30 Year Wedding Anniversary
Today I celebrate 30 wonderful married years with my beautiful wife Judicia. And the occasion brought me back to early 1988 when we spent a day trying to figure out what songs we wanted at our wedding.
My first suggestion, being the Elvis Presley fan that I am, was to have one of his songs played. Luckily, the music store we went to had the sheet music of "Can't Help Falling In Love". Perfect. But how about two songs that would be played as we walked up the aisle and after the ceremony? This was more of a puzzler. We rejected many until my wife came upon a Stevie Wonder deep cut from 1972's Talking Book album, "You and I." I had the album, but couldn't remember the song very well. But she insisted it was a good one. And she was right. So, that was would be used as the walk out of the church song. Opening the ceremony? We both agreed upon Roberta Flack's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." One of my wife's friends was a singer and she did both of those at the wedding.
A true story. When we met the Minister to go over the wedding details, he asked about the music. I gave him a copy of the Elvis song, and to my surprise he said it wouldn't be a good choice! Why? Because there's a lyric in their about "sin". So, I calmly explained to him that Elvis wasn't singing about that kind of sin, but it didn't matter. On and on he went about how we shouldn't do the song. I said we'll take the word out of the song, but he said people knew the song too well. No matter how much I told him that Elvis wasn't singing about the sin he thought he was singing about, he wouldn't listen.
Yea, I got frustrated, but if we ever renew our vows, "Can't Help Falling In Love" will be it.
On to the reception. We hired a local band. The thing I remember about them was they reminded me of Gloria Estefan & the Miami Sound Machine. Lead singer was a female Hispanic and the band mostly Latinos as well. Remember this is 1988, and Estefan's sound is very popular. But they were good.
The question was what song would we use for our first dance. I couldn't think of another Elvis song to use. My wife loves Old School Soul Music and so do I. We eventually landed on the Stylistics' 1974 hit "You Make Me Feel Brand New".
Two songs, that whenever I hear today, take me back to April 23, 1988. I hope music has and continues to play a part in whatever life brings your way.
My first suggestion, being the Elvis Presley fan that I am, was to have one of his songs played. Luckily, the music store we went to had the sheet music of "Can't Help Falling In Love". Perfect. But how about two songs that would be played as we walked up the aisle and after the ceremony? This was more of a puzzler. We rejected many until my wife came upon a Stevie Wonder deep cut from 1972's Talking Book album, "You and I." I had the album, but couldn't remember the song very well. But she insisted it was a good one. And she was right. So, that was would be used as the walk out of the church song. Opening the ceremony? We both agreed upon Roberta Flack's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." One of my wife's friends was a singer and she did both of those at the wedding.
A true story. When we met the Minister to go over the wedding details, he asked about the music. I gave him a copy of the Elvis song, and to my surprise he said it wouldn't be a good choice! Why? Because there's a lyric in their about "sin". So, I calmly explained to him that Elvis wasn't singing about that kind of sin, but it didn't matter. On and on he went about how we shouldn't do the song. I said we'll take the word out of the song, but he said people knew the song too well. No matter how much I told him that Elvis wasn't singing about the sin he thought he was singing about, he wouldn't listen.
Yea, I got frustrated, but if we ever renew our vows, "Can't Help Falling In Love" will be it.
On to the reception. We hired a local band. The thing I remember about them was they reminded me of Gloria Estefan & the Miami Sound Machine. Lead singer was a female Hispanic and the band mostly Latinos as well. Remember this is 1988, and Estefan's sound is very popular. But they were good.
The question was what song would we use for our first dance. I couldn't think of another Elvis song to use. My wife loves Old School Soul Music and so do I. We eventually landed on the Stylistics' 1974 hit "You Make Me Feel Brand New".
Two songs, that whenever I hear today, take me back to April 23, 1988. I hope music has and continues to play a part in whatever life brings your way.
posted by Tom Lane at 3:00 AM
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