Photo by Elliott Robinson
Obviously, the ceremony is the most important part of the wedding. But when I imagined my perfect wedding, I pictured: dancing, mini burgers, lots of laughing, magical lights and basically everything that goes into a movie wedding montage. I wanted it to be fun and it was the. most. fun. I've. ever. had.
Jamie and Arthur got into the dancing, too! When we came out, I found Bret in the audience, pointed at him and shouted, "This was for YOU!"
I remember as we walked out, it hit me that we were going straight into our first dance. We had just barely practiced at home, and had never practiced with me in my heels, so I had a flash of nervousness. We don't have a particular song that fit for a first dance, so I wanted to find something classic and romantic that didn't feel trendy. We landed on "You Send Me" by Sam Cooke, who I just love and it was a great first dance song.
Longtime readers will know that I agonized about the idea of having the ceremony and the reception in the same location, but it worked out perfectly. Having the tent frame up during the ceremony turned out to not be nearly as distracting as I thought it would be. And if you think it looks good here, wait till you see it lit up!
Sean and his mother danced to "In My Life" by The Beatles, and he executed the twirl again! I missed it, but everyone told me it was lovely.
With the wine club girls!
Ryan specializes in the wild dance party wavy light pictures!
When Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" came out, my friend Bret and I always joked that I should pop out of a cake at my wedding to that song wearing red high heels. I didn't have the cake part, but the rest became reality! Look at Ashleigh and Will getting their groove on! So good.
Jamie and Arthur got into the dancing, too! When we came out, I found Bret in the audience, pointed at him and shouted, "This was for YOU!" 
I remember as we walked out, it hit me that we were going straight into our first dance. We had just barely practiced at home, and had never practiced with me in my heels, so I had a flash of nervousness. We don't have a particular song that fit for a first dance, so I wanted to find something classic and romantic that didn't feel trendy. We landed on "You Send Me" by Sam Cooke, who I just love and it was a great first dance song. 
Longtime readers will know that I agonized about the idea of having the ceremony and the reception in the same location, but it worked out perfectly. Having the tent frame up during the ceremony turned out to not be nearly as distracting as I thought it would be. And if you think it looks good here, wait till you see it lit up!
Photo by Elliott Robinson.
Sean and I had practiced doing little turns a few times around the house, usually with disastrous results, so I figured we'd play it safe and just sway like seventh-graders. But, much to my surprise (and pleasure), Sean said, "Let's do a twirl!" I asked him if he thought we could handle it and he said "YES!" and we commenced execution of the twirl. It was wonderful, and I was touched he was willing to try.
Photo by Elliott Robinson
My father and I agonized about the Father of the Bride dance. No one song stood out as the perfect song for us — everything seemed too corny, too suggestive, too fast, too slow. When I think of my dad dancing, I think of the twist; my dad won back-to-back twist contests at the Best Friends Festival when I was a child!
Ultimately, we decided to start out slow, dancing to "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley (one of his favorites) and then the DJ put in a sound effect to make it seem like the record was skipping and changed it to "Do You Love Me?" by The Contours. The picture above shows us pretending to be shocked! It was so much fun. We invited people to join us on the dance floor, and that moment was pure bliss; I remember looking across the floor and seeing it completely packed with happy people twisting. It was a dream come true, for serious.
Photo by Elliott Robinson
Twisting the night away!
Sean and his mother danced to "In My Life" by The Beatles, and he executed the twirl again! I missed it, but everyone told me it was lovely. 
With the wine club girls!
Ryan specializes in the wild dance party wavy light pictures!
I had this vision of a tent frame supporting cafe lights. I wanted to dance under the lights, but look up and see the stars. But many, many vendors/friends/people tried to convince me this wasn't a good idea. Right up until the week of the wedding, the vendors were calling to make sure this is what I wanted, and I don't blame them. It sounded pretty crazy.
But — sigh — isn't it beautiful? I was really, truly, deeply in love with that dance floor. I just thought it looked magical, and every time I see Pat's picture, I want to go back to that place.
I had a fantasy that all our friends from the different corners of our lives would pack the dance floor, have an amazing time and maybe, just maybe, have a dance circle. It came truuuuue!! This picture is of my dear friend Bret, who ROCKED our dance floor. So much so, in fact, that the DJ called him out and said, "The guy in the bow tie is killing it!"
Photo by Dawn Dabney
Ashleigh, rocking the dance circle!
** I'm going to do a master vendor entry, so look for that for information about our event rental folks and DJ.
No comments:
Post a Comment