ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A local couple in the final stages of planning their wedding made a troubling discovery last week: their fresh idea to include a “surprise wedding dance” and upload a video of it to YouTube had already been taken.
Christina Bryant and Oscar Sanchez had thought up what they believed to be a hilarious new twist to the traditional bride and groom’s first dance. They would begin a foxtrot to the song “Wind Beneath My Wings,” but after one minute the wedding DJ would abruptly break into Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.”
Amid cheers and whoops, the couple would be joined on the dance floor by the four groomsmen and five bridesmaids. All 11 people would leap into a choreographed dance marked by naughty butt-slapping and mild bumping and grinding.
“It was going to be sexy, but nothing dirty,” said Sanchez, a 34-year-old sous-chef. “We were going to aim for cheesy more than anything.”
Despite having begun rehearsals with the members of the wedding party, the couple’s enthusiasm did not last long.
Bryant, a 31-year-old insurance agent, was browsing wedding-related videos on YouTube last Friday when she discovered that not only had 345 other couples already uploaded videos of similar “surprise wedding dances,” but five of them had used the same Sir Mix-a-Lot song.
Even worse was that many of the YouTube videos included links that said “click here for the complete video” that lead to the couple’s advertisement-riddled “official wedding website” where friends, family and strangers are encouraged to buy Viagra or apply for a credit card.
“That was my idea,” Bryant said. “If you’re going to have a wedding website, why not take it seriously and try to bring in some money. Ad revenue, baby.”
While Bryant and Sanchez are not yet certain they will scrap the surprise dance idea, they are considering other novel options, such as having Sanchez lead his groomsmen in a serenade to Bryant with “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” They are also thinking about staging a “hilarious wedding accident” in which Bryant, fully dressed in her wedding gown, is accidentally tossed into a swimming pool.