Fred Astaire Dance Studios

I can't recommend them enough. My now husband and I met at a friend's wedding and bonded on the dance floor. He took lessons and I could follow well. After I took my first lesson at Fred Astaire, I came home to a surprise proposal! (Take lessons, get engaged!) Since dance was such a big part of our relationship, we knew we needed a stunning dance. The problem? My fiancé lived in VA and I lived in OR at the time. My now husband's dance instructor choreographed our wedding dance and he set about learning in on the east coast. Jessi not only had to teach me the dance, but she had to learn someone else's choreography. My weekly lesson was always the high point of the week. A little exercise, a lot of laughing and just a fun, stress free time during what can be the stressful process of wedding planning. I had wanted someone to especially help me with arm styling and Jessi delivered! When my soon-to-be husband would come out to visit we'd have such fun putting our two parts of hard work together and seeing what a beautiful dance we had together. Our dance was a hit at our reception and was one of the highlights. Everyone knew we were going to do something special, but no one was prepared for how special it would be. There were tears from parents, and we just had fun with it! The dj didn't play the correctly edited version of our song, but it didn't matter. We laughed and danced the night away. Once we were married, we continued to dance. We always loved to show off our skills at our friends' weddings. Three babies later, we're still dancing. We may not get to lessons like we used to (visualize me wearing Baby #1 in a carrier while pregnant with Baby #2) but we still have dance parties in our kitchen.

The entire staff at Fred Astaire in Lake Oswego were so friendly and welcoming! My (then) fiance and I had never taken dance lessons before, so we knew we needed some professional help for our first dance. We started out by learning the basic rumba, but Kacey could tell that it wasn't exactly our style. He asked lots of helpful questions to get to know us as a couple and in the end, he choreographed a unique dance just for us. He even edited our song to make it the right length! Best of all, we had many opportunities to practice in front of an audience (Fred Astaire staff and other students) who were always encouraging and helped boost our confidence. Our first dance was a huge hit with our friends and family at the wedding, they were shocked (knowing us not being dancers) that we pulled it off! We definitely couldn't have done it without Kacey and the whole crew at Fred Astaire!!

Kacey help my husband and I with our first dance. He is very friendly and patient. But most importantly he is fun to work with and keeps the dance exciting! Thanks Kacey!

9 years later, we still get comments from friends and family about how amazing our wedding dance was. That is all thanks to Jessi and Alex at Fred Astaire Portland. Jessi worked with us to create a dance that was beautiful, quirky and totally unforgettable. I recommend them 100%!