It started out like any other wedding day. I set up earlier
in the day, arrived back thirty minutes before my scheduled time and ran
through my checklist. As the guests started to arrive I began to play some of
that toe tapping background music. About thirty minutes into the reception
someone popped in to tell me that the wedding party had arrived so I put on a
nice long song, announced to the guests that the wedding party had arrived, and
went out to meet with them and get prepped for introductions. Once out in the
hallway I encountered a couple of wedding party members, but no bride and groom.
I was told they were checking into their hotel room and would be arriving
shortly, but after several minutes I stepped back in to the banquet room to discover
several guests with cameras ready, eagerly awaiting their arrival. I announced
that “Tyler and Ashley’ were still taking care of some business and
would be
joining us shortly. A few more trips to
the hall in the following moments revealed still no bride and groom. By this
time the guests had returned to their seats. Finally I peeked down the hall further
and noticed a commotion by the men’s restroom. I made my way there to see what
was going on and discovered a memorable sight. A few of the groomsmen, the
bride and her mother were all gathered in
the men’s restroom with the groom sprawled out on the floor. He had just
gotten sick on himself and was way intoxicated. I returned to the banquet room
and let the guests know that the groom was feeling ill and we were getting him
some attention, by this time though word was spreading through the reception.
The minister who had performed ceremony came and spoke with me and assured me
that there was no alcohol on anyone’s breath during the ceremony. Moments later
the grooms uncle, a paramedic, was summoned for help.
“Get this guy to a hospital,” I was told he said. “He has
alcohol poisoning.” It seems in their quest to celebrate the moment, the
wedding party bar hopped from the ceremony to the reception and the groomsmen
kept buying the groom shots – and he was no drinker. One of the last
times we saw the groom on his wedding day he was being carted out on a stretcher.
We can all fail miserably on our own, but success always comes with the help of others.
But this is where the story actually gets interesting. The
families decided to go ahead with dinner and I think we all anticipated that
the reception would come to a quiet close after that. But I continued my usual
routine and began ramping up the music a bit at the conclusion of dessert. To
my surprise two young ladies came to the floor and began to dance. A song or
two later several others joined them. I took a moment to approach my first two
dancers and quizzed them on what I thought would work here. They revealed to me
that the bride and a large group of her friends went country line dancing every Wednesday
night (funny that never came up at the consultation) so I had something to start
with. In just a song or two the dance floor was packed! Then someone received a
phone call: the bride was on her way back. When she arrived we were ready for
her. As she came through the door I announced “Ladies and gentleman the bride
is in the house” and went right into “I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock
and Roll” and my two lovely assistants grabbed her, pulled her onto the dance floor
and the party was on.
We did the father/daughter dance and the dollar dance. At
one point a pair of her bridesmaids pulled her to the floor, forced her into a
chair and ripped off her garter and threw it. We followed that with the bouquet
toss. With only an hour or so left in the reception the groom appeared, came
just inside the door and waved to everyone, just to let them know that he was
okay. He disappeared down the hall and the bride followed him. Things began to
wind down after that but the minister and several others approached me to tell
me what an unbelievable job I had done and could not believe how things had
turned out.
But I knew it was not only me. I searched out my two early
dancers and asked them to step out into the hallway.
“You two,” I told them, “are as responsible as anyone to
turn what could have been tragic day into a terrific one. Go to sleep tonight
knowing you are good people!”
With tears in their eyes they said they had to do it for 'Ashley.'. Within days the phone started ringing from others at their wedding that
were planning an event and would like to meet with me.
There were a few lessons that I learned or were reinforce
from this celebration. One was that Yogi Beara must have been right, it ain’t
over til it’s over. Keep looking for that spark that will ignite a fire. The
other is that we can all fail miserably on our own, but success always comes
with the help of others. Don’t be afraid to depend on that.
What will your silver lining be?
Until next time,
Michael
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