, and some were older adults or had mobility issues and couldn't dance, so only about 10 people were on the dance floor at any point in time. The dance floor felt empty, and the dancing felt forced. With that particular crowd, I would have preferred no dancing, only food and socializing.