Tuesday, November 4, 2008

"We are Man and Wife"

I always thought I wanted the song "At last" by Etta James as my first dance wedding song.
I waited for years to find a husband.
I did everything I wanted to do before I settled down.
(Well mostly.)
But when my younger sister decided to use that song for her wedding, I knew I could no longer use it.
I was slightly crushed.
So I was on the look out for a new song.
And even though there are a million and one wedding first dance songs, none of the lists I could find were good enough.
They just didn't fit us.
They were too cheesy. Too lovey dovey.
And our other song "Chasing Cars" just wouldn't work as a first dance song.

One day I happened to be stalking my photographer's, Scoobie, website.
He always played cool music in his galleries and then I heard the song.
"We are Man and Wife" by Michelle Featherstone.
It was perfect for us.

Not so perfect were our dancing skills.
I did not want the high school prom reinactment.
So my darling husband said we could take dance lessons.
About six weeks before the wedding we started going.

It was fun.
It was a lot of fun to do together.
We did the class method where you are there with about six other couples.
We danced with various other partners and not just the partner we came with.
I loved looking around the room to see him.
Make eye contact.
Smile.
Tease him about dancing with some of the other girls.
And in true Roger style, tease me about some of my other dance partners.

After a couple classes, we asked the instructor if we could play our first dance song in the studio.
"No problem. I will give you a few pointers too."
So after class, we put it on with me in my wedding shoes.
I put my hand into his and Roger placed his hand on my shoulder blade.
I looked into Roger's eyes.
This song was so much more perfect than "At last".
We did the foxtrot to it but just slowed it down quite a bit.
The piano music in the song is so great.
Michelle Featherstone's voice is amazing.
It expressed my love and all my thoughts about Roger.

I had to let Roger lead. Which was hard for a control freak like me.
I want to know whats next. It's in the planner in me.
Since we were super cool, we could do several different foxtrot moves.
But Roger was in charge.
And I think he liked to try to trick me.
To try to surprise me with a spin or something.

We practiced Thursday before the wedding in our dining room.
I couldn't help but giggle.
Roger trying to surprise/trick me more.
I also had on my crinoline to try to be more like the real day.
I'm sure it was quite the sight.

On Saturday, February 23, we did it for real.
I giggled through the whole thing.
I kept messing up.
But no one knew.
My dress hid everything.
So of course, I had to give Roger a hard time.
"If you mess up, everyone will know. But I get to hide under the dress."
And I tried really hard to let Roger lead.
Finally we were man and wife.

1 comment:

Lisa said...

Aww what a great story. I love the song you chose. I had never listened to it before, but you're right the piano, Michelle's voice, and the lyrics are all beautiful.