Please Do Not Play Any of These Songs During Your Father-Daughter Dance

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It was with great satisfaction a few months ago that I posted the absolute worst songs for your first dance, because it really truly boggles my mind when I hear of—or witness—a wedding-day soundtrack in which it would appear that the couple didn’t actually listen to the lyrics of the song they’ve chosen to play in the background during a pivotal wedding moment. (You can’t just like the chorus, people, and call it a day!)

And in turn, it was with great satisfaction that I read Glamour‘s list of father-daughter dance songs that would make wedding guests “cringe,” because again, yes! I mean, my friends and I used to throw each other uncomfortable sidelong glances at our all-girls high school father-daughter dances when the DJ seemed to forgot what gig he was playing and his set got a little weird, but your actual father-daughter dance at your wedding is even more serious business. The song has got to be sweet, touching, and, like, kind of about love but also not about love that is romantic even a little bit. It’s hard!

It got me Googling, and in addition to the list above, I also came across Jezebel’s list (John Mayer’s “Daughters” makes another appearance here, and rightly so) which also makes some excellent points about the whole subset of country music dedicated to reminding daughters’ would-be partners that her daddy “loved her first.” So take a gander at theirs, too.

And then, maybe learn from my friend’s father-daughter-dance trickery, in case you find yourself in a similar situation: Her father desperately wanted “Butterfly Kisses,” bless his heart, and although it horrified my friend, she led him to believe that that’s what was happening, and then set about hatching a plan to find another (not ew-inducing) song to “surprise” him with when the music for their dance started playing. And it was a good plan to hatch, because her mother came to the rescue: Turns out, Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” had come on the radio as her parents drove home from the hospital after she was born, which had made her father cry at the time. He had forgotten all about that until the song came on during their dance, and of course, it was perfect.

What songs have you tried to avoid in selecting your father-daughter dance song? Any really awesome ideas you’ve come across?

RELATED: The 9 Worst Songs for Your First Dance 

RELATED: Let’s Look at These 25 Sob-Inducing Photos of Fathers at Weddings 

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