lifeguards and groomless weddings.

I've been a professional pianist for over a decade now, and as a result, I've had some memorable piano-related experiences.

I've played a half-broken keyboard on a balcony in Haiti for a group of hut-dwelling onlookers below.
I've played for a wedding that included a snake as a bridesmaid.
I've played for an audience that included Roger Daltry from The Who.

But there's one wedding that takes the cake.



The bride was the daughter of missionaries to Haiti, and the groom was a career lifeguard from south Florida, so it only made sense that the wedding was held next to lifeguard stand #3 on Fort Lauderdale Beach.

I flew down to sunny south Florida the day before the wedding, and everything was set up as it should be: rows of chairs faced the ocean; a keyboard and sound system had been hooked up to a generator; music stands were placed strategically where readers and the officiant would be standing.

The time for the wedding came, and the guests had all been seated. I was playing prelude music, and everything was going quite smoothly.

Too smoothly.

I made eye contact with the groom, and he nodded. I started playing the song we'd agreed upon for the seating of the parents, and he began his journey down the aisle with his mom in tow.

And then he stopped, dead in his tracks.

About five rows from the back, both the groom and his mother were frozen in place.

Was he alright?

Was she alright?

Was I playing the wrong song?

What was going on?

The groom turned to his mom, said something, and then ran out into the ocean.

Well this was new.
We most certainly hadn't scripted an abrupt departure of one of the event's key people.
Where was he going? Was he coming back?


As I turned around to see what the groom was doing, I saw a man running toward him from the ocean with an unconscious little girl in his arms.

Of course. I should've guessed that the groom was saving a life.
That's typical wedding protocol, right?


We now had an audience who was expecting to be watching a wedding, but were suddenly watching a lifeguard rescue.


As the pianist for the wedding, what was I to do?

Was I supposed to keep playing as though everything was normal? (It clearly wasn't normal.)
Was I supposed to stop the music out of respect for the situation? (After all, ocean rescues don't typically have a soundtrack.)
Was I supposed to start playing the theme from Jaws?

I opted for choice A: I continued to play background music as a hundred people watched the groom act as a lifeguard in the midst of his own wedding.


Twenty minutes later, the groom returned to his wedding, and the rest of the day continued without a hitch. The little girl had simply slipped and fallen while playing in the ocean, and was unconscious, but otherwise fine.


And for the bride?
She was entirely unaware anything had happened.