How to fill a dance floor after dinner

I have never seen a bridal party dance. Could you maybe do an anniversary dance? This is when you invite all married couples to the dance floor and the DJ starts calling out "those married 2 hours (you), 1 year, 2 years, etc" sit down as he hits that number so that the last couple standing is the longest married couple, and then they give the bride and groom a piece of advice on how to keep a marriage lasting long. We did this and instead of a bouquet toss, I gave my toss bouquet to that couple (who we also knew would be husband's grandparents, which made it extra special). This kind of opened up the dance floor after dinner. Honestly, the best way to open open dance floor is to just have the DJ start playing good music and say the dance floor is now open. Also, if you get up there, people will tend to want to party and dance with the bride and groom.

View Quoted Comment I really liked the Anniversary dance idea but our wedding is actually 40% English speakers and 60% foreigners and unfortunately our foreign family is pretty set in their ways and they don’t like things out of the norm. Plus I don’t think they would follow along with the elimination part of the game. Also, a lot of married folks are coming solo I noticed so I feel like a lot of people would have to sit out that are married so there’s that. I thought the dedication to the married couples would be a nice compromise of filling dance floor and kinda pressuring folks to come dance since the dj explicitly said married couples and it’s a dedication lol

View Quoted Comment My parents did the married longest thing, and my great-grandparents apparently said that the secret to a long marriage is lots of sex, so just be aware of who would be the last couple standing and what they might say.


Also though, we definitely aren’t doing a bridal party dance or anything like it. I do have a pretty unfounded fear of the dance floor not filling up/being awkwardly empty, so I just told a few of my close friends (not in the bridal party because there really isn’t one) about my concerns, and between them and our highly-recommended DJ, I don’t think getting momentum will be a huge problem. I actually feel like a slow dance with the bridal party is almost more counterproductive, because it delays the general party more, but you could definitely ask them and any other close friends or family you have attending to kind of flood the dance floor after your first dance, or whatever marker you want to use, as a way of drawing out other guests.

Maybe it's a regional thing, but I work in the wedding industry, and I've never seen what you're describing (wedding party members all slow-dancing with opposite-sex members of the wedding party to start the dancing).

What are your primary concerns here? Are you worried no one will feel comfortable enough to dance? Are the vast majority of your guests older? Are you planning on playing a lot of slow songs? Why are most of your married guests coming without their partners?

For nearly ever wedding I've been to, the MC announces that the dance floor is open (either right after the first dance or as dinner is winding down), the DJ or band starts playing dance-y music (sometimes starts with evergreen songs from the 70s/80s/90s to appeal to a wider audience), and everyone gets on the dance floor (typically with the aid of a drink or two). The only time I've seen a bride or groom disappointed in the dance floor turn-out would be during a morning/early afternoon wedding, a dry wedding, and a 70-90% "older people" (over 45 or so) wedding.

I’ve seen a wedding party dance and it did not go well. If your dj is pushing this after telling him no then you need a different dj. Mom needs to back off and respect your wishes. She already had a wedding and this is yours. Where is your fiancé in supporting you with this?


Your dj plays music that the crowd responds to. Don’t force anything because guests will dance naturally.

Our DJ suggested playing a slow a song because would naturally encourage couples to get up and dance. It worked out perfectly especially since I had wanted to play my parents' wedding song at our wedding. They eloped due to a ton of drama so they never actually got to dance to their wedding song.

I hate it when the bridal party is seated separately from guests for the dinner, rather than with SO. And hate required dançes of bridal party people. These are not couples, me4ely

Merely friends of the couple.
Unless they grew up together they are merely strangers. Nothing like being required to dance with someone you meet and cannot stand.

Do you mean a choreographed dance? Those are totally not required. People just do them because they want to go viral on YouTube or TikTok. Your videographer and DJ need to back off, they've probably worked hundreds of weddings without a bridal party dance. A gold DJ can read the room and knows the right song to play and the right moment to energize the guests.

My cousin did a bridal party dance. We didn’t know about it before hand. They played an upbeat song, I don’t remember what, but it was still awkward. The girls wound up kind of dancing in a group. Not sure what the guys did it was a long time ago. I suggest skipping it as it is not necessary and awkward for those involved.


My DJ got everyone on the dance floor, literally told everyone to get out there, and had them stand in a circle around me and my husband. He played a couple of sullying songs (respect, I’m too sexy, and something else). I guess he expected us to dance in the center. I’m not sure. We did for like maybe 30 sec. and then we each went and pulled guests into the center as well to get more people dancing. We did this for each song. It was unplanned, but wound up being fun and got most of our guests involved. Then after those 3 songs he played stuff like we are family and celebration. To get people dancing. But our guests were ready to party and were dancing as soon as their plate was cleared, lol. If your family is not open to an anniversary dance maybe you can come up with something like my DJ did with calling everyone up. Talk with tour DJ and tell them you don’t like the idea of a bridal party dance and see what kind of alternatives they can offer.

Super unnecessary. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a bridal party dance and I’ve been to tons of weddings with plenty of dancing. We didn’t do anything organized at ours....people just started dancing. It tends to happen naturally. Our DJ transitioned from mellow dinner music to dancing music once people were clearly finished eating and starting to move about. If you are concerned, enlist some of your more outgoing friends to hit the dance floor right away to signify to everyone that it’s open for dancing. Bridesmaids can do this without it being an organized dance. When one starts, others follow

I have never heard of a bridal party dance. And I think it is pretty weird and awkward. If your DJ is good at his/her job, they will know what to play to get people on the dance floor. However, an anniversary dance, similar to what you mentioned with a dedicated married couples song, is a good idea to get people out on the dance floor.

I’d suggest avoiding an awkward dance between the wedding party, who don’t know each other. Seeing the discomfort might have the opposite effect and
discourage others from wanting to dance at that time. Why does the dance floor need to be “filled” after dinner (or at all)? Why not just allow the dancing to happen naturally? No need to force it.

Hi! Near the end of our first dance song, we had the DJ announce “will all the couples please join the b/g on the dance floor” and then we played one slow song and then a high energy song which got everyone on the dance floor. Worked seamlessly and the dance floor was poppin the whole night!

View Quoted Comment Did the dj talk over the song? Was that distracting?


Otherwise the order of music sounds great

View Quoted Comment Yes he talked over it but our first dance song was so chill and our DJ wasn’t too loud so it worked out perfectly

My DJ did a couples dance to see who’s been married the longest (47 years was the winner) and a last dance.


Never heard of bridal dance. I wouldn’t want to dance with no one I knew sounds uncomfortable to me. I would scrap the idea. Your party you can omit it which sounds better to me.
Once we had our first dance later on in the evening that’s when he called up the married couples. That’s the only 2 dances got a lot up. Otherwise it was better not having a bunch of people up close (since my party was during the pandemic)

My whole family loves to dance....but I know it's not everyone's comfort zone. At my sister's wedding, she designated a few people to start the dance party and it worked great. The dance portion had a hard time slowing down.

I'm doing the same and asking the people I know love to dance to start things off after the first dance and parent dances.