18 Jul Couple of the month: Marissa and Randy
In this article cycle, we will post interviews with some of our wedding couples to help you better understand the preparation process as well as what to expect from the dance on the big day. You can see the dance video at the end of the article!
Dance style: Mix Styles
Song: Nights In White Satin
Amount of Lessons: 10
1. How did you pick a song for your first dance?
We danced to Nights in White Satin by Moody Blues, Marissa heard the song when she was a teenager and thought it would be perfect for a wedding, but forgot about it until it came on one night while we were looking for a song and we both knew it was perfect.
2. What was the most important requirement for your wedding dance?
To have some drama! We were sure to include lots of dips and wow moments.
3. How many months in advance did you start? Did you have a dance experience before?
We did 10x one hour lessons which we finished about a month before the wedding then just practiced a lot until the wedding. Marissa had dance experience before but not partner dancing, and Randy had no experience.
4. What was the biggest challenge for you preparing the dance and how did you overcome it?
The first few weeks were a struggle getting the basic steps down, and to make sure Randy was leading instead of just expecting Marissa to do the steps at the same time. The dips we had down but the footwork between the big moves is what tripped us up (literally). Oh and we discovered we lost track of the steps immediately when we practiced after having a couple drinks so we decided we had to wait until after the dance was over to start drinking at the wedding, probably for the best.
5. Did you feel comfortable on the dance floor on the day of the wedding?
We had the opportunity to practice our dance in the reception space the evening before which was super helpful as it was larger than we anticipated and had a floor seam we needed to navigate around. If we didn’t have time to do that it would have been much more intense if our main dance was the first time in that space.
6. Tell our future couples what to expect from the wedding dance on the day of!
Little mistakes might happen but just roll with it! No one knows what your dance is supposed to look like so they’ll be impressed regardless. We got a half turn off and ended up on the very edge of the dancefloor and had to improvise a bit to get back into the lights. No one noticed but us though!
7. How did you feel after the performance on the day of?
Proud of ourselves and relieved! It was the last performative part of our wedding and we could relax after that and just enjoy the party.
8. What advice can you give to the couples?
Just have fun with it, it’s only 2 minutes and you’ll be looking gorgeous in a gorgeous space, no one will be counting your steps or looking at your feet.
9. Are you going to dance after the wedding? 🙂
We hope to join some group lessons and maybe learn a few different styles of dance now that we have one we can pull out whenever we need to.
You can see an extract from the dance below:
Book your dance lesson here.