Father Daughter dance for everyone?

cpulliam08

A little background...my dad has always been in my life even though he and my mother never married.  We're really not that close anymore, but I can't imagine not doing a father daughter dance. I was thinking what I could do to kind of keep the spotlight off of us is to open the father daughter dance up to all the fathers and daughters attending. I have a feeling it might get awkward if we're left alone for too long.  Thoughts?

cpulliam08

That would work.  I get a little bit of attention but not too much. 

cpulliam08

That's a whole other thing I'm trying to figure out.  I don't  know what song to go with.  I've seen a lot of suggestions for country songs.  But we're not really a country family.  Might end up with something from Earth Wind and Fire.

southernbelle0915

Meh, I think it's kind of awkward to ask all fathers and daughters to join you on the floor. I'd be really confused and feel pressured by this as a wedding guest. Plus I think the confusion would lead to low participation. 

Here are a couple of options I think would work well:

1) pick a really short song

2) pick a song you really like and have the DJ shorten it to whatever length you're comfortable with (e.g. play half of it and fade it out)

Viczaesar

Is your wedding mostly family?  I wouldn't think there would be a lot of father-daughter combinations attending the wedding that you're not related to.

melb2013

Yes, how many father daughter combos do you think will attend.  I can only think of maybe 4 or 5 that attended our wedding. 

cpulliam08

It is mostly family, I can see where that might get a little awkward for everyone else.  I just know that a lot of my younger cousins will be attending.  My parents were teens when I was born and I was the only grandchild for 16 years.  Most of my first cousins on my dad's side are under 16 so I thought they might enjoy getting on the floor with my uncles.  I might just go with southernbelle0915 and edit the song to make it shorter.

J9lawrence

What if you opted for a parent dance instead? Have your husband dance with his mother at the same time you are dancing with your father. Or if it is that big of a concern, why don't you skip this dance all together?

cpulliam08

I like the idea of us both dancing at the same time.  I'll run it by him and see what he says.  Thanks

heidirs731

Could you do the father/dance for a few minutes and then instead of inviting all the other fathers/daughters, just invite everyone on the dance floor to get the dancing started for the evening?

libby2483

Marshmallow22 said:

i agree with @alisonmarie658 - start out the song and then have the DJ invite all the father-daughters. I think its a pretty cute idea, actually. Just be sure to pick out a not-too-sappy song!

This is what we did.  It worked very well, and we had lots of guests participate.

itzMS

How many father-daughters are honestly going to be there? Seems awkward to me.

Aside from FIL and SIL, I can think of maybe one other father-daughter scenario at my 250 guest wedding.

Just invite everyone to dance, or no one at all.

erinlin25

My best friend did that at her wedding and I found it to be cute (my dad was not even at the wedding and I was not sad or offended that I could not participate). Her and her dad started the dance and then about half way through they invited all the dads/daughters to join.

MrsHarper23

That's a good idea or you could switch it and make it a Mother/Son dance for the Groom.

davisse3

Another thing to keep in mind with the father daughter dance for everyone, is how many of the fathers attending are going to have to choose between daughters? Do you have any uncles with multiple daughters? That could get awkward.

If you decide not go go the route of the father/daughter dance for everyone, you could do a combined father/daughter and mother/son dance. Or choose a really short song - If there a particular song you have in mind that is longer, your dj could probably cut it down. 

MoxieMickie

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Jen4948

Somehow I don't think this scenario may get too many people dancing.

How many father-daughter sets are there going to be at your wedding?  How many of these fathers have multiple daughters, or daughters who don't dance?  How many daughters have no fathers at all, or fathers who don't dance?

If you want the attention off you, don't make it a "father-daughter" or "spotlight" dance.  Just start dancing but don't have any kind of announcement that this is a special dance, and others may join you on the dance floor.

[Deleted User]

I actually went through this debate with my DJ. Didn't want a super mushy song & hubby didn't want to be out long on dance floor for mother/son dance. I thought wouldn't it be nice to invite all mother/son & father/daughter combo's up. With all the aunts, uncles & cousins & then our bridal party with their teenage/adult kids it would be nice. Our DJ pointed out that we would have to go with a much longer song then (we picked louis armstrong - wonderful life) to give the guests invited up to join us time to get up & join us. So we opted to skip it. But by combining the father/daughter & mother/son dance, it did take spot life off of us, but we still had our special moments.