First Dance before or after dinner?

We are doing it before. Right after the grand entrance we are transitioning into first dance.

In my opinion no one will dance until after the first dance.

We are going to do them after dinner, mainly because that's how every wedding I've ever attended has done it.

I'm in the same debate. I don't know because I feel like I want to eat my full meal first then dance (and not make other people wait to eat either), but it seems weird to then stop after dinner and announce a dance. I'll follow and see what other's advice is.

We debated doing it for the entrance but our DJ is also doing steel drums for cocktail hour so I am going to reach out and see what he thinks.

We went right from the big "entrance" to our first dance, father/daughter, and mother/son dance. Each were only two minutes long and our coffee/espresso bar needed to be restocked so it helped to have that buffer time.

We did the ring pull and garter toss right after dinner. After that, we did the cake cutting so the party could continue without "interruptions."

We are doing ours before.

We did ours before. It came right after our entrance

We did ours after dinner/cake cutting; but I totally love it when the intros are done & the couple goes right into their 1st dance : )

Usually it's right after the intros.

We're doing ours right after intro/entrance !

We're doing ours before dinner, right after introductions.

We have no wedding party so we are going straight to the dance floor after were introduced. We're also cutting the cake right after dinner. We want everyone to be able to get dessert when they are ready instead of waiting for the ceremonial cutting.

We're doing ours after dinner. Like @FutureBrewster, everyone in my area does dinner first and then the first dance

I've always seen it done right after introductions, first thing when the reception started, and I've been to a LOT of weddings. Maybe it's regional? But I feel like after dinner would be weird. Is there no one on the dance floor until after dinner then???

We did ours right after parent and bridal party introductions. We were announced and went right into our first dance. Your D.J. will tell you when this best fits into the flow of the party.

Oh good question! Every wedding I've been to it's been after dinner, but before would be a nice intro!

We did ours afterwards. We are older and that's what we knew of growing up. The move to doing it during the introductions began in the 2000's, I understand.

After the bridal party was introduced. That's the way it's been in over 90% of the weddings I've attended.

We live in the northeast US; it's the norm in our social circle to have open dancing (all guests) between each course that's served. Otherwise, no one would have much of an appetite, after cocktail hour (lots of food).

My parents (married in the late 1970s) didn't do a bridal party introduction. Heck, they didn't do any of the 3 special dances.

We did our first dances after dinner to open the dance floor. Then I did a wardrobe change before cake cutting.

We are doing ours after dinner. I've also never seen it done any other way. Maybe a midwestern thing? We aren't doing intros so it would be weird to me to do it before we opened the dance floor.