Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy
Listener Submission: Most Appropriate Reception Music Story

More Stories of Appropriate Reception Music Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy You're the Cream In My Coffee What A Wonderful World List of All Stories Odes to Joy home

My husband Tim, proposed on July 9, 2000, one month to the day after our first date! We planned to have the wedding in November 2000. It might have been a whirlwind courtship, but we considered it a fairytale courtship. I didn't find my wedding dress, it found me! I told my then-fiance that it was my Cinderella dress. From then on the fairy tale theme was off and runnning.

I found glass slippers (OK, they were vinyl, but they looked like glass!), I found a castle for the top of the cake, and my mother made glass coaches for the centerpieces. We took ballroom dancing lessons because I couldn't dance with my Prince Charming without knowing how to waltz! We agonized over which waltz to play at the reception—it would be our first dance as husband and wife. We chose "Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker. I don't remember who the symphony was, but it was beautiful.

After the dinner was finished, we had the DJ play the twelve gongs of midnight. I took that cue to run out of the ballroom and leave behind my slipper. Tim called for everyone's attention and told them he had lost his princess and needed assistance finding the mysterious slipper's owner, for that was his one true love. The bridesmaids vied for Tim's attention to try on the slipper, while I snuck back into the ballroom wearing a dull brown cape that covered me from head to toe. Of course, the slipper fit no one else and he had to pull me out of the crowd. I sat in a chair while on bended knee he slid the slipper on to my foot. Tim's 6-year-old daughter, wearing fairy wings and armed with a wand, came running over and declared that I was indeed the princess he was looking for. At that moment the cape disappeared, Tim bowed, I curtsied, and the DJ began playing the waltz as he led me to the dance floor for our first dance. I could barely remember my steps because I was so excited!

Wendy Diedrich
Saint Paul, MN