Weddingbee Blog

I’ve mentioned before how inspiring the hive can be, and here is yet another example. Mrs. Doily had a fantastic idea for choosing a first dance song, and when I saw it, I promptly decided to copy her! The Archers love football, not to mention a little healthy competition, so we were super excited to create our first dance-song bracket!

We began a few days before our first dance lesson with a little “pre-draft scouting,” discussing some of the songs we were considering for our choices. Several songs had made both of our rosters, so we divvied them up, filled in the blanks, and prepared to debate our choices.The contenders included lots of country, some classic rock, some jazz—a pretty decent mix of some of our favorite genres (we’re saving the hip hop for later in the party).

Mr. Archer’s choices, in ascending order, were: “God Gave Me You” (Blake Shelton), “Let’s Stay Together” (Al Green), “All I Wanna Do” (Sugarland), “Faithfully” (Journey), “Big Green Tractor” (Jason Aldean), “Whatever It Is” (Zac Brown Band), “I Run to You” (Lady Antebellum), and “Wave on Wave” (Pat Green). My competitors, again in ascending order, were “So Small” (Carrie Underwood), “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” (Elvis Presley), “Johnny and June” (Heidi Newfield), “Ribbon in the Sky” (Stevie Wonder), “Honeybee” (Blake Shelton), “What a Wonderful World” (Louis Armstrong), “History in the Making” (Darius Rucker), and “Free” (Zac Brown Band.)

As we started discussing, some battles were easier than others. We zoomed through most of the first round, but stalled when debating “Big Green Tractor” versus “Ribbon in the Sky.” I was pushing for Stevie, well, because HELLO, and was skeptical of “Big Green Tractor” because there’s a difference between being Southern and being country (we are the first, not the second), and I can count the amount of times I’ve been on a tractor on one hand. Mr. Archer countered by turning on the song for me to listen to to the lyrics. With sweetness like, “long as I’m with you it really don’t matter/climb up in my lap and drive if you want to/girl you know you got me to hold on to,” I conceded that one. +1, Mr. A. We trucked along, and pretty soon had it narrowed down to two.

Bracket outline via printyourbrackets.com, heavily edited by me

That was was as far as we got, though. When I had spoken with the instructor via phone, she had said she’d listen to some options and guide us as to which song choice might make for better/easier dancing—a relief, since I have two left feet. So we arrived at our first dance lesson, sans final song choice but with high hopes for a simple but pretty first dance.

Unfortunately, we were disappointed. Our lesson started late and ended early—instead of the scheduled hour, it was no more than 40 minutes. She didn’t deliver on the promised song guidance, but pressured us to do a highly choreographed routine, saying that my suggestion of something simpler was “boring.” Once she’d taught us a basic box step, she gave us the hard sell on a big package of lessons (which were probably a good idea for the complicated swing routine she was still pushing). I was turned off then, and more so later when I realized that she had inflated the price of those additional lessons to compensate for the discounted package we had purchased from Lifebooker.

Anyway, Mr. A and I headed home and took matters into our own hands. By that, I mean that we danced around our living room, listening to our final two contenders. Imagining dancing to these songs on our wedding day just felt so surreal!

“History in the Making” is relaxed but upbeat, and the lyrics really could not be more appropriate for a wedding first-dance song. They speak for themselves: “Tonight, maybe tonight is the start of a beautiful ride that’ll never end. And baby I got a feeling/This could be one of those memories we wanna hold on to, cling to, the one we can’t forget./Baby this could be our last first kiss, the door to forever.” And I loved me some Hootie growing up, not gonna lie.

Zac Brown Band is one of our favorite bands ever, and “Whatever It Is” is one of our favorite songs. When it comes on while we’re driving, we can’t help but turn it up, hold hands, and sing along. With lyrics like, “When she loves me I’m on top of the world/’Cause when she loves me, I can live forever/And she loves me, I am untouchable,” I mean, do you blame me for melting into mush?

When all was said and done, we decided to go with “History in the Making” for our first-dance song, for several reasons. Though we are huge ZBB fans, we felt like the tempo and lyrics were more well suited. And we already love “Whatever It Is,” but we’re looking forward to making a wonderful memory with a special moment to a perfect new song. And maybe it’s just cause I love my BFF, Darius.

At Capitol Nashville’s CMA afterparty—nicest guy EVERRR

And as for the rest of those dance lessons—oy. Mr. A had an awkward run-in with the dance teacher at a local show (where she pressured an acquaintance to buy us dance lessons as a wedding gift—what?!), then she was snarky when we needed to postpone our second (paid for) lesson because of my busted foot. When I could hobble through the lesson, it was more of the same—minor dancing, major sales. We didn’t really learn much, so our first dance should be pretty awful, but c’est la vie!

How did you choose your first dance song—what is it? Are y’all good dancers, or will you be doing the awkward sway like us Archers?