Your wedding day is full of amazing music. From the song you walk down the aisle to, right through to the last song played at the disco at the end of a fun-filled night, there are so many songs that play throughout your special day.
But, there’s perhaps no song more important than the one that plays during your first dance. Your first dance is hugely symbolic and represents the two of you coming together as one. It’s also usually one of the first dances of the entire wedding reception, and is a sign that it’s time for everyone to get up and join you (after watching you and taking pictures while crying, of course).
But, what makes for a good first dance song? Should it be romantic and lovey-dovey, or can it be something upbeat and fun?
In this guide, we’ll run through everything that goes into the perfect wedding first dance song. We’ll also offer you 200 suggestions for the best first dance song, to help you make the all-important decision as to what you should choose for this massive moment in your big day.
What makes for the perfect first dance song?
The perfect first dance song can be many things. But, the most important thing is that it’s special to the two of you. If you’re not quite sure what that looks like for you, here are a few things to think about:
- Emotional significance: Does the song resonate with you? Was it perhaps something you both listened to while you were dating and as your romance blossomed?
- Lyrics: Are the lyrics special and do they represent your relationship? Songs with lyrics about love are the most common type of first dance song.
- Tempo and rhythm: The most common choice of first dance song is something slower and more romantic (but some couples have been known to have fun by dancing to something upbeat).
- Danceability: Whether you’re an experienced dancer or not, does the song lend itself well to your dancing ability?
- Timelessness or trendiness: Is the song something that’s timeless, or will it be forgotten about over time?
- Length: Make sure the song isn’t too long, because you might get tired of dancing by the 34th verse of an epic ballad.
Can upbeat songs work as a first dance song?
Yes, an upbeat song can 100% work as a great first dance song, and they have grown in popularity in recent years. It’s a brilliant way to add a little energy and uniqueness to your first dance, especially if you’re not a fan of slower romantic songs.
There are no rules that say your first dance has to be a slow one. The only thing to bear in mind is, do you have the dancing prowess needed to dance to a high-tempo song with your significant other? You don’t exactly have to be a couple who are set for the next series of Strictly, but you should be at least semi-confident to throw some solid moves while all your guests watch on. It’s also the perfect way to kick off the party and get everyone excited to start throwing some shapes of their own once you’ve had your special moment together.
What is the most popular first dance wedding song?
The most popular first dance wedding song changes regularly, depending on what artists are topping the charts at the time and whether any older songs have come back into fashion.
In recent years, songs like ‘All of Me’ by John Legend, ‘You Are the Best Thing’ by Ray LaMontagne, ‘At Last’ by Etta James and ‘Thinking Out Loud’ by Ed Sheeran have all been consistently popular.
In 2024, the most popular first dance songs were:
- ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ – Elvis Presley
- ‘Perfect’ – Ed Sheeran
- ‘Stand By Me’ – Ben E. King
- ‘The One’ – Kodaline
- ‘Lover’ – Taylor Swift
To discover what other songs were the most popular first dance choices at the moment, read our guide to the top first dance songs of 2024.
200 of the best wedding first dance songs
Excited to choose the song you and your other half will dance to for the first time at your wedding? Here are 200 suggestions for romantic and meaningful songs, so the tune you have your first dance to can be something truly special.
80 romantic first dance songs
‘I found a love, to carry more than just my secrets / To carry love, to carry children of our own.’
Key lyrics: ‘At last, my love has come along / My lonely days are over, and life is like a song.’
Key lyrics: ‘I could hold you for a million years / To make you feel my love.’
Key lyrics: ‘All of me loves all of you / Love your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections.’
Key lyrics: ‘I have died every day waiting for you / Darling, don’t be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years.’
Key lyrics: ‘Take my hand, take my whole life too / For I can’t help falling in love with you.’
Key lyrics: ‘Take me into your loving arms / Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars.’
Key lyrics: ‘Oh, my love, my darling / I’ve hungered for your touch a long, lonely time.’
Key lyrics: ‘You are the best thing that’s ever been mine.’
Key lyrics: ‘I won’t give up on us / Even if the skies get rough.’
Key lyrics: ‘L is for the way you look at me / O is for the only one I see.’
Key lyrics: ‘My love, there’s only you in my life / The only thing that’s bright.’
Key lyrics: ‘I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words / How wonderful life is while you’re in the world.’
Key lyrics: ‘Yes, you’re lovely, with your smile so warm / And your cheeks so soft.’
Key lyrics: ‘This is the first day of my life / I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you.’
Key lyrics: ‘From this moment, life has begun / From this moment, you are the one.’
Key lyrics: ‘You’re my person, my heartbeat, my slow dance / My Sunday morning sipping coffee in bed.’
Key lyrics: ‘You and me and all other people / And I don’t know why I can’t keep my eyes off of you.’
Key lyrics: ‘They say nothing lasts forever, but they ain’t seen us together.’
Key lyrics: ‘And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times / It’s you, it’s you, you make me sing.’
Key lyrics: ‘Come away with me and we’ll kiss / On a mountaintop.’
Key lyrics: ‘It’s always better when we’re together.’
Key lyrics: ‘Have I told you lately that I love you? / Have I told you there’s no one else above you?’
Key lyrics: ‘I get to love you, it’s the best thing that I’ll ever do.’
Key lyrics: ‘All my life, I prayed for someone like you / And I thank God that I finally found you.’
Key lyrics: ‘What if I’d been born fifty years before you / In a house on the street where you live?’
Key lyrics: ‘I swear to God, when I come home / I’m gonna hold you so close.’
Key lyrics: ‘So darling, darling, stand by me / Oh, stand by me.’
Key lyrics: ‘I love you to the moon and back / So glad you gave me your heart to have.’
Key lyrics: ‘Not talking ’bout a year / No, not three or four / I don’t want that kind of forever in my life anymore.’
Key lyrics: ‘For you, I give a lifetime of stability.’
Key lyrics: ‘You think I’d leave your side, baby? / You know me better than that.’
Key lyrics: ‘You already know that you’re my weakness / After all this time, I’m just as nervous.’
Key lyrics: ‘Forever can never be long enough for me / To feel like I’ve had long enough with you.’
Key lyrics: ‘Tell the world that we finally got it all right / I choose you.’
Key lyrics: ‘Grow old along with me / The best is yet to be.’
Key lyrics: ‘If I never feel you in my arms again / If I never feel your tender kiss again.’
Key lyrics: ‘I came to life when I first kissed you / The best me has his arms around you.’
Key lyrics: ‘It feels like home to me / It feels like I’m all the way back where I come from.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’m gonna love you ’til my lungs give out / I promise ’til death we part like in our vows.’
Key lyrics: ‘You make me wanna say I do, I do, I do, do-do-do-do-do-do.’
Key lyrics: ‘How long will I love you? / As long as stars are above you.’
Key lyrics: ‘Will she have my kids? / Will she be my wife? / She might just be my everything and beyond.’
Key lyrics: ‘Here and now, I promise to love faithfully.’
Key lyrics: ‘I believe in dreams again / I believe that love will never end.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’ve got an angel / She doesn’t wear any wings.’
Key lyrics: ‘You look so beautiful in this light / Your silhouette over me.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’ll be your crying shoulder / I’ll be love’s suicide.’
Key lyrics: ‘Lucky I’m in love with my best friend.’
Key lyrics: ‘So this is love, so this is what makes life divine.’
Key lyrics: ‘You say it best when you say nothing at all.’
Key lyrics: ‘Through the ups and the downs / Yes, I’m gonna stay with you.’
Key lyrics: ‘God gave me you for the ups and downs / God gave me you for the days of doubt.’
Key lyrics: ‘One, you’re like a dream come true / Two, just wanna be with you.’
Key lyrics: ‘You’re still the one I run to / The one that I belong to.’
Key lyrics: ‘Everybody’s dancing in the moonlight.’
Key lyrics: ‘I swear by the moon and the stars in the sky / I’ll be there.’
Key lyrics: ‘Kiss me beneath the milky twilight / Lead me out on the moonlit floor.’
Key lyrics: ‘Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone.’
Key lyrics: ‘You’re the one designed for me / A distant stranger that I will complete.’
Key lyrics: ‘How do I live without you? / I want to know.’
Key lyrics: ‘And I will take you in my arms / And hold you right where you belong.’
Key lyrics: ‘Some people want diamond rings / But I don’t want anything if it ain’t you.’
Key lyrics: ‘When God made you / He must have been thinking about me.’
Key lyrics: ‘Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling / Do you feel my heart beating?’
Key lyrics: ‘She says I smell like safety and home.’
Key lyrics: ‘I could not ask for more than this time together.’
Key lyrics: ‘I can be your hero, baby / I can kiss away the pain.’
Key lyrics: ‘Two drifters, off to see the world / There’s such a lot of world to see.’
Key lyrics: ‘And then she asks me, ‘Do I look all right?’ / And I say, ‘Yes, you look wonderful tonight.”
Key lyrics: ‘You’re just too good to be true / Can’t take my eyes off you.’
Key lyrics: ‘The book of love is long and boring / And written very long ago.’
Key lyrics: ‘Today this could be, the greatest day of our lives.’
Key lyrics: ‘Let’s stay together / Loving you whether times are good or bad.’
Key lyrics: ‘Even though we may be hopeless hearts just passing through / Every bone screams I don’t know what we should do.’
Key lyrics: ‘I built a house for love to grow / I was so young that it was hard to know.’
Key lyrics: ‘You would still have my heart until the end of time.’
Key lyrics: ‘Loving you is easy ’cause you’re beautiful.’
Key lyrics: ‘When I fall in love / It will be forever.’
Key lyrics: ‘And you shall take me strongly in your arms again / And I will not remember that I even felt the pain.’
30 modern first dance songs
Key lyrics: ‘Can I go where you go? / Can we always be this close forever and ever?’
Key lyrics: ‘Well, you look like yourself / But you’re somebody else, only it ain’t on the surface.’
Key lyrics: ‘I wanna wrap my arms around you, baby, never let you go, oh.’
Key lyrics: ‘And I’m still up at 4 AM / Is this ever gonna end? / Can I rely on you?’
Key lyrics: ‘Don’t know what to say / I wanna see your face / And I know what it feels like to fall in love.’
Key lyrics: ‘We found love in a hopeless place.’
Key lyrics: ‘Light up, light up / As if you have a choice.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’m off the deep end, watch as I dive in / I’ll never meet the ground.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’m only one call away / I’ll be there to save the day.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’d climb every mountain / And swim every ocean / Just to be with you.’
Key lyrics: ‘Baby, you’re like lightning in a bottle / I can’t let you go now that I got it.’
Key lyrics: ‘You are the only one I’ll ever love / If it’s not you, it’s not anyone.’
Key lyrics: ‘You’ve got me, you’ve got me, you’ve got me / Speechless.’
Key lyrics: ‘If the world was ending, you’d come over, right? / You’d come over and you’d stay the night.’
Key lyrics: ‘So when I’m all choked up and I can’t find the words / Every time we say goodbye, baby, it hurts.’
Key lyrics: ‘Sweet creature, sweet creature / Wherever I go, you bring me home.’
Key lyrics: ‘You’re a sunflower, I think your love would be too much.’
Key lyrics: ‘It’s your golden hour / You slow down time in your golden hour.’
Key lyrics: ‘Hold me while you wait / I wish that I was good enough.’
Key lyrics: ‘This year’s love had better last.’
Key lyrics: ‘Show me love / Treat it like we freakin’ on the weekend, show me love.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’m blinded by the lights / No, I can’t sleep until I feel your touch.’
Key lyrics: ‘I don’t wanna look at anything else now that I saw you / I don’t wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you.’
Key lyrics: ‘Just let me adore you, oh honey.’
Key lyrics: ‘So, baby, come light me up, and maybe I’ll let you on it.’
Key lyrics: ‘I wanna take you somewhere so you know I care / But it’s so cold, and I don’t know where.’
Key lyrics: ‘If you wanna run away with me, I know a galaxy and I can take you for a ride.’
Key lyrics: ‘You light me up inside like the 4th of July / Whenever you’re around, I always seem to smile.’
Key lyrics: ‘They say nothing lasts forever, but they ain’t seen us together.’
Key lyrics: ‘Home is wherever I’m with you.’
15 upbeat first dance songs
Key lyrics: ‘Because I’m happy / Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’m walking on sunshine, whoa-oh! / And don’t it feel good!’
Key lyrics: ‘Baby, it’s you / You’re the one I love / You’re the one I need.’
Key lyrics: ‘Sugar, yes please / Won’t you come and put it down on me?’
Key lyrics: ‘You and I, we’re better together / I could live without you, but I’d rather not.’
Key lyrics: ‘This is gonna be the best day of my life / My life.’
Key lyrics: ‘I wanna dance with somebody / I wanna feel the heat with somebody.’
Key lyrics: ‘Ooh, I want to dance with you / Oh, don’t you dare look back.’
Key lyrics: ‘Bring me a higher love / Where’s that higher love I keep thinking of?’
Key lyrics: ‘The dog days are over / The dog days are done / The horses are coming, so you better run.’
Key lyrics: ‘I feel so close to you right now / It’s a force field.’
Key lyrics: ‘I do my hair toss, check my nails / Baby, how you feelin’? / Feeling good as hell!’
Key lyrics: ‘Let’s get loud, let’s get loud / Turn the music up, let’s do it.’
Key lyrics: ‘Keep it real to real in the way I feel / I could walk you down the aisle.’
Key lyrics: ‘I got that sunshine in my pocket / Got that good soul in my feet.’
30 indie first dance songs
Key lyrics: ‘In the cold light, I live to love and adore you / It’s all that I am, it’s all that I have.’
Key lyrics: ‘Bloom, bloom, bloom, bloom, bloom / You are the light in the dark.’
Key lyrics: ‘Come with me, my love / To the sea, the sea of love.’
Key lyrics: ‘I belong with you, you belong with me, you’re my sweetheart.’
Key lyrics: ‘You’ve got the love, you’ve got the love / You’ve got the love, you’ve got the love.’
Key lyrics: ‘I was a quick wet boy / Diving too deep for coins / All of your straight lines.’
Key lyrics: ‘Grow old with me, let us share what we see / And we’ll share what we love.’
Key lyrics: ‘I would die for you / But that’s just not enough.’
Key lyrics: ‘And with your love, my hands are tied / In this world where we could collide.’
Key lyrics: ‘She is love, and she is all I need.’
Key lyrics: ‘This is the first day of my life / I swear I was born right in the doorway.’
Key lyrics: ‘Look at the stars, look how they shine for you / And everything you do, yeah, they were all yellow.’
Key lyrics: ‘I think I fell in love today, oh / I think I fell in love today.’
Key lyrics: ‘Come on skinny love, just last the year / Pour a little salt, we were never here.’
Key lyrics: ‘1, 2, 3, 4, tell me that you love me more / Sleepless long nights, that is what my youth was for.’
Key lyrics: ‘And at once I knew I was not magnificent / Strayed above the highway aisle.’
Key lyrics: ‘Sweet disposition / Never too soon, oh, oh / I’m just trying to find / A place for you.’
Key lyrics: ‘She said, ‘Hey, you, and you / Don’t you know that I am the one / Who can make you feel so blue?”
Key lyrics: ‘All I want is nothing more / To hear you knocking at my door.’
Key lyrics: ‘Oh, Ophelia, you’ve been on my mind / Girl, since the flood.’
Key lyrics: ‘All that space in between where we stand / Could be our chance / Could be our chance.’
Key lyrics: ‘This is not the sound of a new man / or a crispy realisation / It’s the sound of the unlocking and the lift away.’
Key lyrics: ‘I will be the one to keep you warm / Hold your heart, keep it from the storm.’
Key lyrics: ‘If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world?’
Key lyrics: ‘And I know that I will love you / And I know that you will love me.’
Key lyrics: ‘You don’t know me, but I know you / I don’t even want to / I don’t even want to tell you.’
Key lyrics: ‘We can be heroes, just for one day / We can be us, just for one day.’
Key lyrics: ‘I will be your shelter, I will be your storm / I will make you shiver, I will keep you warm.’
Key lyrics: ‘You have stolen my heart / And I don’t know what to do.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’m in love with you / And I am, and I am / In love with you.’
15 unconventional first dance songs
Key lyrics: ‘Oh, please, say to me / You’ll let me be your man / And please, say to me / You’ll let me hold your hand.’
Key lyrics: ‘When you were here before, couldn’t look you in the eye / You’re just like an angel, your skin makes me cry.’
Key lyrics: ‘But I, I love it when you give me things / And you, you ought to give me wedding rings.’
Key lyrics: ‘Ooh, you make me live / Whatever this world can give to me / ‘Cause you’re all I see.’
Key lyrics: ‘Come as you are, as you were / As I want you to be.’
Key lyrics: ‘She’s got eyes of the bluest skies / As if they thought of rain / I hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain.’
Key lyrics: ‘Take me to church / I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies / I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife.’
Key lyrics: ‘And I am breaking / I’m not broken / And I’m not breaking / I’m not broken.’
Key lyrics: ‘Now you’re just somebody that I used to know / Now you’re just somebody that I used to know.’
Key lyrics: ‘This is Ground Control to Major Tom / You’ve really made the grade / And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear.’
Key lyrics: ‘With the lights out, it’s less dangerous / Here we are now, entertain us / I feel stupid and contagious.’
Key lyrics: ‘They will see us waving from such great heights / Come down now, they’ll say / But everything looks perfect from far away.’
Key lyrics: ‘Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful?’
Key lyrics: ‘And I wonder / When I sing along with you / If everything could ever feel this real forever.’
Key lyrics: ‘True love lasts forever / And now we’re back together.’
30 classic first dance songs
Key lyrics: ‘Unforgettable, that’s what you are / Unforgettable, though near or far.’
Key lyrics: ‘Fly me to the moon / Let me play among the stars / Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars.’
Key lyrics: ‘The very thought of you / And I forget to do / The little ordinary things that everyone ought to do.’
Key lyrics: ‘And I love you so / The people ask me how / How I’ve lived till now / I tell them I don’t know.’
Key lyrics: ‘Heaven, I’m in heaven / And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak.’
Key lyrics: ‘Stars shining bright above you / Night breezes seem to whisper ‘I love you’.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’ve got you under my skin / I’ve got you deep in the heart of me.’
Key lyrics: ‘For once in my life, I have someone who needs me / Someone I’ve needed so long.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day / When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May.’
Key lyrics: ‘Someday, when I’m awfully low / When the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you.’
Key lyrics: ‘I see trees of green, red roses too / I see them bloom for me and you.’
Key lyrics: ‘Let’s face the music and dance / Let’s face the music and dance.’
Key lyrics: ‘Isn’t it romantic? / Music in the night, a dream that can be heard.’
Key lyrics: ‘It had to be you, it had to be you / I wandered around and finally found / The somebody who could make me be true.’
Key lyrics: ‘When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.’
Key lyrics: ‘Only you can make the darkness bright.’
Key lyrics: ‘That’s how strong my love is, baby, baby / That’s how strong my love is.’
Key lyrics: ‘See the pyramids along the Nile / Watch the sunrise on a tropic isle.’
Key lyrics: ‘I’ll be loving you, always / With a love that’s true, always.’
Key lyrics: ‘There’s a somebody I’m longing to see / I hope that he turns out to be / Someone to watch over me.’
Key lyrics: ‘True love, true love / Oh, true love, true love.’
Key lyrics: ‘When marimba rhythms start to play / Dance with me, make me sway.’
Key lyrics: ‘Give me a kiss to build a dream on / And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss.’
Key lyrics: ‘The way you wear your hat / The way you sip your tea / The memory of all that.’
Key lyrics: ‘You do something to me, something that simply mystifies me.’
Key lyrics: ‘How sweet it is to be loved by you / How sweet it is to be loved by you.’
Key lyrics: ‘When a man loves a woman / Can’t keep his mind on nothin’ else.’
Key lyrics: ‘So darling, darling stand by me / Oh, stand by me.’
Key lyrics: ‘Chances are, ’cause I wear a silly grin / The moment you come into view.’
Key lyrics: ‘I only have eyes for you / The moon may be high / But I can’t see a thing in the sky.’
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