Here Comes The Bride

About two weeks ago I received a call at my office while I was in the midst of trying to complete three or four projects on time. The call came from a young lady who said that she and I used to sing together in a group of high school age people back in my youth group days called Christ Messengers. Now, I remember the group with tremendously found memories but I didn’t remember the woman’s name. She explained that she was four years younger than I so that should be the reason for me not remembering her (that, and not seeing her for over 25 years).

She went on to explain that she was getting married in two weeks and she would like me to sing at her wedding. The wedding was to take place at the same church, which I still attend. I checked my calendar to see if I had anything special happening on the day and it looked clear. I asked her what music she would like and she said that anything that I liked would be fine. I thought that it was a little strange but I figured I’d go through all of my music that I’ve sung at weddings and make a nice selection.

Jump ahead 10 days. As I am driving home from picking up Dani from her dance classes one night it hits me, I have a wedding to sing at in a few days and I haven’t even thought about looking for music. After getting home and going through the old stand-bys for weddings I thought that since I was able to choose which music to sing I would take advantage of the situation and sing something that I really liked. I decided upon I Chose Right from Baby. Even though I love this song (and musical) the song has some history for me. My ex-wife Mary and I used to listen to this musical when we were engaged and I Chose Right was our first dance at our wedding. I have to let the cat out of the bag; I am a big sentimental fool. I even tear up at McDonald’s Christmas commercials and don’t even get me started on Extreme Makeovers Home Edition.

I sent the lyrics to the bride-to-be and never heard anything back from her. I don’t understand brides; just because it’s a few days before the wedding they think that they are too busy to spend a lot of time with us peons. Anyway, I made it to the wedding, ran through the song with the accompanist and it felt pretty good. I was out in the hallway before the ceremony and I was introduced to the groom. He looked at me and said, “I know you. I used to have season tickets for the West End and I think I’ve seen every show you’ve done there.” He was very pleased to have me singing at his wedding, a nice surprise.

The wedding went great and the song went just as I had hoped. I was glad that I could share a song that brought me a lot of joy. (Oh my gosh, I am so corny) Afterwards I spoke with the bride (I still didn’t recognize her but she was beautiful, all brides are beautiful, aren’t they?) and mentioned to her that her husband told me that they had been to West End many times. She rolled her eyes and said “Oh, that was his ex.” Glad that I was able to bring up his ex at her wedding.

I didn’t go to the reception but had a few couples come up to me in the narthex of the church saying how much they missed the West End. It really did bring pleasure to many people, not just us actors.