The first dance at a wedding, don't you just love it? Slow song, fast song, mixed songs, choreographed or not.. they always seem just a little bit awkward, but a whole lot wonderful. Awkward because this very well may be the groom's first time dancing, and even if it isn't, it's more than likely his first time with an audience. Gulp. And sometimes it's not the groom with the two left feet, but it's the bride, which can be even more awkward than the previous situation... But in every case, the first dance is a whole lot wonderful. Wonderful because they are so excited, wonderful because you know the love song they are dancing to (aaaaaaat laaaaaaast), and wonderful since it's the first time you get a good look at that gorgeous dress the bride is wearing. (my loooove has come along...)
When choosing songs, most couples use "their song". For whatever reason, in all the years we dated, hubs and I didn't have "a song", and we really aren't the gushy romantic types anyways, so we felt silly just picking one out of a hat. But, we do love to shag dance. For those of you who live under a rock, the shag is the official state dance of South Carolina. It's a form of swing dancing done to beach music, or what us Carolina people just refer to as shag music. There are so many good shagging tunes out there, too. From the Swinging Medallions, Chairmen of the Board, to the Catalinas, you could just about drift away to Charleston and never come back. And so, hubs and I decided we would use our favorite shagging song for our first awkward and wonderful dance.
"Stagger Lee" by Lloyd Price.
(images by Gene Ho Photography)
So, fast forward to the present. Hubs and I recently celebrated birthdays. We both decided that this year we wouldn't do presents since we had just bought the house and all that comes along with that. However, I wanted to get him just a little something that he could open on his day. I've blogged about my good friend Melissa before, talented graphic designer and friend from college (check her work out here: http://gidstudio.com/splash.html). She came to my rescue yet again. I'd seen this idea on Pinterest (noticing a trend here?) of putting your wedding song lyrics on canvas. I thought the idea was cool, but I wanted a designer to make it look better than my scribble scrabble on paper. I told Melissa I wanted something graphic and farmhouse-ish to relate to the rest of our home. Here's what she came up with:
We love it, and hubs was thrilled. He couldn't believe I had "found" this somewhere. I told him I hadn't, but instead had it specially made for him. If you didn't know, my husband is really against what he calls "stock" art. He likes things that are meaningful that no one else has, so I guess this passed the hubs' test. And so, now greeting us every morning we walk downstairs is the memory of our own awkward wonderful moment. The first dance.
