What may a child do at a wedding reception? It may puncture all balloons, dip its face in a cake and hide under the table. But it may also prepare a great gift for the newlyweds if it is confident enough to perform in front of a large audience.
When did I first watch a child’s wedding performance?
Eight years ago, at my friend’s wedding, I was absolutely dazzled with the performance of the groom’s family. The groom’s cousin, his wife and children – dressed all in white with madras scarves – presented a simple dance routine to the song “Hello” by Martin Sloveig and Dragonette. Mum and dad showed the moves, and three children aged 3 to 7, equipped with colourful paper guitars, followed the steps they learned at home. The guests were delighted both with the oldest son, who performed the routine spot-on, and with the youngest son, who kept being late or lost and most of the time just danced the way he liked. It was so charming that I just couldn’t wait to have my own children, with whom I would be able to put on a similar show.
Our wedding performance
I was only able to do so seven years later at my cousin’s wedding. It took me several months to figure out what we could do for her as a family as I still remembered the performance prepared for our wedding by my uncles. My daughter was too little to sing properly. Dancing also seemed risky. Yet she was perfectly capable of acting a short scene. I also invited my other cousins to join us. When we were kids, we used to prepare performances for our parents, yet after twenty years we were no longer so confident, and the size of the audience made us really nervous. Fortunately, my daughter grabbed all the attention.
My daughter’s wedding performance
For the purpose of this gift, I rephrased the lyrics of a little known song from our past, so that it told the story of how the newlyweds met. I had prepared a similar surprise a couple of years earlier for a friend of mine, but I had a whole chorus with me then. This time, I was the only one with the microphone. Fortunately, the eyes of all guests were glued to my daughter, who played the role of the bride from the song. My husband, in turn, impersonated the groom. Performing along with her daddy was not stressful at all. It also ensured there were no major fails since Dad was not only an actor but also the prompter and cued his co-star in.
Out little actress strolled, waving her dress; spread her arms out to show that she had many friends; clattered away at an invisible keyboard while chatting with her future groom at a dating site; propped up her chin while deliberating if she should accept his marriage proposal; danced with him and waved to the guests, encouraging them to join in the chorus, whose lyrics were displayed on a big screen.
The newlyweds asked us to repeat the performance the day after, in the house of the maid of honour. We also heard words of praise from the guests who were not our relatives. Consequently, we swelled with pride that a month of working on the choreography and practising it at home brought such splendid results. Not to mention the fun we had at the rehearsals 😉
Have you ever seen anything like that? Share your experience in the comments below!
My advice:
– Learn the lyrics by heart or print them with a big font and make sure you have a stand at hand. Holding the microphone in one hand, the lyrics in the other and trying to coordinate your child’s performance can be challenging (I learned it first-hand 😉 )
– Pick a well-known tune. This will enable the guests to sing along, and you will have a greater chance of finding background music or someone to play it. In our case, the band refused to cooperate, so the song was played from my smartphone held close to the microphone (which was another thing to take care of), and I had to drown out the original lyrics with my singing.
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