Weddingbee Blog

Don’t worry, there will be no wacky, choreographed first dance at the Trail Mix wedding (although I do love a good Evolution of Dance). But it took us a while to come up with the right songs for our three dances at the beginning of the reception.

Obviously, number one is the (duh) first dance. Right after Mr Trail Mix and I got engaged, we briefly discussed using “The Idea of You”, a Dave Matthews Band song that we both love. But to be honest, we’ve never had what we would consider to be “our song” and it seemed a little random just to pick a song without having some sentimentality attached. (I’m a total guppie when it comes to sentimentality. Can ya tell?)

Then while out running one day, a random, just-downloaded song came onto my iPod and I had an “Oooooooh, this song is PERFECT!!!!!!!” moment (What? You don’t have them too?)

Behold, our first dance song, Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You, Babe!”

Tee hee, every time I listen to it, I get this huge grin on my face. Why is this song perfect for our first dance? Well, as all our friends can attest, “Babe” is pretty much the only thing we call each other. I’ve been made fun of more than once for it but I can’t help it, he’s just my “babe”, and vice versa.

It’s also a little more upbeat than the traditional slow song and we’re going to break tradition even more by inviting our guests to join us on the dance floor after the first verse and get a giant sing-along going! I think most people know at least the chorus of this song (there’s only one line and it’s the title of the song). And while it’s not The Beatles, it definitely goes with the vintage, mildly-hippie theme of the wedding.

After we’ve christened the dance floor, next up is the Horah. I’m so excited (and a little nervous, although I’ve never heard any catastrophes resulting from it) to go up in the chair! Plus, it’s a really fun song to dance and it gets everyone out on the dance floor.

And then, finally, we’ll have the father-daughter/mother-son dance. I wanted to give FMIL Trail Mix a chance to dance with Mr TM and I wanted to dance with my dad too, but felt like our guests might be bored silly watching two parent-child dances. So we (ha, OK, fine, mostly I) thought long and hard before finally picking a song that has what I think are some of the most poignant lyrics regarding parenthood ever—John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy”.

Only instead of boy, our band is going to sing child, making the song gender-neutral! And come one, tell me the line “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans” doesn’t slay you every time. I think it’s pretty hard not to be moved by this song.

I think that our music selections are a good mix of sentimentality and fun, songs that people will enjoy listening to and dancing to, and will appeal to all generations present.

How did you choose your first dance song? Did you guys have an “our song” option or did it evolve over time?