The Grand Entrance Dance

Before we decided to use it for our ceremony, we imagined choosing an Us the Duo song for our first dance. Among other songs considered were I Like It by Sammie, reminiscent of our childhood, and All-4-One’s So In Love, an all time favorite of Joe’s.

Everyone who knows us knows that we love to party! So we did no less than expected and opened kicked-off our reception with an eleven-part grand entrance performance. We invited our immediate family and wedding party members to join in a collaborative dance performance. Since most of our wedding party did not live locally at the time, the group learned the routines in less than a week and only had two practices of full run throughs. Each dance was choreographed specifically with the given skill-level and time constraints in mind. This miracle could not have happened without the gracious support of Baila Fuzion dance instructor and owner, Marquita Bianca Castillo.

Joe and groomsmen wore white long-sleeve “Witness” shirts designed by Joe. The bridesmaids wore shirts designed by Maria Camia featuring a portrait of the Mary Anne along with custom maroon jerseys Mary Anne gave them. Mary Anne wore a dance costume she designed with seamstress, Sonya Phillips.

The track opened with an 8 count applause sound effect to help the DJ with cueing the guests to start clapping. 1.) We entered to Don Omar’s Danza Kuduro which was a track featured in our engagement announcement video. Mark Ingram and other 2019 Baltimore Ravens players had a trademark skip they would do during their games so we decided to enter the reception the same way. We danced to the bar where where we met up with our bridal party to commence the celebration with toasting a round of shots.

“Our nerves were already high, but I got even more frazzled because I couldn’t find my right shoes or stockings. Then for our entrance I got distracted by music cues and thought we were going to be late and so I rushed to the bar and forgot to properly toast everyone before taking the shot! It all worked out once we got into the thick of it though and we had so much fun.”

- Mary Anne

We wanted to start the night with a high energy partner dance and followed with 2.) a more intimate dance to the Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello’s Senorita. We have been known to shy away from showcasing a ton of PDA, so we figured we would finally give the people what they’ve been asking for. The Festival bartenders surprised Mary Anne and graciously poured her a shot right before the third dance started. More liquid courage to soothe the nerves!

Our first dance was followed by a moment dedicated to the bride’s late father, Manuel Matel. 3.) Mary Anne and two of her nieces/junior bridesmaids choreographed a piece to a rendition of Remember Me, from the animated film Coco. We incorporated moves from the Traditional Filipino Candle Dance. This also turned out to be a perfect opportunity to slow the pace down and recharge for the high energy dances up ahead.

After this solemn tribute, 4.) bridal party members strutted to center stage with inflatable instruments to a composition of Glenn Miller’s original In The Mood and a Trap Nation remix of it. Mary Anne and her new father-in-law, Jimmy Laguirta, wanted a fun and lively tune to commemorate the joining of families. The “band” and the dancers collected once more at the end of the dance for a photo opportunity.

5.) Next up was the Mother-Son dance. Joe had always pictured himself dancing with his mom to Boyz II Men’s A Song for Mama, but his mom, Emelda Laguirta, was very adamant about not wanting anything too “sappy” that would make her cry. Instead, she requested for something goofy and “less serious”. So they met in the middle and Joe got his waltz with his mom and to add in a bit of humor we asked his three brothers, Marc Santorum, Melvin Laguerta, and John Santorum to lip sync in the background with inflatable microphones. 6.) The track then cut to the upbeat Level Up that Ciara made a comeback with and so the verse we selected to feature was a bit of an anthem to his mom as well. After her solo bit, Joe’s mom introduced Mary Anne who fiercely sashayed back onto the stage with her bridesmaids, each accessorized with fans.

7.) A siren blared and the bridesmaids draped the bride with a metallic golden cape to the beat of Rick James’ Give It To Me Baby. The groomsmen acted as gates in the wings and “released” the groom to the stage with his long wavy hair let down and all.

We had originally agreed not to perform the traditional garter removal bit since we always thought it was such an awkward thing to do “in front of your grandparents.” So instead of abandoning it all together, we put on a bit of a bull and matador act. After “tastefully” removing the garter, the groom met his bride face-to-face to tease a chance of a kiss then interrupted by thing ring of a school bell. We ran off into the wings and 8.) the bridal party, this time including the kids, marched in to an instrumental of Gwen Stefani’s Wind it Up and transitioned to a mix of the Baby Shark tune and a trap remix of it. Each kid had their solo moment and then marched back to the wings.

9.) Joe and his three brothers transitioned in to Kanye West’s Intro from G.O.O.D. Friday. When they were little, the older three brothers used to dance at family parties together. This was the Santorum family’s first reunion of this treat, but this time with the new edition of their little brother Marc. The brother’s took a special request from the bride to perform Bruno Mars’ 2018 Grammy Performance.

10.) Next up was a dance Joe choreographed to one of his favorite songs, Eye-to-Eye by Tevin Campbell from A Goofy Movie. We had joked about incorporating The Perfect Cast move, which was featured in the movie. Luckily our friends are awesome and were game for it! The groomsmen transitioned in first while the bridesmaids lined up on the side with inflatable instruments, but soon transitioned in for some partner work. We wrapped up this dance with another allusion to our childhood as we hurried to form the Ginyu Force pose from Dragon Ball Z.

11.) We finished off the performance with a cha cha to Meghan Trainor’s Better When I’m Dancin’ which was the opening track of our engagement announcement video. The bridesmaids and groomsmen lined up at opposite sides of the stage and “sent us off” to the center of the stage. We glided around the perimeter of the stage as one final thank you to our guests.

We were very secretive about our performance and hid all 3 of our dances from our family and bridal party. Although challenging, it paid off in the end as you can see the guests’ priceless reactions below to a surprise dance lift at the end of the performance. A video of the performance, in addition to other videos from our wedding docuseries, will be released on their one year anniversary (10 years being together) on Saturday, December 19th, 2020.