Choosing The Placement of Your Dance Floor or Designing Around It
I tried really hard to not let this blog post become long and complicated but alas, it did! I hope that you’ll hang in there through all of the details and that it will really benefit some couples!
Almost all of your cherished reception photos will take place on the dance floor. From your first dance to your parent dances to your party dancing when you finally relax and enjoy your evening… the dance floor is the show-stopper of your reception. Its placement is really important.
My style for capturing receptions is to try to minimize the necessary clutter and include pretty backgrounds in your images. This is the method for a lot of wedding photographers but the placement of the dance floor really controls if we’re able to do this or not.
Think:
The image on the left is one of my favorites from Katlyn and Brad’s reception. He’s smiling at her siblings while they share their first dance. He’s so happy to just be in that moment and love on their sister - these families are really close which is fun and sweet.
The image on the right, I love this one too. They’re totally lost in that moment together during their first dance.
But… as lovely and talented as their DJ was, having the faces of their friends and family in the background is a lot more interesting and pleasing than the DJ’s dark booth and his equipment.
The placement of your dance floor can really elevate your reception images into something extraordinary!
If you can choose the placement of your dance floor:
Surround your dance floor with the faces of your loved ones, not your buffet, drink tables, bar, etc. Choose a space for your dance floor that will have good flow, plenty of space for people and non-distracting backgrounds. Place your dance floor so that it will be surrounded by guest dinner tables.
Then, place all of your “necessary” tables and spaces like your buffet, the bar, gifts table, and the DJ on one side of the dance floor. This enables your photographer to have 3 sides to photograph from without having distraction or clutter in the background of your images.
If you cannot choose the placement of your dance floor:
Try to design the space so that all of your “necessary” tables like your buffet, the bar, gifts table, and the DJ all on one side of the dance floor. Bonus points if this can be the side with the doors, bathrooms, coat closet, etc. too!
9 out of 10 times, you can choose your reception layout. Unless the venue has a special dance floor built on top of their existing, usually carpeted, floor that is unmovable (you’ll find this in some hotel ballrooms and country clubs) - it’s really likely that you can completely customize your reception layout! You just have to ASK.
Of course, make sure you check with your venue and/or your planner to ensure that the types of tables and the style of design you’re hoping for is achievable with the supplies they include for you.
From a photographer’s perspective, here are some big things that you should know affect your reception images:
We cannot/should not shoot in the same direction as DJ party lighting. With regular party lighting (those kind that swirl around, change colors and pulse), if we shoot in the same direction of the lights, the faces of guests will be colored with those lights. The best view of your dance floor shouldn’t be the view from your DJ booth because that’s the one place we won’t stand.
On the flip side, we cannot shoot INTO a DJ’s laser lighting. With lasers, we have to be very, very, very careful not to shoot into them because a laser hitting the sensor of our camera can completely ruin it in a split second making it completely unusable and causing $3,000+ in damage. I recommend asking your DJ to not use lasers. Many of them don’t know that they can destroy a DSLR sensor. If your DJ is using lasers, we pretty much are limited to standing with the lights coming from our immediate left or right - that’s it.
We try really, really hard not to show exit and bathroom signs in the background whenever possible. Sometimes though, this is unavoidable due to the placement of the dance floor.
We try to avoid showing the bar and the buffet tables in the background of images too. A long bar line isn’t really pleasing for the background of a photo and buffet tables can get extremely messy after guests begin to go through.
We do take your picture while you’re sitting at your table quite a bit during speeches and toasts. Your sweetheart table is better placed against a wall or clustered in with your guest tables. You will be photographed sitting here a few times and it’s better to have a plain wall or guests faces behind you than the bathroom sign, buffet table or kitchen doors! Stand in front of where you think you want to place your sweetheart table and really consider what is behind it!
Choosing a smart placement for your dance floor is important to how your reception images will look! So let me take you through some examples from real venues!
The green line on the edges of the below dance floors indicate where I can stand to shoot. Picture me with the green line to my back, facing away from it. The red lines indicate where I cannot stand without having clutter, DJ lighting and distractions in the backgrounds of the images.
In the below example of one of the spaces at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club, the dance floor is in the center of the room but on three of the edges are not so pretty things leaving me only one side to photograph from and really limiting the variety of images that I can capture:
The door to the restrooms next to the bar has a large red neon exit sign above it and a sign that says “restrooms”.
The buffet table will either be set with chafers and have staff bustling around it or it will be needing to be cleaned up and could be messy.
The gifts table often overflows (Yay! That’s a good thing!) and gets cluttered and no offense to the amazing DJ’s out there, their large equipment can be distracting for the background of photos.
The below layout one of the spaces at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club is a bit better but still tricky. There is an L shape on the dance floor where I can work from (remember, my back is to the green line and I’m facing inward towards the center of the dance floor).
The bar will have bartenders and staff hustling about.
The buffet table will either be set with chafers and have staff bustling around it or it will be needing to be cleaned up and could be messy.
And again, WOW I work with some incredibly talented DJs but their setups aren’t wonderful for the backgrounds of special dancing images.
In this receptions space I would argue that it would be better to have a slightly smaller dance floor in the left half of the second room (where all of the tables are) and put the other half of the tables in the room with the bar on the left.
The below layout from Pine Ridge Farm is actually really wonderful!
Because the DJ booth is off to the side instead of centered in the middle of a side of the dance floor, I can freely shoot from anywhere around this dance floor getting a lot of image variety for my clients and not worrying extensively about the DJ’s lights.
This layout allows guest’s faces, reception dinner table decor and the cute seating area to be the feature of the backgrounds of the images.
Finally, let’s consider two layouts from the same exact venue, Congressional Country Club. Both have the same number of guest seats but different table styles.
The below version would probably make the most sense from a client’s perspective but as far as for photography, it doesn’t allow me to have a non-distracting side of the dance floor at all. I will absolutely still take photos on the dance floor but they won’t be as beautiful and striking as they could be.
Guests will congregate at the bar, cake, coffee and gifts tables meaning their backs will be to my camera from either side of the dance floor. While that’s not horrible or ugly, it isn’t the best!
If I shoot from the side of the DJ, the buffet table will be in the background and if they are using colored dancing lights, the faces of those on the dance floor will be colored.
If I shoot from the side of the buffet, the DJ’s booth and the exit signs above those doors will be in the background of all of the images. If the DJ begins using lasers, I cannot shoot in that direction at all.
This is an ideal version of the exact same reception space.
The long, communal tables are both fun and different and allow for your family and friends to have an ideal view of your dance floor. Their smiling faces and your reception table decor will be the background of ALL of your dancing images.
The DJ being off to the side, catty-corner to the dance floor allows me to shoot from all sides and not worry about any type of DJ lighting.
This layout allows for more fun gathering spaces in the second room like a seating area and cocktail high-top tables for those who want to escape the dance floor for a few moments.
Phew! This was long winded. I hope that it helps smart reception design *click* for some couples! When in doubt, your photographer will likely love if you include them on these decisions and ask for their input when you need it!
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