This bride is truly the angels best

I will be walking my youngest daughter down the aisle on Saturday, June 2 – but I won’t be giving her away.

Bruce Wallace

I “gave away” my oldest daughter at her wedding, getting my one line in the performance correct when the minister asked, “Who gives this woman to be married,” and I stuttered, “Her mother and I.”

This time, this bride will be different. Sort of.

While the wedding will be outdoors in a beautiful Blue Ridge mountain setting, the service will be a very traditional Anglican ceremony.

But there will be no “honor and obey” and no “giving away” the bride. All that’s required of me is to somehow escort the bride down the aisle without falling on my face, or worse, stepping on the bride’s gown.

The old cliché “the toughest part of the wedding for the bride’s father is paying for it,” might be true – but not in this case.

For me, the toughest part of getting my daughter married is being required to participate in the Bride-and-Father-of-the-Bride dance.

It’s bad enough that I could actually pull a muscle while dancing, at my advanced age, but I could really injure myself and my daughter while attempting to dance in front of 200 guests.

The smart way to get this potentially humiliating four minutes over with is to play something slow and reminiscent and stand there and sway back and forth. That way, I only step on the bride’s feet a few times. Odds of injuring and embarrassing myself are minimal.

Dancing is one of those things that seems to be age-biased. It is one thing for a guy to dance the night away as a teenager. It’s not all that bad if you take your daughter to a Father-Daughter Valentine’s dance because the daughter and all her friends pretty much expect to be embarrassed by their dads as a collective group.

But when it comes wedding time, you just hope that your daughter chooses the “stand-and-sway” tune that Frank Sinatra croons.

However, the decision of what song to have played while we are stumbling about the dance floor has been quite a texting debate.

Bride: What about Guns ‘n Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine?”

Dad: Will there be an ambulance on duty? That sounds a little crazy.

Bride: I don’t want the old slow dance stuff. We need to get the party rockin!

Dad: You stand a great chance of embarrassing me, your mother and the entire wedding party. I’m too old to ‘get the party rockin.’

Bride: Well, maybe we should settle on Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t she lovely?”

Dad: Good choice – I can show some fancy footwork, without feeling like it was a workout.

Bride: About that ‘fancy footwork’ – just don’t try to do too much.

Dad: What do you mean, ‘do too much?’ I’m great on the dance floor.

Bride: But, um, at times you get a little, um over enthusiastic and you look like you just backed into an electric fence.

So, Stevie Wonder it is – not too fast, not too slow, and just the right words for a my lovely daughter. She is marrying an outstanding man, someone who we are very happy is becoming a part of our family.

I can’t really dance, but there is no doubt my wife and I feel as though we are ‘heaven blessed’ as Stevie sang:

“Isn’t she lovely? Isn’t she wonderful. Isn’t she precious, less than one minute old.

“I never thought through love we’d be making one as lovely as she, but isn’t she lovely, made from love.

“Isn’t she lovely, truly the angels best. Boy, I’m so happy, we have been heaven blessed.”