This is how I felt during our first dance:
Absolutely blissful. Carter and I danced to a song that has a lot of special meaning to us: Chantal Kreviazuk’s “Feels Like Home.” This song played during an episode of Dawson’s Creek when Joey and Dawson were dancing at a wedding. During the dance, Joey realized that Dawson was more than her best friend.
I watched Dawson’s Creek religiously in high school, and as I watched Joey and Dawson dance to “Feels Like Home,” I thought, “Maybe Carter and I could become something more.”
In college, Carter and I watched Dawson’s Creek together. Since the show was filmed on our campus (University of North Carolina Wilmington), we met many of the cast members . . . and I even got to be an extra on the show! Needless to say, Chantal Kreviazuk’s song became very, very special to us.
The song’s lyrics really hit home for us: “If you knew how I wanted someone to come along and change my life the way you’ve done. It feels like home to me.” We’ve always said that when we are together, it just feels right — it feels like home.
It was an easy decision for us to choose “Feels Like Home” as our first dance song. We wanted to make the dance really spectacular, so we took rumba lessons at Arthur Murray Dance Studios. We chose the most basic package (6 lessons) because we didn’t have a lot of time, but we had a great instructor and we practiced a lot! Our dance turned out beautifully, and Carter and I picked up a new hobby! We really love to dance now, and we’ve taken more dance lessons since!
I definitely recommend Arthur Murray to couples who want to light up the room during the first dance. Dance classes were not an extra stress at all. In fact, participating in a fun activity together RELIEVED our stress during the final weeks before the wedding — and we had so much fun showing off our moves on the big day!
Here’s a video of our first dance! The footage was taken by DVideography, and I edited it and set it to “Feels Like Home.”
first of all, i was majorly obsessed with DC in high school. and i love that song!
secondly, i am FREAKING OUT about the first dance. we really need to get our shittt together. we practiced in the living room the other day and it was so embarassing! we took a few lessons at AM but honestly, i thought they were a rip off. any other suggestions???
Oh, bummer! I’m sorry your lessons didn’t go well — we must’ve have a great instructor. Truly, that’s what it comes down to.
Here are a few options:
Do you have time to sign up for a class at a local community college?
Or . . . is there a local dance studio that will give you a few personalized classes? We told Arthur Murray we just wanted to focus on the first dance, because that was all we had time for. That’s not what they normally do, but I think local dance studios often offer specific classes for the first dance.
Or . . . there is a DVD that is supposed to be pretty good. It’s called Dance Lessons 101: The Ultimate Couples Dancing Instruction Video for Beginners (Shawn Trautman’s Dance Collection). It’s on amazon.com, and it has good reviews.
Or . . . you can wing it. My dad and I got together a few times and practiced our father-dance and just practiced some steps and some twirls. It looked good, no professional training required! All we did was right together, left together, right together, left together. And then he would turn me under his arm and I would continue to do right together, left together, right together, left together, right under his arm.
And . . . it is ok if you do the hold and sway thing. All that matters is that you enjoy the dance, and that will shine through.