Father/daughter dance requires a change of clothes?

becky659

This is going to be kind of an odd question BUT,
My family used to go reenact the civil war, lol. My dad and I would always go to the dances at night and we'd dance the whole time until the last dance, which was typically to the song "Dixie." (click if you can manage to ignore the "southern pride" comments on the video! My family isn't into the southern/northern conflict, but some people can be pretty serious-pants about it) It isn't my video, but yep, that's the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrFRn0CVigs&feature=related

And we typically did a polka.

Again, click if you want a laugh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiClaM8gMto

Except imagine a 6'4 man with the longest legs you've ever seen, dragging a 5'5 teenager around the dance floor at the speed of light.
And that was me and my dad dancing.

I think it would be totally fitting and incredibly sweet for me and my dad to dance at the wedding IF we are able to get the bluegrass band we want to have.  I think our guests would find it hilarious!

But... the whole "giant dancing with the kid" picture is problematic, because I'm not any taller than when I was 15, and he's JUST as tall as he was then. 
And I'll be wearing my big wedding dress, which is going to be hemmed for the flipflops that I'm going to be wearing during the ceremony.  All I can see is me tripping over my dress and doing a faceplant into the grass, showing my undies to everybody and making my fake bun fly off my head and hit a small child, who will probably be scarred for life.

So these are the solutions I've thought of:

a) Change my dress into something (short) that won't cause a catastrophe

b) Find some shoes with a heel/wedge (since its going to be an outdoor reception), stay in my dress and pray that I don't fall

Option A sounds good except that I LOVE my dress and won't want to take it off because of the whole "you only get to wear it once" thing.
People who are already married and did this, or those who are thinking about changing, does it bother you that you didn't/won't wear your dress longer? Why/why not?

artbyallie

Can't you practice the polka in your dress before the wedding?

becky659

I could, but I'm really terrified to mess it up.  It is, after all, ivory and grass stains.  Is that an irrational fear? Would it be ok? 

Lisa50

You can dance in flip flops??

Spunky414

I'd go with option b and ask your dad not to corner hard. Are you more concerned about the shoes or managing larger skirts? Just practice in the shoes if its just that or if it's the skirts you practice inside vacuum/sweep the floor, remove all pets, beverages and small children and your dress should be ok. You could also just practice in the petticoat, I've done that for musical theater rehersals.   

Peavy

I think the flips flops more than the dress would lead to your disaster sceneario.  Keep your dress on -- you must have worn a long dress for the re-enactments -- but wear shoes that will allow you to dance.  Maybe get an inexpensive pair of low heeled dance shoes that will stay on your feet and not sink into the grass.  Also, if you had a dance floor, it would be much less dangerous.  It's really hard to dance on grass.