The Parents Dance
The Parents Dance is a collective term for the Father-Daughter, Mother-Son, Mother-Daughter dances.. etc. Back in the day, during the Father-Daughter dance, the groom would cut-in signifying the father giving his daughter away. Nowadays, it serves as a display of gratitude for the people that helped you become who and where you are in life. Overall, society has moved the the traditional ‘Parents’ dance to something a bit more meaningful IMO. By Dictionary.com, the traditional definition of parent is - a father or mother. However, in this instance, a “parent” could be a grandmother or an uncle. This display of gratitude is reserved for the person(s) that guided, supported, encouraged, taught and most of all loved you.
Traditional
For Michelle and I’s wedding (2007) our Parents Dance was traditional. Michelle danced with her father to I Loved Her First by Heartland. That moment is unquestionably one of Michelle’s most memorable moments from our wedding. My mother and I danced to My Wish by Rascal Flats, such a great song, but now I wonder if I should have asked my mom to choose the song.
Michelle and Father
Shannon and Mother
Nontraditional
Through the years, we have seen some weddings with the traditional dances and some with nontraditional and some weddings didn’t have a parents dance at all. For example; we had the privilege of playing music for a destination wedding at Marché in New Orleans for Brittany and Adam. Brittany started traditionally by dancing with her father to First Man by Camila Cabello. Their picture below shows an emotional moment, which is far from uncommon during parent’s dances, where both Brittany and her father are overcome with happy tears… to be completely honest, pretty much everyone had emotional “water drops” falling. I don’t think there could have been a better song for the moment. Immediately following, Adam and his mother lightened the mood with a 1999 throwback and danced to Someday by Sugar Ray. Following their dance, a nontraditional element was added...an additional dance. Brittany danced with her mother to Army by Ellie Goulding. This doesn’t happen often but it certainly is nice to see from time to time and was certainly a nice choice for these two.
Brittany and her Father
Adam and his Mother
Brittany and her Mother
In short, the “Parent’s Dance” is a display of appreciation to those that have done so much for you and by no means does it have to be a “parent” by definition. Should you choose to, utilize this dance to create a memory for you and any person that helped shape you into the person you are today.
A very big Thank You to Daniel at Marquez Fotos and Bill with William Wolfe Photography for the photos.
For the last few years, S1M has saved all of the songs chosen for the Parents Dance to help inspire couples. Some of the songs are common… others, not so common. If you are looking for inspiration check them up below. If you have any unique suggestions, by all means please share with us.
