Why You Should Consider Shortening Your Parent Dance Songs
Sharing a dance with your parents on your wedding day is such a time-honored tradition and sweet memory. I love capturing these little moments during the wedding reception where the couple chooses to honor their role models and share a little dance.
You should spend as much time as you want out there on the dance floor with them, right?
Well, yes. Sort of.
Today I want to make the case for why you should consider shortening your parent dance songs and how to do that!
Those 3-4 minutes feel a lot longer than they really are… for you… and your guests.
If you’ve chosen a song that is more than 3 minutes long, it’s going to feel like an eternity out there. While your parents deserve to be honored and cherished and recognized on your wedding day, you may both start to feel really awkward out there hip to hip with 150+ people staring at you. When you’re listening to the song at home, stand up and twirl around your living room for that entire time imagining your guests watching. You’ll start to realize just how long of a time that is.
If you dance before dinner, everyone is waiting to eat.
If you dance after dinner, everyone is waiting to party.
I have found that if you do parent dances immediately following the first dance of the couple, more people are paying attention but they’re very antsy to get started on dinner even if they’ve had a cocktail hour. If parent dances happen after entrees or during the dinner service, guests are more likely to be up and about mingling, talking and not paying attention. It can feel really awkward to be alone on the dance floor with your mom when no one is watching or paying attention (and Aunt Sandra is laughing LOUDLY over by the bar).
It can take up a chunk of your reception time.
If you have two 4-minute songs + the time it takes to introduce you and your parent before the song and then acknowledge you when it’s over, you’re looking at about 10 minutes of reception time. That seems insignificant but it’s not nothing when you’re trying to jam a bunch of celebrating into just a few hours!
They only matter to a handful of people.
This is a harsh reality. But of everyone in the room, the parent dances really only matter to a very small handful of guests. They’re incredibly meaningful to you and your parents (and probably some aunts, uncles and grandparents) but don’t forget about the experience of the rest of your guests during that time.
I’ve seen hundreds of parent dances throughout the years and shortening the songs is something I would recommend again and again. It prevents awkwardly long moments on the dance floor, helps your guests maintain interest in your activities and keeps your reception timeline moving along.
If you’ve chosen a song that is longer than 3(ish) minutes, ask your DJ or band to fade out your parent dance songs after the first chorus or at a natural spot in the earlier part of the song.
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