Bride and Her Dad Shock Wedding Guests with Epic Father-Daughter Dance! (Exclusive)
"I always knew that I wanted my wedding to be a fun and entertaining party," bride Kalista Kassidy Caufield tells PEOPLE. "I’m a performer!"
A Florida bride and her father seriously leveled up a timeless wedding tradition.
In a video shared on TikTok, Kalista Kassidy Caufield, 21, took to the dance floor with her dad Doug Miller, 54, at her Oct. 2023, wedding in Islamorada for an epic father-daughter performance. The pair began the sweet tradition with their arms wrapped around each other as they gently swayed to the music.
Suddenly, the soft piano and guitar tune shifted as Caufield and her dad kicked off their high-energy performance. While Jennifer Lopez's "Let's Get Loud" hit blasted, the bride — fittingly dressed in a white mini dress and sneakers — ran to her dad as he shrugged off his suit jacket.
"I always knew that I wanted my wedding to be a fun and entertaining party," Caufield tells PEOPLE. "I’m a performer! So we knew that we would be doing something like this way before I was even engaged. My mom is a dance choreographer so it just made sense. My mom also choreographed my husband and I’s first dance to 'Unchained Melody' and I had my bridesmaids do a fun dance entrance with cold sparklers into our reception. So there was entertainment all night!"
The duo proceeded to perform an epic dance routine together that even included Miller jumping over her back as she crouched down. As each new clip from a medley of songs played — including Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" and MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This" — the duo busted out a series of coordinated dance moves as the crowd cheered them on.
"It was definitely my idea, but it didn’t take much convincing for my dad to be on board," she says. "He’s a girl dad so he’s used to this kind of stuff. He actually thought it was a great idea because he knew that he would be emotional on my wedding day and he thought this would help him take his mind off of crying during our dance."
Caufield's dad gamely kept up with his daughter — who is a professional dancer and model — but at one point he laughed and paused to let her have a solo moment. He then jumped back in, and the pair finished their surprise dance-off with a few notes from Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back."
"I’ve been a dancer my whole life," Caufield explains. "I started at 3 years old and danced competitively until I was around 12. Then from 2011 to 2020 I was on the Rochester Lancer Dance Team for the men’s professional soccer team, The Rochester Lancers. My dad was the head coach of the soccer team, my mom was the head coach of the dance team, and both my sister and I were on the dance team."
Caufield and her dad received quite a lot of praise for being such a good sport — and for his smooth dance moves in the comments on her post.
"Dad was amazing! He was fun to watch," one user commented. "I love that he was down to do this with you," another added.
To prepare Caufield and her dad practiced for 30 minutes every Sunday for about a month and a half leading up to the wedding. "We have family dinner at my parents house every Sunday so we would eat dinner and then practice the dance with the family. My mom (who choreographed the father daughter dance) would go over it with us, my sister Kayla who is also a dancer would do the dance in front of my dad so he could watch her and my fiancé (now husband) would watch and cheer us on. It was definitely a family affair."
Choosing the list of hits for their performance was "a group effort" says Caufield.
"We first danced to the song “My Little Girl”, which was an easy choice as we both fell in love with it when we were looking for our song. For the surprise part of the dance we tried to think of songs that all of our guests would know and love. Once we finalized the music, my husband created the mix for us so he got to be a part of the creating process and we were able to make changes along the way."
Caufield adds that the moment was one she'll never forget.
"It was so much fun! No one expected this at all. My favorite part was the transition and seeing how shocked everyone was, my dad and I both love to put on a good show and we did just that! Honestly, the best part was watching my grandparents reactions in videos later that night, they were laughing so hard that they were crying, both of them thought it was so funny and all of our guests had absolutely no idea!"
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For any couples considering a choreographed dance, Caufield says go for it.
"If you’re thinking about doing a surprise dance at your wedding… 100% do it! It is something that everyone is still talking about and it is such a special memory for my dad and I!"
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