Weddingbee Blog

copyright: Mary Mervis Photography

During my senior year of college an amazing thing happened. A dirty, lovely “rockin’ country saloon” opened on the South Side of Pittsburgh called Saddle Ridge. I was already known as “the designer who loved to line dance” at Carnegie Mellon (it’s not that popular for city chicks—go figure), when one of my photography professors suggested I do a series of photos at Saddle Ridge. 1600 photos and six months later, I had revived my passion from high school and made some of the best friends a pseudo cowgirl could ask for. Saddle Ridge is where bridesmaid Christy and I spent Thursday-Saturday nights and where we met BFF Free-J Mike.

Mr. Pineapple does not share my passion for dancing in a line, but he is really good at hanging out by the bar, spectating, and keeping my water cup full. So with a few of my Saddle Ridge friends in attendance and running the music machine, there was definitely a lot of line dancing happening at our wedding. Sister Pineapple ran the family camcorder by setting it atop her table, so the video is not of great quality (hello booties in front of the lens), but I thought you might like to see a bride attempt to boot scoot in a huge gown.

First we have a dance to a song called “Life’s a Dance” by John Michael Montgomery. This video starts with the end of “Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy” by Big & Rich, where you can see Mr. P next to me dancing along by spinning in circles. Hey, at least he tried. This is one of the most exhausting of our favorite line dances. After it was over I plopped into my chair and attempted to cool off. Luckily I had ditched my crinoline in the bathroom earlier (It was much too hot with all those layers). Look out for the part where Mike tries to hold my gown up for me. The other fella in the video is Mike’s brother Ryan.

Next we have one of the first dances Mike taught Christy and me. We call it “chicken”, because it goes to a song called “I Play Chicken With The Train” by Cowboy Troy and Big & Rich. Even though there weren’t many to attempt the dance with us, you can hear some people singing along. Gooood times.

One of the hardest parts about line dancing in a wedding gown was when my hair fell in my face. My choices were to A) drop my dress to fix my hair and potentially trip over my gown and kiss the floor, or B) deal with it. I went with option B.

Do you have plans to do something you are passionate about at your wedding?