How To: Rock Your First Dance

Make your first dance so-you with one of our 15 steps to fab!

Ask your DJ to mix your favourite song with one of your groom’s for a meaningful mash-up, Glee-style.

Sneak up to your room before your first dance and slip into new outfits for the big number.

Do you have a musical (and brave) friend? Recruit them to perform your song live, or ask a small group to record themselves singing in advance. Try songmaker.co.uk

Get your groove on Strictly-style with lessons from series four champ, Karen Hardy.

Pull a prank on guests by having the DJ put on a cheesy joke song (Puppy Love, anyone?) before you launch into your real first-dance choice.

For a traditional touch, ask your dad to escort you on to the dancefloor to formally present you to your new hubby. Cue a collective ahhh from the crowd.

Go cross-cultural by including The Weaning Waltz, a Finnish tradition where the bride and groom test their loyalty by dancing with other guests for the first half of a song before coming back together again.

Why wait until after the wedding breakfast to bust some moves? Make a big entrance to your reception with a musical number.

Ask venue staff to switch off the lights as you take to the floor so you can dance by candlelight or popstar-style spotlight.

Take a hi-tech approach and project funny images of you both onto a big screen as you glide across the floor.

Up the romance factor by asking your married guests for their first dance tunes and playing some of them after your own.

For a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, plan a slick group routine using your bridal party as back-up dancers. Need inspiration? Google Thriller Wedding Dance now.

Hand out lyrics and encourage guests to serenade you while you dance. Up-tempo Motown classics like I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) by The Four Tops will work a treat.

Groom getting cold dancing feet? Keep things short and sweet: ask the DJ to play an abbreviated version of your song, but add a crowd-pleasing finale move.

Make like YouTube stars Julia Boggio and James Derbyshire (remember that Dirty Dancing re-enactment?) and recreate an iconic routine from a movie. Try the Grease finale, the Scent of a Woman tango, or the dance-off scene from Pulp Fiction. Keep dancin’!