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You are the stars of the show
People come to your wedding to see you. This means that if you and your newly minted spouse prefer to chat at the bar or hangout at your table, so will your guests. If, on the other hand, you’re hiking up your gown or loosening your tie while trying not to sweat through your dress shirt as your jump up and down to your favorite songs, rest assured your guests will do the same. So free your mind and get out on that dance floor – the rest will follow.2
Set a schedule
One of the biggest myths of wedding planning is that your dance floor needs to be packed for the entire reception. But, even seasoned party animals need to hydrate and rest their feet from time to time. Avoid dance floor fatigue by creating a reception schedule that splits the dancing into 45 or 60 minute sets using natural breaks like: speeches, bouquet toss, cake cuttings, and dessert service. You and your guests will appreciate the down time, and will hustle back to the dance floor re-energized. Make sure your DJ / band and caterer communicate regarding the reception timeline, so that everyone is on the same page and the night flows seamlessly.3
Nothing is out of bounds
The summer months can be filled by an endless stream of weddings. Set yours apart by interjecting some unique games, dances, or other events into the reception. What makes these successful is making them personal to the bride and groom and encouraging friends and family to get on board with the idea. I’ve seen it all, and here are some events that may have sounded a bit crazy on paper, but turned out to be the most memorable part of the evening: re-enacting a pickle eating contest, staging a couples dance-off to 30 second clips of music from varying genres, turning your first dance into a choreographed masterpiece, singing your alma mater’s fight song around the cake, or teaching everyone how to Wobble. Whether you would like your guests to square-dance, get down with the Cupid Shuffle, or perform a traditional dance from your heritage, don’t be afraid to step outside the box.4
The 70s were not a musical wasteland
A good dance floor means having people from all generations – from flappers to twerkers – up and dancing. To accomplish this, your DJ or band should be able to choose solid tracks from both a wide variety of genres and decades. Hesitant to play doo-wop for grandma and grandpa, or disco for mom and dad? No problem. Work older tracks into the beginning of dance sets and trust your music manager to work their way up through the decades. Before you know it, you’ll be fist pumping alongside octogenarians to modern music like David Guetta, Usher, and Maroon 5.5