THE Father Daughter Dance of All Father Daughter Dances: Boomer and Hillary

One of the greatest moments in my life was witnessing my bestie, Hillary, marry her ridiculously good looking soul mate. (She is equally stunning, so the union made tons of sense.) On top of their adorable vows, the bride managed to make us even more enviable of her life by putting on this little number with her dad, Boomer.

HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT TO BE HER?!?! Lucky for you, Hillary took some time to answer some very important questions for me.

1. Have you always known that you wanted to do something spectacular and worthy of YouTube at your wedding?

I’ve always enjoyed watching really great surprise father-daughter, bride groom, mother-son dances, however never anticipated that I would try to pull something like that off. Apparently, my dad felt differently as it was shockingly all of his idea! I don’t hate attention, so I was easily talked on board.

2. Was it a huge secret? Who was in on it?

Such a huge secret! For the longestttt time, it was a sacred pact between me, my dad and our VERY patient choreographer, Djenie Helne. The one exception was one onlooker/fellow co-worker who witnessed our entire first practice coincidentally while getting in his evening workout at the company gym where we were introduced to our routine. So much embarrassment. As we got closer to the wedding date, I would spill the beans to randoms that weren’t invited to the wedding just because I was about to burst (and I suck at keeping really good secrets). Subsequently, seconds before walking down the aisle, I word vomited to a bridesmaid who was helping me with one last potty break.

3. How much practice went in to executing such a perfect performance?

It was pretty sad how long it took us to overcome our rhythm deficiencies. We were introduced to the choreography exactly one month before the wedding date and packed in about 3-4 practices every week. We would squeeze in a sneaky 30 minutes here, or a 2 hour rehearsal there. I was running out of lies! I can only pretend to be working out for so long.

4. Who was more of the “natural” when it came to picking up mad dance skills?

As soon as I translated the dance to strict 8-counts (I really did this in a word document), my inner cheerleader was roaring. Unfortunately, it’s not socially acceptable to have “sharp” dance moves anymore so I spent most of my practices trying to not “stick” the routine and make it look more natural and fluid. Boomer, my dad, packed in 55 years of dance lessons into one month. He even purchased $75 dancing shoes because he was certain his problem was his sneakers’ grip, causing his feet to not move as easily. I explained that you can’t buy rhythm at the dance store. Through it all, he was a fantastic sport and we had so much fun laughing at ourselves and our lack of dance skills. So to answer your question- neither of us?

5. Any advice for brides out there looking to be awesome?!

1) Buy your dress big, don’t rely on anorexia during your engagement. Sometimes a bride just needs to stress eat her way through the planning without worry. 2) You’ve heard it a million times, so I’ll say it again. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Or even the big stuff, really. You are going to be surrounded by everyone you love and care about- soak. it. up. 3) No one cares that you have embossed cocktail napkins or plate chargers. Only about 10% of your guests will take home a personalized coozie. Save your money. 4) The father-daughter dance was the perfect distraction I needed from the overwhelming anxiety I had a month out. Find yours and get lost in it! You’ll be pining over a mental vacation after hysterically crying over your seating chart.