Something Borrowed

Ever since I heard Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow I knew it would be the song I would walk at my wedding to.  Granted this hasn’t been since I was a little girl, but it has been quite a few years.  I guess this isn’t the kind of thing you really talk about with your friends either, or at least in my case it isn’t.  If it was I might have known that a friend of mine wanted to use that song too.  And she did at her wedding in September 2010. 

I remember being surprised since the wedding was at a botanical garden and not a beach, and I remember whispering to my best friend that this was the same song I wanted to use.  At that time I wasn’t engaged though, so it didn’t seem like a problem.

Fast forward to February 2011, and I’m engaged!  The issue here is that B, my fiancé, is her cousin.  (Long story short – she has been a friend for years and B and I sort of met through her).  When starting to think about the songs I remembered she had used the song and texted her to ask if that was the song or did I (hopefully!) remember wrong?  I heard right.  Damn.

Even though she said she didn’t mind if I used the song too, I felt like it would be too weird.  Since we will have the same extended family and have the same group of friends, it would be like a repeat.  So I’ve been on my quest to find a replacement.

Now it’s 4 months before the wedding and I haven’t found anything.  I could use Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles because I love that song, but it doesn’t have the same effect.  When I hear Somewhere Over the Rainbow it’s magical.  It’s exactly what I want be playing when I’m walking down the sandy isle.  It’s what the little girl inside of me wistfully dreams of.  And I don’t usually let that little girl take control of me, so I know this is important.

What to do, what to do?  Use a song somewhat borrowed or end up feeling blue?