Community› Local Wedding Boards› New Jersey
New Jersey
New Discussion
Options

How long is your First Dance

felicia220felicia220 member
First Anniversary First Comment
in New Jersey
Fi and I went for Dance lessons last night and it was awesome.  We are doing the Rumba to our song and planning out a routine (this is SO NOT like us, which will make for an awesome surprise)  Anyway, our song was originally 5 minutes which I know is really long.  I am wondering if we should just cut that time in half or half way through invite everyone to dance with us.  How long is/was your dance and did you have everyone come dance with you or did you do it solo?
Report Reply to Post

Re: How long is your First Dance

  • Options
    maddie7maddie7 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Cool!  We are in the midst of choreographed dance lessons too... our song is "Sea of Love", we are dancing a ballad, I believe its about 3 minutes.... But with my dad I may do a Fox trot, I wanna keep that shorter... dance lessons are fun!
    Report Reply
  • Options
    maddie7maddie7 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    PS- ours is solo as we will be working the floor.. ha ha
    Report Reply
  • Options
    felicia220felicia220 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_long-first-dance?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:0640d385-93a8-46d4-9235-08cc779c5ef9Post:b7d04630-233c-48d8-872e-fbb3d05ded2a">Re: How long is your First Dance</a>:
    [QUOTE]PS- ours is solo as we will be working the floor.. ha ha
    Posted by maddie7[/QUOTE]

    <div>haha I like that!</div>
    Report Reply
  • Options
    uppereastgirluppereastgirl member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    4 minutes, but asked our bridal party cut in after the first chorus, and everyone else was invited to join at that time.  That was more than enough solo dancing time for me!
    image
    Report Reply
  • Options
    NJMom050911NJMom050911
    Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011

    I think it's a bit different if you're doing a choreographed dance, I would cut it down to 3 minutes....we plan on dancing to our song in it's entirety but it's under 4 minutes, I just want that 4 minutes to just be the two of us and our song that means so much to us, I think the guests can wait...the rest of the night we will spend talking to them so what's 4 minutes. You can't really have the same  "time to yourself moment" when dancing to Rumba and trying to concentrate on your steps.

    Logan Alexander born May 9th 2011. He has stolen my heart forever. Image and video hosting by TinyPic Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker BFP #2 05/24/12 EDD 01/31/13 D&C 06/26/12 Missing you. Lilypie Angel and Memorial tickers Diagnosed with Ashermans 11/06/12 Surgery 01/18/13, Cleared for TTC 03/01/13 image
    My Ovulation Chart     || Ovulation Tracker
    Report Reply
  • Options
    Just JenJust Jen
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    We did our (semi-choreographed) dance "solo" for the first 2 minutes, then invited everyone to join in. That 2 minutes was plenty =)
    Report Reply
  • Options
    JulepheniaJulephenia member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Not sure yet, but FI is hesitant to go the full length of the song, even with choreography. We are both aware that even 2 minutes is a very long time for others to watch you, and we don't want to create a dead spot at the beginning of the reception. This is linked into his concerns of the parent/child dances, as well, so we are going to play with timing.
    Report Reply
  • Options
    dmoney79dmoney79 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    i have no idea how long our dance was, it wasn't choreographed, that's for sure...i think we just popped it on the ipod a few days before and practiced, bc we really had never danced together before that point....
    i guess about halfway through the bridal party and our parents joined in...
    i know with my dad, it got to a point we both stared down the dj and he asked us if he should wrap it up and we both nodded yeah....it seemd kinda long, and we were both trying not to cry
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • Options
    felicia220felicia220 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    You all have such good points.  

    Kathy- I agree having the time to yourself moment.  We both really want that and we weren't too crazy about the idea of asking everyone to join us.  As for concentrating on the steps, we are both very coordinated and are both very fast learners, even after the first sessions we had it on lock and didn't even need to think about it anymore, we just danced as if we had been doing it all our lives.  Sorry I just totally bragged about US....haha Hey what can I say my life moto is "I'm Fabulous" haha

    Rebecca- I hadn't thought about "dead spot".  Excellent point.  

    Dmoney- I am hoping that all that dancing around will help keep me from crying but you never know...haha

    Report Reply
  • Options
    jaimelodyjaimelody
    Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011

    Our first dance wasn't choreographed - we had about 4 minutes with the BP joining us half way through. My brother and I did a fun dance - like a mash up of a bunch of songs. It was 5:30 total. A 1:20 of us dancing slow and then about 3:30 minutes of us doing the fun stuff and I think 20 or so seconds slow. I thought maybe it might be too long, but it wasn't.

    Report Reply
  • Options
    NJMom050911NJMom050911
    Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011

    How awesome that guys picked it up so quickly! I would be falling all over myself trying not try be nervous, not to cry, not to laugh LOL....You are totally allowed to brag about being able to dance the Rumba!

    Logan Alexander born May 9th 2011. He has stolen my heart forever. Image and video hosting by TinyPic Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker BFP #2 05/24/12 EDD 01/31/13 D&C 06/26/12 Missing you. Lilypie Angel and Memorial tickers Diagnosed with Ashermans 11/06/12 Surgery 01/18/13, Cleared for TTC 03/01/13 image
    My Ovulation Chart     || Ovulation Tracker
    Report Reply
  • Options
    mbcdefgmbcdefg member
    5 Love Its First Comment Combo Breaker
    edited December 2011
    Our song is maybe 6 minutes long, but we had the DJ cut out the first minute because it's purely instrumental. We danced alone for maybe 60-90 seconds, and then the DJ asked all couples to come up and join us for the rest of the song.

    I had mentioned cutting the dance with my dad a little short, but I think the whole thing was played because my mom crashed the dance with my brother and sister and started doing some family dance thing, and then she danced with my brother during the rest of the Father-Daughter dance.
    image
    Report Reply
  • Options
    felicia220felicia220 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_long-first-dance?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:0640d385-93a8-46d4-9235-08cc779c5ef9Post:f066b544-78c7-4a70-8309-c99a4954185e">Re: How long is your First Dance</a>:
    [QUOTE]How awesome that guys picked it up so quickly! I would be falling all over myself trying not try be nervous, not to cry, not to laugh LOL....You are totally allowed to brag about being able to dance the Rumba!
    Posted by kathygrzywnowicz[/QUOTE]

    <div>Oh I never said there wouldn't be laughing and crying....hahaha</div><div>Thanks :)</div>
    Report Reply
  • Options
    felicia220felicia220 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_long-first-dance?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:0640d385-93a8-46d4-9235-08cc779c5ef9Post:f971d315-a414-4d01-8c1c-a308fc677d2c">Re: How long is your First Dance</a>:
    [QUOTE]Our song is maybe 6 minutes long, but we had the DJ cut out the first minute because it's purely instrumental. We danced alone for maybe 60-90 seconds, and then the DJ asked all couples to come up and join us for the rest of the song. I had mentioned cutting the dance with my dad a little short, but I think the whole thing was played because my mom crashed the dance with my brother and sister and started doing some family dance thing, and then she danced with my brother during the rest of the Father-Daughter dance.
    Posted by mbcdefg[/QUOTE]

    <div>That's awesome, I love that your mom crashed the song.  You must have a pretty close family, I like that.</div>
    Report Reply
  • Options
    ecg129ecg129
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Our song (I just checked) is "Wonderful Tonight" and it is 3:43 long. We want to share this special moment just the two of us - so no cutting in  by anyone.Sure it may be boring for others, but this moment is for us. We're not choreographing it - as most of our friends have - and we notice they spend the entire dance trying to remember the moves, and not enjoying that special moment with one another :D  To each their own!
    Report Reply
  • Options
    akmackayakmackay
    Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Ours was our entire song- I think it was between 2 and a half and 3 minutes. It was a mess b/c we had never practiced and it was just kind of us being silly, which is very us. It was fun just to be out there with him. And then later on we did a group one to Jersey Girl which was just as great b/c all the guys were singing to their girls. Very cute. But to answer your question- I would probably cut it down a bit from 5 minutes. The groom/MOG dance was 5 minutes and I told the DJ to cut it in half haha. If you stay under 4 you should be good- but it's obviously up to you!
    *~allie~*

    Report Reply
  • Options
    felicia220felicia220 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Thanks everyone,  I think we will just try to keep it under 3 minutes or so and do it solo. It seems like everyone for the most part is staying under 3 minutes and I think that will be our best bet.  I don't want to bore my guests but I also don't want to rush a truly once in a lifetime DANCE!



    Report Reply
  • Options
    mbcdefgmbcdefg member
    5 Love Its First Comment Combo Breaker
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_long-first-dance?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:90Discussion:0640d385-93a8-46d4-9235-08cc779c5ef9Post:eac0b6fe-8d4c-4db1-bc1e-c45f972ce7fb">Re: How long is your First Dance</a>:
    [QUOTE]In Response to Re: How long is your First Dance : That's awesome, I love that your mom crashed the song.  You must have a pretty close family, I like that.
    Posted by felicia220[/QUOTE]

    I can't lie, my dad and I were a bit annoyed (because my mom, God love her, always needs to be the center of attention) ... I didn't talk to my brother about it but my sister was saying that it was a bit of a thunderjacker move.

    But if that's the worst thing that could've happened then I'm pretty damn lucky. We're all pretty close and I'm very grateful for that.
    image
    Report Reply
  • Options
    Geri510Geri510
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Our song is 'Welcome to my World' by Dean Martin & is only 2:20 long - no cutting in, just the two of us dancing on the floor. Granted I now have to talk my fiance in to that but since he picked the song it's the least he can do, lol.
    Report Reply
  • Options
    DS0305DS0305 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Our song was short to begin with - under 3 minutes.  We did a choreographed danced but asked the DJ to call people to the dance floor after about 1.5 minutes.  Of course, even though we asked the bridal party to please come out to make other people come out, no one did.  We ended up dancing the whole time by ourselves.
    Report Reply
  • Options
    NJ JenNJ Jen member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Hey! We are doing a rhumba too!

    I have NO IDEA how long it is - too long. We learned it for a showcase, so I can't cut it or we will totally be confused. I thought about asking others to join in to make me more comfortable about that long dance alone - glad to see some others don't think it's a big deal...
    Report Reply
  • Options
    felicia220felicia220 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    We have our next lesson next week, so we will see what else they put together for us and then decide on a final time.  I don't mind if it is a little bit longer but we don't want it to be super long either.  

    Jen- thank you, I was thinking I was the only one...haha
    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards