Surprises and Secret Dances {Wedding Recaps}

Last week, I told you all about the dancing. 

But, I'd saved a few special dances for their very own post. And here it is!

I had picked out the song for our father-daughter dance many many years ago. When I was little, my dad would always sing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to me. Even though it isn't a traditional father-daughter song, its always been our song and I really wanted to use it for our dance.

The original plan was to surprise my dad with the song, but he had picked out a different song ("I Loved Her First") so I decided to tell him my plan and let him decide. Fortunately, he was totally on board with my song. 

Photo Credit: Ruby Star Photography

Turns out, he'd thought of it, but was worried it was non traditional and harder to dance to. But we practiced dancing to it over the summer, and it was perfect that day!

There was another surprise at the wedding though. AJ's mom passed away while he was in college, and at first, he was not planning to have a dance. But, a few months before the wedding, he told me that he would like to dance with my mom, and wanted to keep it a surprise from her.

Photo Credit: Ruby Star Photography

He chose "When You Need Me", one of my mom's favorite Bruce Springsteen songs. And she was totally surprised! I'm really glad we were able to keep this one a secret!

There was one more secret at the wedding. Man - I didn't realize how many secrets and surprises were involved in this wedding until I started writing this post!

My brother is definitely more reserved that I am. As in, really funny and sarcastic and probably the funniest person I know I say probably so my husband and father don't get upset, but he definitely is, but he doesn't like to be forced to be the center of attention.

Normally, that is just fine, since I love to be the center of attention. It worked out really well growing up, most of the time. But this time, I really wanted to dance to "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story with my brother. And he didn't want everyone to stop what they were doing and look at us out on the dance floor all by ourselves. So we planned a secret dance.

Photo Credit: Ruby Star Photography

Basically, the DJ warned up right before he played the song, but he didn't tell anyone else what was going on. Of course, it didn't stop everyone who knows us both from gathering around us in a circle!

And it didn't stop me from singing along with every word of the song (much to the surprise/shock/dismay of my brother...)

But it was so great to be able to share that special moment with him, especially since we haven't lived in the same state since he went off to college...seven years ago!

Our last dance, which was a surprise to us when planning our wedding was our "second dance". When our DJ asked what song we wanted for our second dance, I was so confused! I'd never heard of a second dance before.

But basically, after the parent dances, AJ and I were called out to dance to another song that is special to us, "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking". And unlike the first dance, after the first part of the song, we asked all of our guests to join us.

Photo Credit: Ruby Star Photography

Did you have, or have you seen, a second dance before? What surprises did you have in your wedding?

Find more from Katie Stories here:
twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin