Monday, March 15, 2010

Need some advice from fellow creative brides!

Ok, so after the ceremony and the cocktails and once all the pictures have been taken and the formalities of the evening are mostly over, it's time for the party to begin - the reception!

Of course, the big kick off to the reception is the grand entrance and introduction of the bride and groom and their wedding party.  You can always go the traditional route and just get the crowd (your guests) up on their feet and cheering and clapping for everyone.  We did this at my sister's wedding and it was super fun.  Lots of excitement in the room. 

Then you have the silly wedding parties who maybe like to dance their way in as each couple (bridesmaid and groomsmen) is announced and enters the room.  A friend had their wedding party line up on one side of the dance floor and when the bride and groom entered, they ran down the 'line' of the wedding party high fiving them all.  Kind of like when football players or basketball players enter onto a field or court.

These are totally fine (and fun) ways to come on in.  But many brides/grooms opt for a low key mellow entrance - some even only have the bride and groom announced instead of the entire wedding party.

We definitely want something fun and big and different.  Something exciting and to get the crowd pumping.  But we also really want something that speaks to our interests and who we are personally.  So I actually came up with an idea that Mr Fix It fell in love with - FINALLY!  Another win - something he was excited about.  :)

We've shared the idea with our DJs who will be announcing our grand entrance and they are on board.  But we still need to fine tune some things and so I thought I'd ask to see if any of you ladies (or guys cuz this one's for you for sure) had any suggestions or ideas to throw my way?

What we're doing:  We love to watch mixed martial arts (MMA) fights...you know, like the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).  The stuff you see on pay-per-view or Spike TV.  We have several friends who will be at the wedding and share this love with us - we hang at each other's houses having 'fight nights.' 

So we decided that we wanted our wedding party introduced the same way that fighters are introduced when they enter the stadium (or ring, octagon, whatever).  If you've ever watched a fighter enter it's kind of funny.  Some act all tough and mad dog faced and have hard core metal or gangsta rap songs playing while others are all crazy and full of energy dancing around and singing to some song.  Here's a good one:


The songs they enter to are supposed to represent their personality, toughness, or just who they are.  So we are having each couple enter as if they're entering the ring for a match.

How we're doing it:  The DJ will play a different song for each couple as they're announced.  The guys will all enter from one side of the room and the girls from the other (one couple at a time).  So they will make their way through the tables and end up meeting each other on the dance floor in the center of the room.  We're telling our wedding party to go crazy with this and act all tough and like they're going to fight each other, or to just have fun and maybe dance or whatever.  Whatever they feel comfortable with.

The DJ will announce each couple a la Bruce Buffer.  Here's a sample of what we're trying to achieve:


We'll have our DJ change the words so that it goes something like this:

"And now, the moment of truth, wedding fans around the world have been waiting for!  Live, from the incredible estate of Rancho Las Lomas in Orange County, California - it's time!  Coming - out of the groom's corner - weighing in at 200 lbs and hailing from the beautiful city of Laguna Niguel, CA, it's the Electrifying Todd Baxter!"

Then for the girls we'll do the same thing but say "Arriving out of the bride's corner - stepping onto the dance floor at a height of 4' 10" and proving that big things DO come in small packages - it's Debbie the Diva Pelichowski!"

We know ladies don't want to share their weight with the world.  Anyway, we're trying to come up with some fun songs for each couple to enter to - upbeat stuff - maybe hard core for the 'fighting' spoof part of it.  And we also need some great nicknames for each person. 

So that's where you come in - any ideas for some silly or fun nicknames or for some song selections?

For the songs, remember that only the best (appropriate) parts of the songs will be used, like the chorus or intro or the part that goes with what we're doing.  So it will only be like 30 to 45 seconds per song and the DJ will cue it up to the right part and mix them all together.  So far, we're thinking of these for our playlist:

My daughter wants to use the chorus from the New Boyz song "Tie Me Down"...it's kinda fun:

The other songs we have so far are:

Let it Rock by Kevin Rudolph (My personal fave)


Bodies by Drowning Pool (a total fighter's song for sure and Mr Fix It's first choice)


And for me and Mr Fix It, when it's time for us to come in, the DJ will announce "And now, for the main event of the evening!"  And we will most likely use Queen's "We Will Rock You".  The DJ said our venue has this great thing about it (because of how old it is) to where if we start this song and get all the guests clapping their hands and stomping their feet to the beat, the whole room/floor will shake!  Kinda fun, right?


We also want to get the DJ to have the lights darker with lots of strobe lights and flashing lights and such as we all come in.  I am even thinking about getting a cute boxers robe and gloves to wear over my gown - since I have a feeling Mr Fix It might do something silly like rip his shirt off!




So girls - straighten me out...are we crazy to do this?  Should I go for the boxer's robe or will it look silly over my big ball gown?  Do you have any suggestions for nicknames or songs that we can use? 

Have you given any thought to what you'll do for your grand entrance or are you going the simple traditional quick intro route?

9 comments:

Kelley at My Island Wedding said...

This is such a cool idea! (How about music from the Rocky movies?)

Good luck!

Heather said...

Cool idea! I think it will be fun and start the evening off with a lot of laughs and good times. We’re also playing signature entrance music for different members of the wedding party, either in pairs, groups or on their own.

Salt said...

I think that sounds like a lot of fun and I could see people getting totally into that! Our entrance was super simple...they didn't announce our party, just us. (Because...then they would have been announcing like half of the people that were there to see us get married. Heh.)

buhdoop said...

Girl, I think we should be best friends. I love the UFC. GSP is one of my favorite fighters and my fiance and I can not wait until ufc 111. I think this idea is awesome.

So for my suggestions. I don't think you need a robe or gloves or anything like that. Nicknames would be cool though. My fiance says my nickname would be "the mongoose" because of an inside joke between us. Are there any inside jokes you and your wedding party share?

If you want to go silly yet still hardcore how about:
the makeup assassin
the high heel killer
The eyelash slasher

Or more soft maybe:
the puppy dog
the happy go lucky
the charlie brown

I hope that helps :)

Kim said...

I love that pink robe outfit, but I'm a sucker for pink :) I say go for the robe and gloves, especially if Mr. Fix-it is going to rip his shirt off! Great idea. I so want to come to your wedding.

JEM - Aqua Bride said...

Super cool idea. You're so original. I'm also doing a grand entrance type of thing for my ceremony that I will blog about later.

Miss C said...

Sounds like so much fun.

Song suggestion- Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. Awesomeness.

Mrs T said...

This sounds AWESOME. Seriously girl your wedding is going to be SO GOOD!!

I think the robe would be cute and funny, and I love We will Rock you. Everyone is going to be so excited.

LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!

The Pink Bride said...

This idea has me salivating. I won't do it but it is sooo cool. I think "Party like a rock star" by the Shop Boyz is a pretty hype song (I'm sure you've heard it-it was on the radio a few years ago)and "Keeps Gettin' Better" by Christina Aguilera, where the chorus says "Somedays I'm a supergirl" etc. (Just bleep out b****) That's a hype, cool one too. I hope you get this on video!

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