So I’m back and married, now. Woo-hoo! Leaving again for Barcelona in a couple days to go on a cruise! Woo-hoo!
I’m not here to just go on and on about the wedding. You don’t care about that (most likely). You care about video games; that’s why you’re reading this (most likely). What I’m trying to say is that I’m here to talk about both the wedding, and the video game references there-in.
The wedding was pretty “traditional” overall, with no obvious, strange things pointing to the contrary. Being who we are, though, we weren’t about to pass up the chance to slip little things into the ceremony and reception that key friends (and maybe family) would understand and see the meaning in.
The first video game reference we had was actually our recessional music (the song played as we walked out of the actual marriage ceremony after being pronounced husband and wife). The song choice? The Final Fantasy “Prologue“, and specifically the version from Celtic Moon. I actually cut the very beginning (our wedding version begins right where the main tune normally starts), and sped it up about five percent. It was absolutely wonderful.
The second (and probably final) video game reference was our cake-cutting music. The traditional songs are usually dumb ones like “Pour Some Sugar On Me“, or otherwise totally inappropriate songs that vaguely reference sugar or something sweet. Our choice? C’mon. Video game. Cake. Sense of humor. Do the math.
That’s right, “Still Alive” (from Portal) was our cake-cutting music. We didn’t use either the GLaDOS or Jonathan Coulton versions, though. We actually used a piano version by Jarrett Heathe (you can download the MP3 we used on their YouTube entry for the song). What made it all the more amazing was about halfway through when all of our friends in the back starting singing the lyrics along with the song, much to the confusion of the rest of our attendees. Apparently our DJ came up to them afterwards and was all, “Wait, there are lyrics to this song? What is it? Huh?”
At the end of the day, what I am actually trying to stress and say with this entry is that you can do these types of things on your special day, and pull them off respectfully. Unless anyone knew any better, both of those songs were just that… songs. They were beautiful pieces that fit the mood perfectly, and are easily forgettable at the same time as just regular ol’ classical-style songs that were played at a wedding.
But to us they held deeper meanings, let us express ourselves, and we were able to share those connections with those who understood us. It’s something I’ve talked about elsewhere, but the concept of simply passing for normal productive members of society is incredibly important… that doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t slip in those little pieces of your nerd life!