Mrs. Gingerbread, Vancouver
Age and Occupation: 32, Psychologist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Software Engineer
Engagement Date: Sometime in the fall of 2004
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 24, 2008
Venue: Rainforest wedding, beachfront restaurant reception
About Me: I recently moved to Canada from Southern California. Trying to plan a wedding in a new city, not to mention a new country, is tough, but the fact that we can get legally married here more than makes up for it! The wedding will be an opportunity for most of our family and friends to see our new city for the first time so it will be both a wedding and a reunion. Besides my future wife, I am also madly in love with a good bargain, Swedish pastries, Tivo, and my two dogs and calico cat (in no particular order).
Songs to Waltz to
June 30th, 2008 @ 10:33 am by Mrs. Gingerbread
Miss GB 2.0 and I decided to take a few dance lessons before the wedding so that we could avoid the old sway-back-and-forth junior high version of slow dancing. We were really excited when we found a dance studio in Vancouver called Not So Strictly Ballroom, which specializes in same-sex ballroom dancing. The only beginner’s class available that fit our schedule was the slow waltz so we signed up for it. We had a blast at the class, but then we realized that most of the songs we considered for our first dance are not waltz appropriate. The song that comes up when you google “first dance” and “waltz” is Ann Murray’s “Can I Have This Dance.” I do have a soft spot for Ann Murray since my mom used to listen to her when I was a kid, but I think this is probably one of the cheesiest songs ever! (No offense meant if this is your first dance song).
The other cheesirific suggestion that I keep seeing is Neil Diamond’s “Play Me.”
The one contemporary song that is waltz friendly is Norah Jones’ “Come Away with Me.” That might just end up being our first dance song. I’d recommend taking Rumba or Foxtrot lessons if you are planning to learn any ballroom dancing for your first dance.
Have any of you taken dance lessons? What style have you learned and what song are you dancing to? Any suggestions for other non-Neil Diamond/Ann Murray waltzes?
18 Responses to “Songs to Waltz to”
I just burned a CD of songs that I liked and took them in to the instructor and she took a few minutes to listen through them really quickly and tell us which song would work. We don’t have “a song” so we were fine with whatever one she recommended. The steps for the fox trot and the waltz are the same and so we could choose a song that was either of those.
“Come Away with Me” works well, but I wanted to go with something a little more eclectic. Try looking up “Nine Million Bicycles” by Katie Melua or “Green Apples” by Chantel Krezuviak. They were the runners up for us.
How about “Reflecting Light” by Sam Phillips? Featured in a Gilmore Girls episode, this song has really pretty instrumental interludes, and could work well with a waltz.
We took West Coast Swing dance lessons (which can be danced to slow songs and isn’t “jumpy” like most people picture swing) for six months before the wedding & surprised our guests with our first dance.
It was definitely one of the highlights of the evening!
Becky
Here’s a link to a Knot forum where someone is looking for just the right waltz. It has lots of info; maybe it will help! I need some waltzes too for dancing with a brother-in-law at the wedding reception (and for folks who just like a waltz now and then), so I’m going to check it out as well.
http://talk.theknot.com/boards/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=49611601&forumid=29
I love Tom Waits’ “Old Shoes (and Picture Postcards)” for a waltz, but it certainly is not an appropriate first-dance song! 
Does it have to be a song (i.e. have lyrics)? There are plenty of beautiful classical waltzes that could work.
East Coast Swing is just about the easiest and most versatile dance out there. You can learn the basic move in a matter of minutes, and most hour-long beginner classes (you can often find free ones!) will leave you with at least enough turns and other variations to make you look reasonably confident.
For a good generic slow dance, “blues dancing” is, despite its name, a tremendously versatile style.
Here’s people in your area…
http://www.swingvancouver.com/
And here’s a great set of beginner East Coast videos…
YouTube is another good place to find dance how-to videos, and I believe there are video podcasts via iTunes as well.
I’m so happy you and Miss GB 2.0 are waltzing. I have a soft-spot for slower cross-step waltz. I have a Social Dance Waltz playlist attached to my website link above. (Including a waltz by Vienna Teng!)
I know that “Come Away with Me” is a “pop” type song and was somewhat over played, but at our dance lessons, when that song came on and we were leaning to waltz, I couldn’t help but feel like i was floating on a cloud, even though we were stepping on each other’s toes. We will include that on our song list even though it wont be our first dance song. If that song gives you a “floaty feeling” I would say go for it because its beautiful and everyone looks beautiful dancing to it.
DH half-jokingly suggested “Can I Have This Dance?” for our last dance. It actually does have some significance in our relationship, but I was able to talk him out of it.
I think I’d cry if I were there and you two waltzed to “Come Away with Me.”
Miss GB I’m so glad I read your post! I didn’t even think about the fact that our song had to go with the dance we learned…hhhmmmm makes sense now though
Thanks for all the suggestions! I’m you tubing all of your songs right now
@Miss Pomegranate: I’ll take crying over pointing and laughing at us for being too cheesy any day
@Miss Espresso: I wish I had thought of that too. Oh well, I’m all about rolling with the punches and flying by the seat of my pants :p
We’re doing a waltz to Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce.
What fun! I took Ballroom Dance as a phys ed option in college and loooooved waltzing. You two will be so romantic together.
Don’t know that this is a FIRST dance, but at some point you should play “We’re All in the Dance,” by Feist. Mr T discovered it in the credits of the movie Paris, Je T’Aime, and we both fell immediately in love. It was going to be the final song at our reception, had our music actually worked. And we still listen to it over and over — it’s one of those rare songs that I’ll put on endless repeat. And it has a perfect waltz beat!
hi there! i hope this helps. we are also doing a first waltz (and a last waltz too!).
two contemporary songs that are viennese waltzes but can be slowed to regular waltz tempo are “you and me” by lifehouse and “best days” by graham colton. “come away with me” is absolutely lovely as well and we also love dancing to it, but wanted something more modern.
I don’t know if this helps, but “Hedwig’s Theme” which opens the Harry Potter movies is a waltz. Soon to be hubby and I are waltzing to it before sequeing into more big band type music for the rest of the night. Of course, we met in a Harry Potter chat room bickering over the sixth book, so it’s just right up our geeky little alley!
My fiance and i were purposely looking for the perfect song in the count of 3 so we can waltz! But we were having the cheese problem as well. Luckily my fiance is a musician so he’s decided to just remake a song in 3, but he won’t tell me what it is, it’s gonna be a surprise for me.
FYI- my favorite song in 3 is “Here We Go” by Jon Brion. It was the song I always planned on dancing too at my wedding, and then of course I get engaged to a guy that works with Jon and so that would just be weird now.
It was mentioned on one of the links but we had the same dilemma with the added twist that it had to be one where the lyrics carry the beat because we’re dancing to an acapella choir and we went with Rainbow Connection
