Get started early!
This doesn’t mean that you need to start taking lessons early (although it might), but start doing your research early. Depending on what you want your first dance to look like, you might need more lessons than you might imagine, or you might only need a couple. In case it’s the former, you don’t want to have to limit your dance because of time restraints!
Pay attention to your footwear.
You might be determined to wear those 6 inch Louboutin heels down the aisle, but they will seriously limit what you can do on the dance floor. To give you a point of reference, professional ballroom dancers compete 2-2.5 inch heels, and Latin dancers tend to go no higher than 3 inches. Additionally, our shoes are very pliable, and have a special sole. If the shoes for you wedding have a very high heel and/or a platform, you might want to consider having a separate pair of shoes for your dance. While you do not necessarily need to purchase proper dance shoes, you should definitely consider using a shoe with a strap and a lower heel in order to make your dancing as comfortable as possible. If you must wear your super high heels for your dance, that’s okay too, but bear in mind that the type and nature of the steps you will be able to execute will be more limited. It all comes down to what is more important to you. If you plan on doing highly elaborate choreography for your dance, I would highly encourage you to invest in proper dance shoes. For more on the subject, see my dance shoe recommendations.
Know your wedding dress.
While there is no good reason that your shouldn’t be able to have exactly the dress you want for your wedding, for your dance, the one thing that is non-negotiable is having the train dragging behind you during your dance. In an ideal universe, your dress is a few inches off the ground, but the reality is that most gowns are cut to be floor length. That issue can be mostly worked around, but having the dress pooling around your feet cannot. Be sure to talk to your dressmaker regarding your dance to make sure that they give you good bustling options. Additionally, have a picture of your wedding dress for your consultation, or at least be able to describe it in detail. Length is not the only consideration. Several other design features will have large impact on what you can and cannot do for your dance. It’s not just about limitations, but also about enhancements! The more your teacher knows about your dress (the type of cut, how full the skirt is, what the fabric is like, does it have sleeves, etc.), the more they can select material that will best work with your look and how you will be able to move on the actual day of your wedding.
Practice, practice, practice…
...but be smart about it. It is very common for couples to start off thinking that they will practice for many hours, several times a week. Not only has that never happened once in the history of time, but the truth is that the sheer amount of hours you practice are not as important as the quality of your practice. Truthfully, a laser focused 10 minute practice session will give you better results than an hour of sloppily running through your steps. Remember, practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent. A good teacher will give you exactly what and how to practice.
