The reality is that no good wedding reception is complete without a playlist of the bride and groom's favorite music, with the added combination of the lovable wacky dances that everyone gets on the dance floor for. I knew early in this wedding planning stage that I didn't want your usual tacky wedding fair. Nope, no YMCA or electric slide or country music slow dances for this girl. I want something classy, something reminiscent of a glamorous time ages past, that gets even the couple's dances MOVING, twirling and dipping and swirling.
The thought process started just a week after the two of us got home from the amazing wedding proposal trip. See, OUR song is one of those ballads that generally results in few dry eyes left in the house. While perfect for our kind of love, not exactly first dance material for a couple that longs to bust-a-move on the dance floor the minute we're announced as a married couple. I did find another dance song by accident, however, while at work actually. My cafe, however, is a place that has always had a good assortment of music fed through the speakers. Well, frankly, Sinatra saved the moment, and the rest of the story has been my own blooming love affair with some tunes danced my grandparents in old military Officer's Clubs long before i was born.
I think the music had been pulling at my heart longer than that, however.
When I think back to the most fun I ever had on a date, I remember the evening William and I headed out to Jefferson Barracks for the annual World War II reenactment, which was topped off with an inexpensive dinner and era dancing coming from the hired (REAL) Big Band. Eventually I was pulled to the dance floor, where William twirled me and dipped me and bobbed me to the sound of music we both enjoyed. So what if we made up our own steps, we faked it until we made it, and no one was the wiser.....and it was the most fun we had on a dance floor, next to couples in era costume and old lovers who were in alive when these tunes were new.
My interest is always perked when my generation recreates their version of the nostalgic sound, of course.
I'm even writing this after buying a CD of Peggy Lee tunes. I guess you guys can look forward to a night of Frank and Ella and Benny too, Cab Calloway, Billie Holliday, the Andrews sisters, you name it.
Grandma AJ and Grandpa Jim, this song's for you......looking down at us from heaven......
