Tips for a Successful Anniversary Dance
We get a lot of questions from clients looking to find ways to inject their personality into their wedding music and events. Our goal as we relaunch our blog is to share insights from our staff and clients over the years on a number of topics to help you create an unforgettable event for you and your guests. Today we will look at an event that we get a lot of questions about: the Anniversary Dance.
What is it? In its traditional and most common form, the anniversary dance is an elimination dance where all married couples are invited to the dance floor and the DJ begins eliminating guests, usually starting with something like, “If you’ve been married for less than one day, please leave the dance floor.” The DJ then continues to 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, etc… until there is one couple left on the dance floor. This couple is declared the winner. The anniversary dance is a great way to celebrate all of the married couples at your event. You and your guests will also look at the winning couple as an inspiration and a vision of the lifelong journey of love and support that you are just beginning.
How long does this take? The anniversary dance generally goes for one or two songs.
What kind of music should we use? The most commonly used songs for an anniversary dance are classic love songs, usually in the jazz vocal style. “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole and “The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra are two of the most popular options.
You can take your crowd and venue into consideration and do something different though. Country love songs can work great at rural venues like barns, farms, and orchards. “I cross my Heart” by George Strait or “Forever and Ever, Amen” by Travis Tritt are two good options. If your crowd is on the more energetic side, you don’t have to stick to ballads. “Hooray for Love” by Elle Fitzgerald or “Marry Me” by Jason Derulo are nice options if you want to create a moment without losing too much energy in the room.
Are there any variations we could do? One of the most common variations for the anniversary dance is to award a prize to the winning couple. Often, if the bride does not want to do a bouquet toss, she will award the bouquet to the winning couple.
You can also do the anniversary dance by inviting all couples to the dance floor, not just married couples. This can be an inclusive option if you have a number guests who’ve been together for years and haven’t been married yet.
Another option is to forgo the eliminations altogether. There are many reasons a couple may choose to do this: the couple may be marrying later in life and the couples who would have won are no longer around or unable to attend, there may be a high percentage of guests who are no longer married or on second marriages, or the couple may simply not want to slowly empty their dance floor when they could be keeping it full. This version is sometimes called a “Good Luck Dance” with the idea being that each couple who comes to the floor represents 5 years of happy marriage for the newlyweds.
We hope this has helped to give you a nice overview of the anniversary dance and also given you some ways to make it your own. Be on the lookout for future topics to help you make your day an event that is unforgettable!
