Weddingbee Blog

Given the post title, you can probably surmise that “In My Life” won out as our father-daughter dance song. Daddy PaC and I have too much fondness for The Beatles to dance to anyone else. Lyrically and sentimentally, “In My Life” made the most sense. Dancing to this song just felt right. Because of my dad’s misgivings about the tempo, Mr. PaC and I did a quick demo to show that it needed no choreography, just a general idea of how we’d move. All I had to do was follow Daddy PaC’s lead.

A proud Daddy PaC leading me onto the dance floor. (My grandmother and two aunts are framed underneath our arms.)

I’d learned a thing or two from the first dance, namely, try not to step back onto my dress. I couldn’t get away with doing it twice without falling on my face. Daddy PaC and I did pretty good for just a few minutes of practice. And were able to carry on a conversation while dancing!

When the tempo changed, we did spins. That was my beautifully simple solution. Since we know the song by heart, we anticipated the change and Daddy PaC easily lead me into a new step. For no formal lessons, he did a great job!

(Guest photos: above two photos)

The heart-melting photo below says it all. Easily in my top three! Get out your hankies, ladies!

Every daughter wants her dad to look at her this way.

We finished our dance with an elegant spin…

…and gave the dance floor to Mr. PaC and his mom. The mother-son song was Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers,” chosen by him and approved by his mom. He is a big Petty fan (his birthday surprise a month later was a concert), and the sailing lyrics resonated with both of them.

They chatted and laughed—boy did they ever laugh! His mom has a distinctive and contagious laugh. My best memory of their dance was of her laughing over and over, head thrown back (see below photo).

We have no idea what was so funny. Chalk it up to the joy of the day!

(Guest photo)

As the last bits of guitar melody faded, DJ Z invited our guests to storm the dance floor for a high-energy dance set! Those photos are up next!

(all photos by Heather Fowler Photography, unless otherwise noted)

Catch up on our PaC recaps!

Days Before

• In the days leading up to the wedding, I wanted to be sedated.
• I walked the line between calm and stressed for the better part of our rehearsal day.
• “Don’t panic” and its friends were what Mr. PaC kept telling me on the way to our rehearsal dinner.

Wedding Morning

• Best wedding morning advice: wake up slow and tackle the day at your own pace.
• Once at our venue, our DIY projects were assembled with our own two hands.
• The girls get ready with champagne and chocolate-covered potato chips.
• The guys are ready…and waiting.
• She’s mine! All mine! (The dress, that is.)
• Brown-eyed girl (and guy) portraits.
• Something old and new, borrowed, and blue.

Portraits

• My sneaky groom has a secret heart when it comes to surprises.
• A first look for the two of us plus more couples portraits in the garden.
• With brother and sister standing by, we took our bridal party and family portraits.

Ceremony

• After fretting about rain, the sun came out just as our guests arrived for the ceremony.
• Maybe I was just a little amazed at how beautifully our ceremony had started.
• After waiting 19 long months, here comes Mr. PaC’s girl!
• We spoke of love and some verses in our ceremony.

Reception

• Cocktail hour began with a rockin’ start.
• That silly “Mahna Mahna” song we used to introduce our important people.
• Our first dance shows that we are truly better together.