Oh Lord I feel fine today
I'm walking on cloud nine today
I'm over that line today
Happiness is finally mine today
I guess I'm just a lucky guy
And I'm prepared to tell you why
It's strictly on account of my
Sweet Potato Pie
Ray Charles featuring James Taylor
"Hey Mercy!"
"Hey Sam." Mercedes adjusted the webcamera so Sam could see her clearly. "You want to tell me again why I'm talking to you on Skype and not in real life?"
"Sure, In no particular order. Stevie and Stacey are about the age I was when I left home. I think I missed too much and I don't want to miss it again. Another reason, the house we bought. It needs a lot of work. It's not in a dive neighborhood but the people who built it must have been crazy. I know they're crazy cause there's a clause in the contract that we can't tear the house down. That's why it didn't sell, people just wanted the lot, not the house. It's a beautiful lot in a good school zone."
Mercedes laughed. "Listen to you, worrying about school zones."
"Right, I don't have much need of that but Stevie and Stacey are still in high school. Plus it's good for resale value. Anyway, the three of us are renovating the house. The way it was laid out is crazy. That's their job, supplying the labor."
"You know how to renovate a house?"
"Some. My dad and I did some work together. Before."
"Are they as hard working as you are?" Mercedes rushed past the sadness that 'before' represented.
"Stacey and Juan, her boyfriend, are hard working. Stevie, not so much. He likes to take off his shirt and leans against the fence until some neighbor girl shows up with lemonade."
"Does that work?"
"Pretty much. He's got the local girls trained."
"I guess a female heart isn't safe when the Evans boys are in town."
"One of the Evans boys has a heart that's already taken." He blew her a kiss from Nashville.
"So again, why are we hundreds of miles apart?"
"I'm playing hard to get." He said with a coy smile.
"That's such bull-shit!"
"No, really. I got this plan from Joe."
"Joe Hart? He's got no game."
"It only took him three months to get the girl he wanted so he must have something. They came down to Nashville, Patrice and Kurt. A songwriting junket their publisher sent them on. It was for some reality show winner, they're having two songs on the album. Anyhow, Joe came along for the ride and he helped me with the house during the day while Patrice and Kurt were working..."
"So how's married life?" Sam and Joe sat on the front steps of the new house, waiting for Stacey and Juan to get back from the hardware store. Stevie had disappeared with the girl who lived next door.
"It's beautiful!" Joe smiled thinking about his new life.
"Beautiful?" Most men wouldn't use that word, but Joe's not most men.
"Yes. To tell you the truth, at first I was a little worried. I mean, Patrice has had more experience in some things than I have." Awkward, Sam thought, but Joe ploughed on. "I worried that maybe she'd be disappointed, that I wouldn't compare well." Really awkward, Sam thought. "But then, the night before the wedding, I realized something. Jeremy, my youngest brother, wanted to play Candyland. Over and over again. That gets old, you know? But not to Patrice. She played it four times with him. Turns out she'd never played it before. Never. We'd discussed children, not eight but two maybe three, and she'd been worried that she wouldn't be a good mother, based on how she' been raised, Spending time with my family reassured her that I'd know what to do. So see, we could teach each other and that's beautiful. You know?"
"So the whole long distance thing was okay?"
"Yes, for the most part. Yes because it forced us to talk, that was all we could do so we know each other really well, better than most couples I know. No because, well, she's really beautiful. That last week, when she was staying at the bed and breakfast? That was torture. If she'd been in town the whole time I don't think I could have waited and waiting made the wedding night more special. You know?"
"Not really."
"Okay, not to be too nosy but I'm guessing you could get plenty of women if you wanted to, but according to Stevie you don't. Why not?"
Damn, some of Patrice's bluntness was rubbing off on Joe. "There's women I kinda like. Take Linda, the real estate agent that found us this house. I'm thinking I might..."
"Sam, there's a reason they call it making love, not making like. I think you know who you love, but yet you're waiting. Same thing with her. You should see the way guys slobber when she starts singing. She just smiles politely and shoves them out the door. Why the wait?"
"And I couldn't answer that question. I love you, I always have, but sometimes it's like we don't really know each other. Think about it, the only time we were together like a couple I was working and you were babysitting. You spent more time with Stevie and Stacey than you did with me. Then, when I came back, we spent most of our time hiding from Shane. And about the webshow? Totally my fault for overreacting, I blamed you when I would have been grateful for anybody else's help. And now when I come up to Lima to visit, I can't keep my hands off you. This is enforced talking."
Mercedes frowned. "I guess it's better than letters. And for the record, I'm sorry about the webshow too. I shouldn't have been so secretive about it. I'm not sure what my logic was but I never wanted you to feel like it was charity, like I didn't really believe in you. I always thought it was a money-making idea, that once people saw a few episodes they'd get it. What I hate is the fact that I'm getting good at long-distance romance. If we had known that 10 years ago think of all the heartache we would have saved. When are you coming up for a visit and the handsy part?"
"Next month, for a whole week."
"Great, I'll get Marti used to the idea. Shit!" They were interrupted by the sound of screaming in Spanish. "Sorry Sam, I've got to go save Gabe's life."
"She screams at him like that?"
"No, she can contain herself when the kids are home. Right now Gabe and Marti are out with Britt. He kicked over a bucket full of what-the-shit last week and certain chickens are coming home to roost. I have to talk San down before the kids get back."
"What happened?"
"No, Sam." she suppressed a laugh. "You've got to see this with your own eyes. Speaking of which, can you move your visit up a couple of weeks? I know you're playing hard to get and I promise to keep my hands to myself that weekend, but I'd really like you to see this."
two weeks later
"It's Sam." Gabe called out in disappointment upon seeing Sam on the doorstep.
"It's him." Marti said unhappily.
"Marti! What happened to your manners?" Mercedes pulled Sam into a kiss. Marti huffed like that was the most disgusting thing she'd ever seen. "I'm think I'll have to send you to your room to look for them, Miss Jones."
"Welcome to our home." Marti said formally. "Our home!" She repeated, just to make sure Sam didn't get any ideas. She walked away before Mercedes could say anything else.
"Sorry about that." She watched the six-year old sashay across the room. "We're just waiting for the guest of honor."
"Whose that?"
"Just hold your horses. You aint' gonna believe it." the doorbell rang and the room fell silent. Santana stood up like she was headed to the gallows but Gabe beat her to the door.
"Daddy!" he screamed. Sebastian stood there, clumsily patting the head of the five-year old clinging to his leg. The man with Sebastian seemed to know just what to do, he picked up Gabe and started kissing him and cooing, in French.
Sam sat on the porch swing of the quiet house, waiting for Mercedes to finish putting Marti to bed. Santana, Britt and Gabe were out to dinner with Benoit, his husband and the rest of Sebastian's family.
"Sorry it took so long. I think Marti was hoping you'd get bored and leave." Mercedes slid into the seat beside him. "I wanted to give you this." she handed him a bundle of envelopes. "I never got them. From the dates I see they came to my house when I was gone. Back then, when I couldn't move to New Jersey, I went to Tina's for a month. I was in San Francisco when these came."
Sam looked at the package in his hands. "Shane read these?"
"No, I don't think so. If he did he steamed them open and resealed them. Not his style. I don't know if he meant to give them to me or if he was holding them as evidence. I don't know. I told you Marti and Gabe were playing dress up with Santana's stuff when that box with Sebastian's picture fell off a shelf? Well Marti started talking about Shane again and she and I were looking through some stuff that got packed away when I left Atlanta. I just found them."
"And you didn't read them?"
"They were written so long ago. I don't know if you still mean what they say, it that's what you'd write today."
He held up the first letter. "This one says how much I love you, how happy I am that you're going to be mine."
He held up the second letter. "This one was kind of like the first letter, only I added that we wouldn't be in a studio apartment over a diner for very long. That I'd take care of you, put you in the kind of place you deserve."
He held up the third letter. "This one was after you said you couldn't come. I said I loved you and begged you to call or write or get in touch with me through Kurt."
He held up the fourth letter. "This one says I love you but don't understand why you won't respond."
He held up the fifth letter. "This one says the things Shane can give you are obviously more important than whatever you pretended to feel for me and you two deserve each other."
He held up the last letter. "This one says goodbye."
"I'm so sorry, Sam. I never got them. All I could think about was keeping Marti. I didn't..."
"I broke my arm when I was 7. I fell out of a tree." He said, interrupting her. "My mom said she didn't know if they could afford to keep me, the way I kept getting hurt. Of course she was kidding. After we got out of the doctor's office it was too late to go to little league practice so we went to the movies instead. Then we met my dad for dinner. I was going to get a car for my 16th birthday. A used car but a car so I could take Stevie and Stacey to little league and ballet lessons. We were trying to decide between two my dad picked out. I really wanted the one with the sun roof but my dad kept saying "if you want to see the sun stick your head out the window." that was his idea of a joke. Anyway it didn't work out that way-cars, baseball, ballet, how I spent my 16th birthday."
"I was working at a dairy queen then. The manager, she understood about my family's situation and said I could talk home all the ice cream I wanted, because it was my birthday. That night, Stevie started crying in the middle of the night. I thought it was from too much ice so I reached over to give him a hug and he screamed. He fell out of a tree, two days earlier, and was afraid to say anything. He walked around for two days, in pain with a broken arm, cause he didn't want to cost us any money. The hospital bill was $500, more than the rent on our apartment. That's why I had to...dance. At the time I thought "I'm the only kid who knows the exact second they grew up, that they stopped being a child." That's not true, lots of people know the day, the hour, the second they grew up. Part of me, the rational part, knows it's not my dad's fault the factory moved to China. What could he do about it? The other part thought "I'm never gonna put my wife and kids in that position. No matter what, I'm going to take care of them. That's stupid, what could he do about it? But that's how I felt. I always felt that you could never really love me because I could never take care of you the way Shane could."
"Sam, that's..."
He pressed his fingers to her lips and continued. "I know it's not true. Shane didn't have anything at first and you married him anyway. You were never looking for somebody to take care of you. You were looking for somebody who could return the unbelievable amount of love you have in your heart. It took almost 10 years but I finally figured that out. I can't believe you waited, and waited, and waited for me to use the brains God gave me. The house will be done in abut a month. How would you feel about me moving to Lima, maybe..."
"Oh, Sam! We were so young back then. Kids. I'm a different woman now..."
"I understand. I can't just barge in here and..." She pressed her fingers to his lips.
"A woman with conditions. Condition number 1. You have to promise to hold me. If I get sad, and can't find the words to say why, or if the words don't make sense, you have to hold me."
"I can do that."
"And if you get sad, you have to come to me and I'll hold you. I mean, that's only fair, right?"
"Deal!" He leaned in for a kiss but she pulled back.
"I'm not done yet! From now on, your people are my people. And if our people need anything we'll discuss it, understood?"
"Okay."
"Now here's the hard part. From now on, my people are your people. And I've got to tell you, sometimes my people can be a hot mess. Are you ready to sign on for that?"
"I can do that!" He leaned in for a kiss but still she pulled back.
"And here's the hardest part of all, maybe a deal-breaker. I'm an old-fashioned girl and can't be shacking up with random men from Nashville." Mercedes got down on one knee, "Samuel Joshua Evans, will you marry me?"
Two weeks later
"You two look radiant!" Kurt gushed at the nearly-weds. "Didn't I saw a morning at the spa would do you wonders?"
"And keep us out of the way for this last-minute, top-secret wedding you planned." Sam answered.
Santana looked at Sam and Mercedes. They were radiant all right, the kind o f happiness you don't get from a spa. "Can't I leave you two alone for 10 minutes?"
"She started it!" Sam blabbed.
Mercedes put on her innocent face. "Did not!"
"Did too!"
"It's bad luck to even see the bride before the wedding," Kurt said. "let alone...Well, we're all going to pretend it didn't happen. Now go get dressed."
"I need Sam's help." Mercedes said in a little-girl voice.
"What, you're going to do it again? Right here in the church?" Santana dragged her away by the arm. "Nope, ain't gonna happen."
Mercedes had been to weddings, lots of weddings. She remembered Judy and Andrew's – classic and traditional. The way the light from the stained glass windows glowed against Judy's tasteful white dress. She remembered Kurt and Blaine's – still pretty traditional. Both grooms in black tuxes walking each other down the aisle. Well, traditional until Burt, Britt and Tina started dancing to Single Ladies at the reception. She remembered Tina and Artie's. A traditional Jewish wedding under a chuppah on a hotel rooftop garden overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Also traditional except for the part where the groom steps on a glass at the end of the ceremony. Artie and Tina used Artie's shoe to break the glass together. She remembered Joe and Patrice's farm wedding and how they planted a tree together. She had no idea what Kurt, Tina and Santana had planned for them. She's seen the dresses, the color scheme seems to be lavender and purple. Yards and yards of purple, enough for a dress for Marti, trim on the dresses for Tina and Santana, vests and ties for Sam, Kurt, Sam's dad and Gabe. Mercedes is wearing a fairly simple white dress with purple trim along the edges. At the last minute Santana hands her a bouquet. Purple fabric roses. Enough with the purple already! She loved that color as a child, as a child! The ribbon tied around the bouquet clicked against her hand. Since when do ribbons click? She looked at it. It wasn't a ribbon at all, it was a cord. A cord with metal tips. A bolo tie!
Her father, a purple rose pinned to his lapel, took her arm. "Come on girl, don't let him get away this time."
Mercedes stood on the alter, looking at Sam with his bolo tie and broad grin.
"Bet you thought we'd never make it here." He whispered. "Told you Joe had game!"
"Yeah, right. I'm the one who asked you, remember?"
"I'll never forget it. But remind me every night, just to make sure."
"I will if you promise to remind me why every day."
"I will."
They winked at each other before turning their attention to what their mothers were reading.
Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because that is what love is.
Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.
From Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
Their friends crowded on the small stage at McKenna's Coffee house, which had been magically transformed from a casual college hangout to an elegant supper club. Amazing what linens and matched tableware will do for a place. Mercedes hoped they wouldn't bust out a flashmob dance, another wedding tradition she hated. She didn't worry too much, Kurt knew she didn't like wedding cakes in general and cake smooshing in particular (they all agreed that smashing a piece of cake in your spouse's face was a bad omen for married life) and thoughtfully substituted a pie bar, highlighting sweet potato pie for the happy couple, for wedding cake. She trusted his taste level and knew no matter what, whatever was coming was coming from the heart. Artie started singing.
Tina and Artie
The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures
and instructions for dancing
But I
I love it when you read to me
And you
You can read me anything.
Kurt and Blaine
The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it's just transcendental
Some of it's just really dumb
But I
I love it when you sing to me
And you
You can sing me anything
Santana and Britt
The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know
But I
I love it when you give me things
And you
You ought to give me wedding rings
Quinn and Rachel
And I
I love it when you give me things
And you
You ought to give me wedding rings
All together
And I
I love it when you give me things
And you
You ought to give me wedding rings
You ought to give me wedding rings
"Why such a sad face?" Bernice Tinsley asked her granddaughter. Probably her only granddaughter at the pace her daughter Gwen was going. Actually she was thankful Gwen was concentrating on medical school. "Such a sad face on such a happy day?"
"I don't know." Marti answered sulkily.
"Doesn't your momma look beautiful? And so happy?"
"Wasn't she happy when she married my daddy?"
Bernice gathered Marti on her lap. "Yes, she was."
"So why did she have to go and marry him? We don't need him!"
"No, you don't need him but he makes your momma happy. Isn't that a good thing?" No answer from Marti. "He's not awful, is he?" Still no answer. "I mean, he did go on that museum tour with you, didn't he?"
"Momma told you about that? " How momma and Uncle Kurt refused to leave the coffee shop at the Natural History Museum and Sam went on the tour with her.
"Yes. And that was nice of him, wasn't it?"
"I guess." Okay, so he got a point for that.
"And he said during the wedding he'd be the best dad he could."
"He's not my daddy!"
"You know what sweetie pie?" She pulled Marti closer t her ample bosom. "You're a lucky little girl. You have two daddies. One in heaven to find the right husband for you, one down here to chase off fools with his shotgun. Give him a chance."
Marti pondered that. "My daddy, my real daddy, knew him. Right?"
"Yes, he did."
"Did he like him?"
"No." Bernice didn't believe in lying, especially to small children. She looked at Marti's I-just-knew-it face. "But he had a reason for not liking him. They both loved your momma very much and she could only marry one of them. Your daddy would want your momma to be happy. He wanted both of you to be happy."
"But momma choose daddy!"
"Yes, she did. But they both loved her."
"But she loved him the best? Right?"
Bernice didn't believe in lying to children, but she didn't believe in telling them details that were none of their business either. Mercedes looked beautiful the day she married Shane. Today she was radiant, even Bernice could see the difference and she knew the happier Mercedes was the better it was for her granddaughter. "I think she loved them both. But she had to choose and she did. Now she gets a second chance. Isn't that good?"
And momma choose daddy first Marti thought to herself.
Three years later
Mercedes stood at the front gate, looking up and down the street for Sam. Sure enough here he comes, carrying one brown-skinned two year old and leading the other by the hands. He crossed the street and switched girls. Mercedes ran down the street to pick up the child Sam had just put down. They kissed over the girl's heads. "You're home early. I didn't expect you until dinnertime. You feeling okay?"
"I'm fine. It's just one baby this time, no prob. I finished up in LA and came back early. Kurt sends his love."
"I'm glad you're back. You can watch the girls while I pick up Marti from the bus stop."
"No need. She's home already."
"Really? Her field trip was that short?"
"No. They called the house looking for someone to pick her up. Luckily I was home already. "
"Is she okay?" he asked with concern. Even after three years Sam didn't quite understand Marti. She was polite, civil but not overly friendly. She warmed up a little after the babies were born but Sam still wasn't sure where he stood with her.
Donna and Rose, weren't identical, though people thought so at first sight. They both had caramel colored skin and wildly curly brown hair, Sam's mouth, Mercedes' nose. The difference was in their eyes, Donna had Sam's green eyes and Rose had Mercedes' brown eyes.
"She's not sick if that's what you mean. She wanted to wait til you got home. She said you only wants to say it once."
Sam and Mercedes carried the girls up to their room, past Marti sitting in the living room reading a book.
"Hey, Marti!" Sam called out.
"Hey." Marti never addresses Sam by name but at least she doesn't call him 'sir' anymore.
After putting the girls down for a nap they joined Marti in the living room.
"You want to talk about it, baby?" Mercedes put her arm around her daughter. Sam sat down on the floor facing Marti.
Marti started with a huge sigh. "There's this girl, Rikki. Rikki Nelson. She teases me all the time. I try to ignore her, like you'd want me to, but today we saw him. We saw him at the zoo." She said it as if Sam had no business being at the zoo.
Mercedes looked at Sam, questioning. "Yes, I took the girls to the playground near the zoo."
"You walked all that way?" No wonder the girls were exhausted.
"Anyway" Marti wrestled her mother's attention back. "We saw him at the zoo."
Earlier that say at the zoo
"See!" the little blond girl said to her friends but loud enough for Marti to hear. "I told you her father was a bum."
"Shut up!" Marti felt her hands clinch. Bad enough to see Sam and her sisters, did Rikki have to be here too? "He has a job."
"If he has a job then why isn't he at work? Why is he sitting in the park in the middle of the day? Cause he's a lazy bum, that's why."
"Don't talk about my father like that!"
"Father? Ha! He's not your father, anybody can see that!"
"You know what I mean." She growled in a tone Rikki should have paid attention to.
"He's a bum." She repeated to her friend. "My daddy said he used to be a stripper! He got naked for money. He did!"
"He never got naked for money!"
"Sure he didn't." Rikki said sarcastically. "He was a homeless hobo. My daddy said if your mom hadn't picked him up outta the gutter he'd still be there today."
"Take that back!"
"Why should I? It's nothing but the truth!" Rikki started to walk away, dismissing Marti.
"Then she fell down." Marti said in her best 'Who? Me' voice.
"Fell down? Marti!"
"She fell down!" Marti insisted. "It was an accident. He" she nodded at Sam "packed a peach in my lunch and it was too soft and squishy to eat. I just wanted to get her attention."
The peach landed a couple of steps in front of Rikki, who turned to hurl another insult at Marti but kept walking forward. Anyone could tell it was a total accident that she slipped on the peach. Marti couldn't help but smile thinking about the satisfying splat that peach made as it exploded under Rikki's foot, landing her flat on her back. She decided to leave out the part about the bees.
"It's not funny Marti. You have to call her and apologize."
"For what?" Had her mother gone mad?
"Marti, your mother is right. You have to apologize."
"After what she said?" Marti noticed the expression the flashed briefly across Sam's face, a sad look she'd never seen before. "She's so stupid! She is poppa! She's a stupid baby. She sucks her thumb when she thinks nobody's looking. She does!"
"That's not the point. The point is we don't go around hitting people, or throwing things at people."
"But mom!"
"This isn't a debate! You're going to apologize. Then your father and I will figure out what happens next."
"Call, Rikki was her name?" Sam stood up. "Call her and apologize. Do that first. Then wake up your sisters. I don't want them to stay up all night. Thank you, Marti."
Marti stood up with a huff, thinking about the unreasonableness of it all, and left the room. She came back with the kitchen phone and dialled the number from the class phone list. "Hello Rikki, it's Marti. I'm sorry you tripped on a peach." She listened for a few minutes. "Well I don't control bees and what's the big deal? You didn't get stung, did you?" She rolled her eyes and listened again. "I said I'm sorry! Bye." She hung up and stomped away. They could make her say I'm sorry but they can't make her feel it. Not after what Rikki said about her poppa.
"What are we going to do?"
"I don't know." Sam idly rubbed her belly, though at five months and one baby instead of two there wasn't much to rub. "What did you parents do when they heard about Kurt's windshield?"
"You had to go there, didn't you?"
"I don't know, Rikki was asking for it."
"So not the point. I wonder if she's related to Rick 'the Stick' Nelson from high school. That would explain a lot. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree as my grandma used to say."
"My grandma said that too!" He grinned at his wife. "Hey, she called me poppa. That's the first time she ever did that."
"I noticed. And I think she meant it."
Before waking up the girls Marti stopped in her room, She pulled out the cigar box she used to hold her treasures from the top drawer of her dresser. She picked out her dad's Superbowl ring and turned it over slowly in her hands. She looked at the ring every day, sometimes sleeping with it if she had a bad day at school. Maybe she was getting too old for that. Or maybe not. She put the ring back and picked up a small white box. She carried the smaller box to her bed. Inside the box was a small purple velvet pouch. She dumped the contents of the pouch on her lap. It was a locket, a silver locket engraved with a heart and an M. Inside the locket was engraved "I love you to the moon and back". She'd loved that book when there was just the two of them. Of course there was Gabe and his mom back then but they were a set, too.
She picked up the locket and turned it over in her hands. She hadn't looked at it in years, not since the day she got it. Sam gave it to her, that morning he married her mom. He said he hoped it would remind her how much he loved her. To the moon and back. She's wearing it in the wedding photos but that was the last day she wore it. Poppa. She didn't intend to say it out loud, she'd only been practicing it in her head at Aunt Gwen's suggestion. It didn't sound too bad, not really, and she had to call him something. She's really smart, Aunt Gwen is. When she babysat a couple of weeks ago she gave Marti this idea.
"Maybe, if you think of Sam as poppa it won't feel so wrong, I mean, my brother Shane can be daddy and Sam can be poppa. Then it won't feel like he's trying to take your dad's place, like you're being a traitor if you're nice to him. Poppa instead of daddy. See how that works?"
Aunt Gwen, Doctor Aunt Gwen, is really smart Mart thinks. Marti put on the locket and went to wake the girls.
The End
The Book of Love – Peter Gabriel (2009)
"Your people are my people..." is from the bible (Ruth 1:16-18)
"I love you to the moon and back." is from Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
The wedding quote came from a website OffBeatBrides which is a must-go-to if you're writing a non-traditional wedding. Kurt and Blaine's first dance came from there too.
Martha, Donna and Rose are all Dr. Who shout-outs and Gwen's from Torchwood
Bonus
Kurt and Blaine
Entrance - together to Pachelbel's Canon
First Dance
I feel so smoochie
When I hold your hand and look in your eye.
I feel so smoochie
When I touch your lips, then I realize
That to hold you near
Makes rainbows appear,
And life is just one long kiss,
While the moon looks down
And the stars kind of frown,
And say, "Golly, look what we miss!"
I Feel So Smoochie – Nat King Cole (1947)
Tina and Artie
Entrance - Tina escorted by both her parents - Sunrise/Sunset (Fiddler on the Roof)
First dance – Tina and Artie
I'm starting right here
Starting now, right now because
I believe in your love
So I'm glad to take the vow
Here and now
I promise to love faithfully
You're all I need
Here and now
I vow to be one with thee
You and me
Your love is all I need
Here and Now – Luther Vandross (1989)
Judy and Andrew
Entrance - Judy escorted by Quinn and her older sister to Pachelbel's Canon
First dance – Judy (Quinn's mom) and Andrew (Sebastian's dad)
But, oh my dear
Our love is here to stay
Together we're going a long long way
In time the Rockies may crumble
Gibraltar may tumble
They're only made of clay
But our love is here to stay
Our Love is Here to Stay – Gene Kelly (1951)
Patrice and Joe
Entrance - together to Fields of Gold (Sting)
First dance – Patrice and Joe
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance Me to the End of Love - The Civil Wars (2011)
Mercedes and Sam
Entrance - Mercedes alone to Love Me Tender (Norah Jones)
First dance – Mercedes and Sam
She's the giver I wish I could be
And the stealer of the covers
She's a picture in my wallet
And my unborn children's mother
She's the hand that I'm holding
When I'm on my knees and praying
She's the answer to my prayer
And she's the song that I'm playing
And she's everything I ever wanted
And everything I need
She's everything to me
Yeah she's everything to me
She's Everything – Brad Paisley (2005)