When thinking about your wedding, particularly when it comes to the open dance floor or the “all the stressful stuff is done and now we can party” portion of the evening, consider what you want that to look like. Do you want a full dance floor the whole time with lots of energy? Or do you want things to be drawn out with some bursts of energy here and there. Do you want a specific vibe of bangers all night with 1 or 2 slow songs mixed in or are we going to be playing lots of slow songs and line dances to try and keep as many people engaged as we can?
If you’re anywhere between 1.5 and 2.5 hours of open dance floor, we can accomplish a more high-energy, hyped dance floor. If your time allotted is over 3 hours and even creeping closer to 4 as I sometimes see, expect the dance floor and music being played to be strategised for a marathon rather than a sprint.
The 2 Hour Open Dance Floor: All Killer, No Filler!
I think when most couples picture the dance floor, their goal is to have it packed. For all weddings I highly recommend having that time be somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 hours to accomplish this goal. If you have a good wedding DJ that actually knows how to DJ by shortening songs, beat matching, and providing smooth and interesting transitions, that DJ will shine! You will have less slow songs (I generally think it’s a good idea to have 1 or 2 slow songs), less line dances and less filler type songs (think “Celebration” by Kool and The Gang or the 3rd Bruno Mars song you’ve heard that night).
The 3 to 4 Hour Open Dance Floor: Some Killer, Some Filler
I approach a long open dance floor set as a marathon, carefully pacing throughout the set. If you go high energy for 4 hours you will burn out the crowd quickly and will waste a lot of those bangers. A long dance floor time will have ups and downs of energy. It’s in these situations that I most often have a bridesmaid come up to me and say something like “we’re ready to party” or “the bride wants you to turn it up” and I think “we still have 3 hours left, I can’t go all out now”. Slow songs are a great way to end a mini set, bringing the energy back down and then building it back up again so there will be more of those. Also – if the dance floor has been lacking for a few songs, a line dance is a great tool to use.
A shorter overall wedding day is your friend. A total of 5 hours, including your ceremony, almost always sets you up for success and gives plenty of time to comfortably accomplish everything you’d like to be a part of your wedding day. It also greatly increases the chances of most of your guests staying for the entire celebration!
A very basic timeline might look like this:
5pm – Ceremony
5:30pm – Cocktail Hour
6:15pm – Grand Entrance/Cake Cutting
6:30pm – Dinner
7:15pm – Toasts
7:30pm – First Dance/Spotlight Dances
7:40pm – Open Dance Floor
10pm – End
Around the Wichita area I do have a lot of Catholic weddings and I’m aware that those ceremonies need to take place in the early afternoon. In these cases, I recommend having a break between the ceremony and reception. Plan on a 5 hour reception at most from 5pm – 10pm. A Friday wedding might be something to look into as well!
In the end, you will have more people raving about how awesome your wedding was if you keep your overall day shorter which almost always translates to keeping your dance floor poppin’ all night! When you’re starting to plan the length of your wedding, take into consideration the length of your open dance floor.