Alexxus Entertainment: Wedding Stories: A Silver Lining

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.

And I guess there is a third, and that is I guess it’s true, a wedding day is the brides day. Who needs a groom?

What will your silver lining be?
Until next time,
Michael

Questions? click the pic ↓