Before I knew it, cocktail hour was coming to an end and our DJ from Top Dog DJs was corralling all of the parents and members of the bridal party. We all gathered in the cookie room, adjacent to the ballroom, and got our marching orders for the grand entrance. What I remember most about those few minutes in the cookie room is how wonderful it felt to finally sit down, in air-conditioning, no less. I also remember taking a mental step back and watching all of our bridal party members plan their big entrances; there was such a light, happy anticipation in the room. As I was enjoying the temporary peace and quiet, our coordinator came in and looked a bit concerned. She said that the cake was tilting a bit, and given the increasing heat in the ballroom due to all the extra bodies, she recommended us moving the cake cutting up to earlier in the evening, which sounded A-OK to us. Once we got all that worked out, everyone was lined up, and it was time for the grand entrance to begin!
First, the parents were introduced, to Harry Connick, Jr.'s "It Had to Be You."
Then, one by one, the bridal party pairs made their way into the ballroom. Instead of doing a "traditional" entrance with each pair walking in over the course of one upbeat song, we mixed it up a bit, courtesy of a suggestion from our DJ. During one of our final planning calls, I was lamenting that I hadn't been able to pin down an entrance song for the bridal party. Offhandedly, he suggested that each pair select their own song, and he could cut the appropriate parts of the songs for the entrances, creating a cohesive sound. I am all for extra personalization, and, at that point in the planning, I was all for delegating decisions to others, so we decided to go for it.
First, we had Mr. Snow Cone's sister J and one of his college buddies JS, entering to the Star Wars theme.
Next, Mr. Snow Cone's sister A and his college friend JZ boogied into U2's "Beautiful Day."
Third, we had my college friend B and Mr. Snow Cone's college friend A. As the intro to David Bowie's "Fame" cued on the speakers, these two entered the party, looking very stoic.
... buuuuuut that didn't last very long.
Our fourth pair, my college friend E and Mr. Snow Cone's college friend S, twirled to "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence + The Machine.
Next up was my high school friend K and Mr. Snow Cone's college friend D, shaking their groove thangs to the "cool guitar intro part" (as BM K called it) from AC/DC's "Back in Black"
Our second-to-last couple, comprised of my sister B and Mr. Snow Cone's cousin F, entered to "Right Now" by Van Halen. GM F actually did a split upon entering the party, but his moves were too fast to be captured by any cameras.
Last but not least, my college friend H and Mr. Snow Cone's childhood/high school/college friend M used "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night for their entrance.
It was so fun hearing the song cues change and the crowd's reaction to each entering pair. I could tell that our bridal party was making their entrances truly grand, but we were stuck in the back of the line and couldn't see much of anything. Looking back, though, I'm really glad we did the multi-song entrance. I loved that our bridal party members got a say in this small detail, and I like to think that picking their individual song helped to loosen everybody up, resulting in a very fun set of entrances. I'm sure having a cocktail or two didn't hurt, either!
Finally, when the bridal party had made their way to their tables, it was time for the big kahunas to enter. We stood there, holding hands, and listening to the initial swell of our entrance song, our beloved The West Wing's intro music. Need a reminder? Click on the video below!
Video via YouTube
You'd think that after biding our time while nine other couples got introduced before us, we would have worked out some hugely spectacular entrance to rival our bridal party's creativity. Nope, we pretty much grinned our way into the room.
I remember being in a daze between the spectacular and significant music, the crowd, the applause, and the reality of the situation. We had entered our reception. The reception had officially started; we'd never do a grand entrance like this again. It was a bit of an out-of-body experience; thankfully, we had our toasts coming up to bring us back into the moment.
All photos by the amazing Christina Garber
- We spent a low-key night with some of my friends and family.
- We ran some errands and received some one-of-a-kind brewskies.
- I had a moderate-sized freak-out at the rehearsal.
- I went toe-to-toe with the priest over a few significant details.
- We expressed our gratitude to our bridal party, without any tears (almost)!
- We dined and drank our way through our rehearsal dinner.
- We threw an after party with a birthday twist.
- We spent the morning getting beautified and relaxing.
- A peek into the details of my wedding-day look.
- I had some private time with my mom, becoming a bride.
- I revealed my bridal look, twice!
- I enjoyed a pre-ceremony portrait session with my favorite people.
- Mr. Snow Cone’s crowd modeled for the camera.
- We set the scene for the ceremony.
- I waited like a caged tiger while the processional began.
- I finally made my way down the aisle to my handsome groom.
- We listened to the first part of our ceremony.
- We exchanged our vows and our rings.
- We wrapped our ceremony and shared our first kiss!
- We had a receiving line and posed for church portraits.
- Our wedding crashed an Amish field trip.
- Mr. Snow Cone and I strolled down a familiar street.
- We basked in the details of our beautiful reception.
- We took some fun group pictures on the golf course.
- We had a bride and groom portrait session.
- We mixed and mingled at cocktail hour.
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