Worried your wedding guests won’t dance? Wondering how to get wedding guests dancing all reception long? We have three tips to make sure your guests dance the night away! Read on for more + subscribe for the latest.
If you’re planning a reception with dancing, you want your guests to shake a leg! It’s not always the easiest to get wedding guests dancing at your reception, but with these three surefire tips, we’ll bet they’ll be filling up the dance floor and busting a move all evening long.
Why Do You Want Wedding Guests to Dance?
As a rule of thumb, most traditional wedding receptions offer good music and a solid dance floor. To me, these are essential parts of a reception, tied only with a great dinner. You want guests to get down to the music so they can enjoy themselves. After dinner, there are several hours where the dance floor is the primary source of entertainment so, naturally, you’d love for your guests to enjoy themselves.
How to Get Wedding Guests to Dance
Here are some ways to get wedding guests dancing so your music budget doesn’t go to waste and, more importantly, your guests have a memorable time.
The first thing to do before the wedding day is to send invitations that make it perfectly there will be dancing. This is not mandatory but it sure makes for a fun touch! This invitation style — by Angela Garrick — is perfect for a couple who really wants their guests to cut a rug on the floor.
It even has a matching wedding website! :) Get it here.
Now, let’s talk about how to increase dancing at the wedding reception itself.
1. Play the best music possible.
If you hire a fantastic DJ or a fan-favorite live band, chances are you won’t have to even think of a thing. Professional disc jockeys and bands make it their primary goal to please a crowd; if a DJ notices no one is dancing, for instance, he or she will generally move on to a different song to get a better reaction. They’re pros, so let them handle it!
2. Crowdsource music requests from your guests.
If guests have input on which song or songs they’d like to hear, chances are you’ll get wedding guests dancing. One of the best ways to do this is with a song request card at the DJ station. You can get wedding song request cards like these from Decocards.
In addition, you can send these song cards with your RSVP cards in your invitations so you can create a wedding playlist in advance featuring your guests’ top picks. (I love this idea!) Get these from InkedInvitation.
3. Get out and dance yourselves!
If you’re not on the dance floor, how can you expect guests to be? When the newlyweds cut a rug, bop, or hustle their way around the reception, guests take notice and join in on the fun. It doesn’t mean you have to be a good dancer. You don’t need to know the latest dance moves or crazes. All you have to do is show up to the dance floor and step it up! Guests are sure to join you and dance the night away.
In addition to these tips, these solutions will also keep guests on the dance floor.
Serve great drinks
No great dance-off ever started with a salad, now did it?! Just kidding. But serving drinks — whether cocktails or mocktails — will keep guests hydrated, happy, and ready to bust a move.
Lovin’ this wedding bar sign from SweetNCCollective, ha!
Make sure there’s plenty of water, too! :)
Plan the schedule accordingly
A solid timeline ensures there’s enough time for dancing, but not too much time, either. The longer dancing goes, the less guests join in on the dance floor. Most dancing at weddings goes from immediately after dinner — i.e. 7pm — until the end of the reception. That’s a perfect stretch of time.
Play some slow tunes
Your pros will handle this, but make sure there are some slow jams on the list. Some couples prefer a nice slow song vs. a fast one, so aim to please everyone with a well-rounded playlist.
That’s it! Now you know how to get guests dancing at your wedding, so what’s next? Ah, a sparkler exit! Find out what you need for a sparkler exit at your wedding.
Happy Planning!
xo
Emma
