First Dances & Deleted Scenes

The version of my novel that was published late last year actually looks very little like the original story line that I started with. The decision to have my main character, Kate, re-live the same week over and over was edited in later and not part of the original plot at all. There are a lot of things that happened in that first manuscript that didn’t make it into the final edit.

Recently, I was thinking about that long ago first draft and remembered that I had included more details about the first dance in the wedding scene. Curious about this, I went digging through my files. As soon as I found the scene I remembered that the wedding at the end of the orginal story actually isn’t Amy and Jack’s wedding (which, of course, is featured prominantly in Neverending Beginnings); but instead was Carolyn and Dave’s wedding (two characters who played a much more minor role in the finished product).

Here’s a little bit of that very old draft:

Several very refreshing ginger ales and a salmon dinner later, I was biting back tears as Carolyn and Dave danced:

This kind of faith is so unshakeable

It’s unmistakable

It’s bigger than me . . .

Not long after their engagement, Carolyn and Dave had been discussing the difficulty they were having agreeing on a “first dance” song. They had asked Ben and me for input, as they were determined not to use something that everyone uses. I had offered several suggestions, ranging from old Frank Sinatra; to more modern and offbeat, Sarah McLaughlin’s Ice Cream; to just completely quirky, the song Adam Sandler sings to Drew Barrymore in The Wedding Singer about growing old together.

This last suggestion prompted Carolyn to throw a balled up napkin at me and demand that Ben, who had been quiet, produce a better suggestion. He offered “This Kind of Love” by Sister Hazel. None of us had heard it. Dave teased him about owning a Sister Hazel CD. I hadn’t thought of it anymore until now,

This kind of love is what I’ve dreamed about

Yeah it fills me up

Well baby it leaves no doubt

This kind of love it’s why I’m standing here …

It was perfect. I glanced around my table. All eyes were fixed on the couple on the dance floor. Karen reached over and squeezed my hand. I squeezed back. There weren’t words.

What’s your perfect first dance song? Let me know in the comments below. And if you’re curious to read the novel that this eventually became, click here for the all the info on Neverending Beginnings.

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2 thoughts on “First Dances & Deleted Scenes”

  1. Haha- this is what we are having a hard time with now! I love Sinatra and Alison Krauss, but not sure he is in agreement.

    1. marychrisescobar

      Ahh . . . Alison Krauss is excellent. We ended up with three wedding songs. We both loved “The Luckiest” (Ben Folds), but someone in my family had just used it, and it felt sort of weird to use “their” song. We ended up going traditional for the first dance (“Embraceable You” – Ella Fitzgerald) and then using Sarah McLachlan’s “Ice Cream” as a bride to groom dedication. The Ben Folds song ended up being a married couples dance, or something like that. So much good music in the world! (for the record, I think Ray LaMontagne’s “You Are the Best Thing” or “Let it Be Me” are great choices, as is “Waste” by Phish . . . and of course there’s always “Back that Azz Up!”)

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