Weddingbee Blog

Like so many people, Mr. Daisy and I have begun taking dance lessons, in order to prepare ourselves for our wedding and also to eliminate my great reluctance to dance at *any* wedding since I kinda, sorta suck at it. (Dancing, that is).*

Through our wedding planner, we were referred to Pierre Dulaine Dance Club, surprisingly conveniently located right near the N/Q train. (Which, in turn, is right near both of our offices).

One Saturday (way back in the springtime) we went for a free consultation and met with Pierre Dulaine himself. This is the guy that’s played by Antonio Banderas in the recent film Take the Lead (no, I haven’t seen it either, but here’s a summary).

(ok, this picture is not from that movie, but was so ridiculous, I couldn’t not use it. For reals.)

Anyway, Pierre is charming, debonair, knowledgeable–all that you’d hope to have in an instructor. However, Pierre was not to be our instructor. Instead, we were working with Vanessa, who kicks equal ass, and is really spunky, fun and easy to understand. We decide to learn four basic dances, rather than a single choreographed wedding song dance: the foxtrot (for slower songs), rumba (haven’t really figured out where this one goes), swing (for rock songs) and merengue (for fast songs, presumably with a Latin flair).

Feeling like actually teaching me to dance is an actual attainable possibility, we take a couple of lessons. I find out that, while Mr. Daisy is a “natural,” I am a little, well, less natural. I have absolutely no sense of where “quick, quick, slow” fits into the music, and my dance steps appear a lot more akin to marching than they do to dancing. Be that as it may, I press on and I think we get about four lessons in. But then scheduling becomes a problem, and we take a summer hiatus.

A couple of weeks ago, as we realize our wedding was happening kind of soon, we decided to re-up on the dance lessons and schedule the remaining six in our package of ten. They’re on Monday nights, and it’s the perfect time. Except– Mr. Daisy has not been able to go with me yet. Work has been kicking his ass until after midnight, or so. This means that last Monday as well as last night, Vanessa and I have spent hours perfecting our dance moves. This would be all well and good, if it were Vanessa with whom I’d be dancing at my wedding (because, as her instructor status might indicate, she’s f’n awesome at dancing). However, it’s actually Thurston who is my intended dance partner, so there’s the rub. Since his work ought to let up in the next couple of weeks, this may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, since I’m the one who needs the extra work. We shall see!

In the meantime, though, something bizarre is happening. I am even getting excited about learning to dance. Notwithstanding the hid-E-ous shoes I bought to wear for practice:

Now I am even wondering if we should do a choreographed first dance. Will I even be able to pull it off? What do you plan to do (or have done) about this stuff? Wing it? Learn steps? Act out the whole end dance scene from Dirty Dancing (a no-longer-secret dream of Mr. Daisy’s)?