Weddingbee Blog
No, actually. I know I can’t dance. In fact, I’m pretty horrible at it. And so is Mr. Cardigan!
But, that doesn’t stop us from dreaming big. You see, we have high aspirations of wowing our guests with our gorgeously choreographed and perfectly performed first dance. Never mind the fact that neither of us has any sort of knowledge of how to dance or has ever attempted anything more complicated than the seventh-grade sway. What can I say, we’re optimistic!
(Source) This is about the extent of our knowledge!
So, in order to prepare ourselves for our awesome first dance, we decided to take some dance classes. The plan was that we would take two short workshops this summer to get the basics down, then we’d take some private lessons shortly before the wedding to nail out the details. No big deal, right?
So, I did my research and found the most popular dance instructor in our area, Susan’s Ballroom Dance, and quickly signed us up for the Waltz/Foxtrot workshops – one beginner class and one intermediate class. We’ve officially attended both of them, and to be honest… we didn’t learn much.
Don’t get me wrong – we learned the basics of the Waltz and the Foxtrot and the classes were really great and informative. BUT, could we go out on the dance floor and shock our guests with how awesome we are? Not a chance. And, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to afford the private lessons after all.
So where does this leave us? We can do a very nice box step and maybe a spin or two, but that’s not very impressive. It looks like I’ll have to give up my dreams of having a fun and exciting first dance, and just be happy with a very simple and sweet dance with my husband.
It sounds silly, but I was so excited about learning to dance with Mr. Cardigan, and this has been one of the first things that I really wanted for the wedding and had to let go of. It’s definitely disappointing, but it was a great reminder to me that in the grand scheme of things what really matters is that I’m marrying Mr. Cardigan – not how awesome our dance skills are. Our guests are just going to have to be satisfied with a boring ol’ foxtrot with a spin or two thrown in for fun. And that’s okay.
Did you have to let go of any details that meant a lot to you?
If you plan on visiting Austin in the future, I can give you the name of our dance instructor. She works out of her home, was SUPER affordable, and accommodated me last-minute the week before my wedding. My husband and I had 2 lessons and were able to perform a great dance with some very cool moves.
I LOVE the simple and sweet first-dance! I’m of the seemingly unpopular opinion that your first dance really doesn’t need to be a performance for your guests — it really should be more for you two, to have a first husband-and-wife romantic moment. I understand being disappointed in letting go of something that was important to you, but you know what? Your first dance will be genuine, and your guests will be wowed by the love that you will give off.
I’m glad to hear I’m not alone on this one. I’m actually terrified of having all eyes on my FI and me while we sway back and forth. Even my dad asked if him and I could practice our dance so we don’t look silly on my wedding day. We don’t have dance lessons in our budget and we are already pushing our budget limit so that’s out of the question. But you are right, it’s about our first dance as a married couple and people will probably enjoy it no matter what we look like up there.
Wait — you’re still in school, right? If you really don’t want to give up the dream of a choreographed first-dance number, you should see if your college has a ballroom dance club, and give them a holler. I know it’s summer, but someone from the club is probably still around, and maybe they’d be willing to give some lessons on the cheap (or for a round of drinks or something!). I learned ballroom dance in grad school from my university’s club, and after like a semester and a half I was taking 1st place ribbons in bronze-level waltz, tango, and foxtrot. Just an idea!
Could you take a community ed class? There are often lots and lots of options for community ed and they are CHEAP so even if you had to do two or three to figure out what you’re doing, you wouldn’t be spending too much! We’ll definitely be taking community classes before our first dance. Someone looks like he’s a leprechaun doing an Irish jig when he dances and tends to step on feet/poke eyeballs.
Being a dancer, I expected that we had a choreographed first dance, but HB didn’t want to practice. So, like you, we settled for the sweet and simple first dance…although while we were dancing I did tell him to turn me and dip me at certain points. I have to admit it was nice to just dance with him in the moment and not worry about choreographed steps. I did, however, surprise him with a tap dance during the reception so that fulfilled my choreographed dancing needs 
I also recommend community colleges for ballroom; they are typically inexpensive.
You should ask for a choreographed dance. You will only get to the level like what you see on tv throught years of training, but you can learn a routine. I think that is the wow factor you are looking for. If I lived closer I would do it for you. Another option is to find something on youtube and do your best to copy it. I do this to help me work out.
My FI and I are taking private lessons through our community recreation center for $10/session!!!! Try looking at your city’s website and see if there are any dance classes offered. For $50 we got 5 sessions with an amazing couple who made sure that we didn’t just do a boxstep with a few turns. We’re doing some REAL moves and it didn’t cost us more than a night out to eat!
for anyone looking to sign up for dance classes, you probably should just go directly to a private lesson. You learn so much more in that one hour than 4 group classes. My fiance and I took 4 group classes and learned like 2 steps. The private lesson was able to teach us more than that in an hour.
Aww, I’m sure your guests will still love it! If you refuse to give up on it, I’d suggest trying a basic tango step - we used that as a base for our dance and it was super easy and looked all twirly-swirly!
We thought 3 private lessons could teach us to dance! Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!! It took us SEVERAL private lessons and a couple of months I believe. I think people make the mistake of not realizing you are CHOREOGRAPHING a dance not just learning a few steps to string together.
If you’re still in college station look up the Aggie Swing Society (they might be club I can’t remember) but they seem really great with beginners and when they’ve visited us at Baylor they were just nice (even if we were completely weirded out that whoop thing).
If you’re in Austin the Austin Swing Syndicate seem fairly nice too, but I’m not sure how they deal with beginners (I’ve only gone to the Lindy Exchange in the fall)
Of course that’s if you want to learn a style of dance- at worse it gives you a vague sense of rhythm and teaches you how to turn and dip properly.
we wanted lessons too, but the place here was offering them in May…my thoughts were that if we took something that early we would for sure forget come wedding day….so here we are two months out and much like you we can’t dance. I am hoping we won’t look like total goofs!
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Miss Cardigan, Austin Age and Occupation: 21, Student/Soon-to-be Special Education Teacher Fiance's Age and Occupation: 20, Student/Soon-to-be Accounting Systems Analyst Engagement Date: August 16, 2009 Wedding Date: January 2011 Venue: Vintage Villas About Me: I'm a native Austinite who was raised as a die-hard Aggie. Luckily, I'm a pretty persuasive girl because I managed to convince my high school boyfriend (now fiance!), Mr. Cardigan, to ditch his hardcore Longhorn ways and join me up at A&M, where we currently reside with our adorable dogs, Cullen & Ranger. We're currently planning a bright, cheery wedding with a ridiculous amount of DIY projects that I can't wait to tackle! I love crafting in any form, reading, and margaritas (I think I love them the most!). Organization is what keeps me sane and I love helping others, which is probably why I ended up as an education major. It gets a little chaotic sometimes when you're planning a wedding among all of the papers, projects, finals, and certification exams, but we're having the time of our lives and we can't wait to get started on our journey as husband and wife - and we're so excited to share our wedding with the hive!
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