Pro-dancers Derek Hough and Hayley Erbert Not Planning 'First Dance' Performance on Their Wedding

Derek Hough Hayley Erbert Celebrity Wedding Wedding couple dance

By Jo Anne Hubert , Parent Herald Mar 23, 09:11 am

Photo: (Photo : Getty Images/Leon Bennett)

The professional dancers have no plans of performing an elaborate first dance in their upcoming wedding.

In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Tonight, Derek Hough revealed that he and his soon-to-be wife Hayley Erbert would be having a first dance at their wedding, yet it will not be the same as the other dances the couple had performed.

Their first dance as husband and wife will be much simpler, more intimate - a "real" first dance where they will both be "just in the moment," without any of those grand performances they are known for doing in Dancing With The Stars (DWTS).

"We will have a first dance. But I want to try to make it feel not like a performance. I want it to be a [real] first dance," the 37-year-old former DWTS pro expressed.

'Lowkey' moments on the dance floor

Hough admitted that he hoped they would not need to do a first dance because they would just like to be "in the moment."

Hough expressed that they dance together regularly in their professional lives, so they would just want to spend some "lowkey" moments on the dance floor during their wedding celebration.

However, he knew that despite this hope, he and his fiancèè would need to follow the first dance wedding tradition.

He further admitted that they planned to relax at their wedding, and with this, they thought of letting other people dance and perform for them.

Last June, the choreographer and actor told People he was already listing down performers for their big day. He had not given any names but shared that he had already asked a few people, and some had given their commitment, describing their wedding as a "full-on festival."

A love story that started on the dance floor and grew strong during quarantine

This two dancers' love story started on the dance floor.

Erbert was cast in his and his sister Julianne Hough's Move Live Tour in 2014, where their stage chemistry was undeniable, that audiences were just captivated when they were performing.

After a year, the couple announced they were officially together in July 2015. In 2016, both were seen on live television dancing their hearts out in DWTS with Erbet as a troop dancer.

The couple has been together for seven long years, and within those years, Hough has kept joking about getting engaged and getting married, according to US Weekly. However, it was really in June 2022 that the couple got engaged officially.

When asked about when they knew that they would want to be each other's forever, Hough shared that they had this moment where they "stepped into a new version" of their relationship, and it was the kind of relationship where they saw themselves being together for the rest of their lives.

Erbert added that the quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic did it for them. It was when they became the best of friends, experiencing the "highest of highs and lowest of lows." It was also during the quarantine that she realized that if she could spend every second of every day with Hough and "still love him so deeply," she would be the happiest to spend the rest of her life with him.