Every couple asks, and every honest answer starts the same way: it depends on three things. What you want the dance to be, how comfortable you both are to begin with, and how much runway sits between today and the wedding. Here is how those three actually interact.
The three dials
Ambition: a confident sway with a few figures needs far less than a fully choreographed routine with an entrance, a dip and a finish. Starting point: couples who have danced anything before build faster, but never-danced couples are the normal case, not the exception. Runway: time lets lessons space out so the dance settles into muscle memory between them, which is worth more than extra hours crammed together.
Honest shapes, not magic numbers
A simple, comfortable first dance is a handful of sessions for most couples. A choreographed routine to your specific song is a longer program, spread across the months before the date. A short runway compresses the plan rather than cancelling it, as covered on the last minute page. Your actual number gets set at the free first session, where your teacher hears your song and sees your starting point; anything quoted before that is a guess.
What changes the number most
The song, surprisingly often: a steady, moderate tempo teaches easily, while a song that changes feel midway needs choreography to absorb it. Practice between lessons, even minutes of it, reliably shrinks the total. And deciding early what the dance is for, a moment for the two of you versus a performance for the room, matters more than any other single choice; both are lovely, and they cost different amounts of preparation.
Start with the free session either way
Bring your song, or bring nothing and we will help you choose one. The first introductory session is free, private, and ends with an honest recommendation sized to your actual wedding, not a package off a shelf; the whole approach is described on the choreography page.