How long should "The First Dance" be?

CarinaMCarlier · June 2013

My fiance and I found this song we really like for our first dance but it is just over 4 mins. Is this too long for our first dance? We are having a band for the wedding so we can always ask them to take a verse out to shorten the song. And how necessary is it to have a father/bride dance, mother/groom dance...? My family loves to dance so we will for sure be dancing with everyone anyways. What do you think?

manateehugger · June 2013

Four minutes is on the long side for me - especially if the couple is just doing "the rock". Four minutes is a long dance too - make sure you guys are comfortable for being up there that long. I'd ask your band about what sorts of cuts they can make.

Parent dances aren't necessary at all. Ditto what Stage said - just check with both sets of parents.

Maggie0829 · June 2013

What Stage said. Our song for our first dance was about 4 minutes or so long. Trust me when I say that everything on your wedding day will fly by so a 4 minute song you think is too long now will seem like it only lasts a second on your wedding day.

As for your parent dances, that should really be left up to the parent in question. If your Dad wants to have that moment with you please do not take that away from him. If you want, you could compromise (with the parents approval of course) to split a song down the middle. You and your Dad could dance together first and then your FI and his Mom could finish off the song.

But really, three spotlight dances aren't that much, maybe only 10-12 minutes out of the entire evening. So get them done with first and then that way the floor will be open to party for the rest of the night.