Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Wedding Wednesday: The Last First Dance


Jon and I don't have an "our song." It's never really bothered me - though I think we should all take this opportunity to listen to Taylor Swift's take on it - and, honestly, we kind of have different taste in music anyway so the chances of us agreeing on contemporary singers/bands is kind of rare. But, obviously, we had to come together to pick a first dance song.  After all, it's the last first dance we'll ever have!

My attitude is that the first dance ranks up in the top five most traditional moments of a wedding, so I didn't feel like we had to get super creative in choosing a song. But it won't surprise those of you who have been around for a while that Jon hated the idea of doing something that makes it onto every "most popular" list, so he rejected a few of the possibilities I proposed.  He didn't really have his own ideas for this, though, and we sort of stumbled along for the better part of a year before another expat blogger, a Scot married to her handsome American, told me what their first dance song was and it just clicked.  I mean, it was one of those "why didn't we think of that?" moments.  When I mentioned it to Jon, he, surprised, said he liked it, and we seized on that as success.  (He has since become much more enthusiastic about it, I promise.)  I won't name my friend or link to her blog* even though you might be able to guess who she is because I think she wrote about it there, too, and I want it to be a surprise for you, dear readers!

In the meantime, though, I thought I'd share some of the other options I'd have been happy with.  My absolute favorite was the Norah Jones cover of Elvis' Love Me Tender; I feel no shame in telling you that I discovered this version while watching The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.  (It's the part where Anne Hathaway is dancing with Chris Pine by the lake even though she's supposed to be marrying an English lord.  You know, the scene with the most romantic thumb war ever?  That one.)  I don't think I actually suggested In My Life, by the Beatles, to Jon though I'm not sure why, and I know I didn't bring up The Way You Look Tonight or Dream a Little Dream because he would have shot them down as too cliché.  I did suggest The Rolling Stones' Wild Horses, but I'm pretty sure he thought I was kidding.

But, in the end, the song we've chosen with is so appropriate for us and it's not too much of a ballad - it's got some pep, which is ideal because we plan to ask a few strategic guests to join us on the dance floor with their dates after a minute or so to start the party. If you're reading this and are coming to our wedding, please help us out!

And tell me - what did you have as your first dance song?  Or what will you have?  Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with thinking about it ahead of time even if you're single.  You're being proactive!  It's cool.


*The blogger knows and I'll note her name and blog here after our wedding, don't worry!  She definitely deserves public credit for this.

P.S. Have you checked out TripCommon and entered the giveaway yet?

21 comments:

  1. We're going to dance on two songs - one that is appropriate for weddings and pretty and lovey dovey, and then the second - our song, which is Afrikaans and not really a wedding song. But we're going to do them both.

    Strange that you guys never had a song though.


    http://waitingformeg.blogspot.com

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  2. Gavin and I dance to Alanis Morrisette Head Over Feet, lyrically it touched many a chord [no pun intended] with us, plus with a wedding ceremony featuring The Cure and Queen, it seemed appropriate to continue with the rock theme.

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  3. Your first dance story sounds a lot like ours, haha. My husband was against anything that sounded cliche, even if it wasn't a well known song but sounded like a "first dance song." Finally, one day he suggested "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green and I LOVED the idea. It was so much more fun than all of the other songs, and we didn't feel like we had to choreograph a dance to be able to dance to it. And like you, we had our bridal party join us after about a minute to kick off the dancing! One of my favorite memories from the day.

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  4. We definitely didn't have a song either so we ended up picking the Norah Jones love me tender cover. I incorporated "love me tender, love me true, all my dreams fulfilled, for my darling I love you and I always will" into the front cover design of the ceremony program too which is a touch I loved and probably no one else noticed since the ceremony obviously came before the reception. We didn't ask anyone to join us for our first dance and I'm happy about that because the day went SO fast and we had so many people from out of town to talk to that it was one of the few minutes that I felt was just us and everything else faded into the background and we could really take in that we were finally married. Also in terms of pictures it was the only time that the photographer was able to get a photo of just us dancing. I really wish I had left my dress unbusselled for the dance as well since I loved the train the most about the dress and it would've shown in the pictures. Can't wait to hear what you picked!

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  5. OK, so you definitely need to email me and fill me in on the song as Jurgen and I don't have one, and like you and Jon, are very unlikely to settle on one ourselves. All help is appreciated! ;) I'm so curious as to what it is now :)


    xxx
    Jenna

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  6. Lindsay @ Trial By SapphireJune 19, 2013 at 10:34 AM

    The closest thing my husband and I have ever had to a song is "Home" by Michael Buble -- you know, long distance and all. Obviously, that song is kind of depressing and not appropriate for a celebratory wedding reception first dance! We planned to have our first dance to "Me and Mrs. You" (it fit the theme of our dinner music, and we love that it's catchy and not sappy), but... he surprised me with a song of his own. (I am the singer in the relationship, so it was super ballsy and romantic of him to do that!)

    Can't wait to hear about all the wedding details after the fact!

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  7. Ha! I have, like, 10 first dance songs picked out in my head. I was totally in love with the idea of Norah Jones's "Come Away With Me" for a long time, after it was used at a wedding I attended back in high school. I still love it as a first dance song [largely because I LOVE that song in general], but I think when it comes time for me to get married I want something with a little more pep. something that's cheerful instead of slow-burning.

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  8. Georgia ChristakisJune 19, 2013 at 11:21 AM

    Not gonna lie, Peter and I talk about this ALL the time. We are both music geeks and it just comes up somehow (I guess we love each other? lol.) It will probably end up being something a little rock n' roll that just might make people a bit confused, but music is so important to us both that I don't think either of us care too much ;) Love the idea of using wild horses! I can't wait to see what song you and Jon settled on!

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  9. My husband and I got married at Christmastime, so our song was Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas." We both always loved that song before and obviously it fit the theme!

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  10. Joe sort of left the music up to me --- I'm pretty particular about what I listen to and often have somewhat 'eccentric' tastes. I put together my list, we listened to it and I'm pretty sure he didn't veto anything. The first dance, oddly enough, wasn't the song I was most focused on - I probably spent more time on the ceremony stuff.

    I walked down the aisle to 'Today' by Joshua Radin
    Signing of the register 'First Day of My Life' by Bright Eyes
    Walked out to 'Kingdom Come' by Coldplay and 'Better Together' by Jack Johnson & Paula Fuga

    And then First Dance was 'Sea of Love' by Cat Power
    Parents Dance was 'Forever Young' by Bob Dylan

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  11. There's a scene with a romantic thumb war? Now... I'm going to have to watch Princess Diaries 2! :)

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  12. We've never had an "our song" either, and I'm sure part of that is because Paul doesn't like much music. (I know- I think he should be tested.)

    "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" (EJ and Kiki Dee) is one to which we'll both sing along, doing our respective gender duet roles, but I can't remember if that started before or after we actually got married.

    For our "first dance" we chose "Let's Stay Together" (Rev. Al Green). Not only is it a fantastic song, but we've always approached our relationship as a sort of hard-work-that's-worth-it kind of thing rather than a fairy-tale-everything's-rosy thing, so it seemed fitting. Then we had people tell us it's a divorce song. Thanks. We actually talked about "They Can't Take That Away From Me" (Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's version), but that one WE felt was too ambiguous on the split-up factor.



    Now I'm off to do some investigating to figure out this mystery song of yours... ;)

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  13. Jenni @ Flying on a RainbowJune 19, 2013 at 1:04 PM

    We don't have a song either, so our first dance song was decided by taking a list of possibilities and both checking off the ones we liked, and comparing our lists. We ended up with When I Fall In Love by Nat King Cole, which was kind of last minute as I changed my mind on our original choice a few days before!

    We asked guests to join us on the dance floor after the first chorus, but nobody did! We had to dance the whole song by ourselves, we weren't pleased! Haha!

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  14. We also didn't have a song. We ended up dancing to Garth Brooks' cover of Bob Dylan's To Make You Feel My Love b/c Garth was my favorite growing up and Bob was (is) Ben's. So it was a good combo for us. I danced to the Way You Look Tonight with my Dad, and he danced to the Beatles' In my Life with his mom so we actually hit a couple on your list with the other dances. I think now we would maybe choose a song by the Avett Brothers b/c they are both of our absolute favorites although I'm not positive Murder in the City sets the right mood to a wedding. :)

    Looking forward to hearing about yours!

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  15. We did All You Need Is Love (Lynden David Hall) from the movie Love Actually. I've always loved that song and movie :)

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  16. We danced to Be Mine by David Gray. I think I know which blogger it is and it was a great song! Sorry we didn't get in touch, next time I am in DC :)

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  17. We have a song, In your eyes (Peter Gabriel), but it just did not seem like a first dance song so we had it on our playlist for later on in the evening. Then we picked More (Bobby Darin) and took dance lessons since we lacked classical dance moves. The whole thing became way to drawn out, fox trot quick quick slow slow, and cumbersome so we axed it a few weeks before the wedding and chose Love (Nat King Cole). Love is peppy enough but not to snappy like More and both have a sweet sentiment. Any song you choose will always hold special memories because it was your first dance song.

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  18. We didn't have a dance but we knew we wanted to incorporate the fact we fell in love whilst driving around the UK and USA listening to Whiskeytown. So our friend played 'Crazy about You' on the piano as we walked up the aisle.

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  19. We danced to Ray Lamontagne's You are The Best Thing

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  20. I have never been close to getting married but I always, at the back of my mind, had an idea what my wedding song would be with guys I've been kind of serious with. [It's less weird than it sounds, honest!]



    One was Swing Life Away by Rise Against. The other was The Only Exception by Paramore. Obviously they're now completely off any possible future list now!!


    soweliveforever.com

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  21. Nice collection of wedding songs! ♥ I could add these to my very own favorites =) Thank you!

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