Wedding Week 3: First Dance and Cake

Good morning!

Thanks for all the well wishes yesterday! We're speeding right along with wedding week to bring you pictures of the first dance and the other post-ceremony events of our big day. Lo, look upon us shaking a tail feather on an impromptu dance floor (this first one might be my favorite wedding photo):

I preface these photos by mentioning I had made the greatest and best reception mix of all time especially for the occasion. Matthew and I are both almost too into FM Gold hits of the late seventies' and early eighties'-- bands like REO Speedwagon and my beloved Huey Lewis and the News don't have the street-cred-earning weight of saying how much I love Lou Reed or Bryan Ferry, but by godfrey, I love them just as much on the eight hundredth rotation of "Roll with the Changes" or "Heart and Soul" as I did the first time. And I ain't ashamed! 

The playlist was built around that criterion and that time frame. My dad bailed on my proposed father-daughter dance of A Taste of Honey's "Boogie Oogie Oogie" (and, honestly, disco of that calibre requires 100% commitment on the dance floor, so I'll give him a pass). I thought I would probably just have music at the reception, but no "formal" dancing. However, in a split second decision as speeches by Rob, my dad, Matthew's dad, Kelsey, Ernest, and Noah wrapped up, Matthew cued our song from the playlist and led me to the front of the room for our first dance.

What song did we choose? "September", by Earth, Wind and Fire, which goes a little bit like this:

Do you remember the 21st night of September?
Love was changing the mind of pretenders
While chasing the clouds away
Our hearts were ringing
In the key that our souls were singing
As we danced in the night
Remember, how the stars stole the night away, yeah yeah yeah
Hey hey hey
Ba de ya, say do you remember
Ba de ya, dancing in September
Ba de ya, never was a cloudy day

COULD IT BE. MORE PERFECT. IT COULD NOT. The sentimental, sweet, upbeat feeling of the song, and dancing with my Bab, made me stop worrying about looking dumb in front of everyone and just have a fabulous time with my brand new husband. He's such a cute dancer, too, that it was hard not to feel like this dance was our victory lap after months of planning.

I only almost cried three times at the wedding-- once during Matthew's dad's speech, once during my dad's speech, and once as I hugged my parents after leaving the dance floor directly after the first dance. "You know," my dad said, in the pontificating way he starts many a sentence, "It's funny, but I always thought, wedding traditions like first dance and all that were kind of dumb, and people just did them because they had to. But watching you all out there, you just looked so happy, like the definition of a beaming bride, and I thought, 'This is really nice'." Cue stifling of waterworks of an amazing proportion. That's why I especially like that last photo I posted, where my dad's looking on as I'm laughing at some complicated footwork Matthew's perpetrating. Memories!

We let Rob, as the farthest-traveling guest, be our witness as we signed our marriage certificate to make it legitimate legitimate. Here are some photos Oznur took of the happy event:

Kelsey's mom, Linda, with help from her friends Charli and Carolyn, made this wedding cake for us! I think it looks gorgeous, and the little ornaments on top were just exactly the right size! There was also a chocolate mousse flanked on the table by two sprites from Castlevania for the "groom's cake" (you knew Matthew was going to get a retro video game reference in there somewhere, right?).

As Monica, our photographer, was taking photos of the slicing of the cake and all that jazz, I got nervous over the "feeding cake to each other" part, which I was worried would look too weird, cuddly, babyish to be cute in the photos. Matthew solved this problem for me by pretending to feed me, then redirecting his fork's course straight into his own mouth. The resultant Kodak moment you see below (thanks to Matthew's cousin, Rachel):

I mean, if that doesn't deserve to be hanging over the mantle in our family home, I don't know what does. 

Did you do a first dance? If I hadn't done "September", and gone with an earlier idea of doing all forties' and fifties' songs, I think Louis Armstrong's version of "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" would have been our first dance. What song/era/reception playlist did you choose? What thought governed your choice? I have to say, the best first dances at a wedding I've been to were at my friend Caroline's, where she and her dad danced to "Nothing Can Change This Love" by Sam Cooke, and she and her husband danced to "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison. SERIOUSLY. IT WAS LIKE IN A MOVIE. 

I think I'll do a lightening fast Photo Friday tomorrow of our honeymoon in Jamaica, then it's back to your regularly scheduled vintage posts! Bear with me, and I'll see you tomorrow for some tropical souvenir snaps. Til then!

Bonus: You know you want to stream this completely awesome reception mix. Check it out: