Getting a wedding surprise is practically a guarantee on any girl’s big day, and surprise wedding dances from the bride and groom have been a trendy go-to in recent years.
When two professional dancers decide to get hitched though, things tend to get much, much crazier.
That is exactly what happened when Kirk and Valerie Henning said their vows and tied the knot.
Not your standard bride and groom flash dance routine, Valerie had no idea what was about to transpire at their wedding reception.
The whimsically adorable couple are both from Richmond, Virginia where they have shared the stage multiple times while doing performances for the Richmond Ballet, whom Valerie is a Ballerina for.
In fact, the two first met about 15 years ago in 2004 at The Richmond Ballet Company, where both of them were making a name for themselves as dancers.
Although Valerie was a seasoned veteran with Richmond compared to Kirk who came along after her, there was clearly instant chemistry between the two lovebirds both on and off the stage.
Even though their magnetism to each other was strong, it would take a career-focused Kirk an entire year of dancing and hanging out with Valerie to realize that his feelings for her went beyond just friendship between dance partners, he explains to Richmond Family Magazine.
“I liked Valerie a lot, but I wasn’t into having a relationship-that is, until we went to a Halloween party. That was the first time we saw each other in a more romantic light and I thought, ‘Oh, I really like Valerie in a different way.'”
Things changed between the two as they began getting closer to each other than ever before, and it looked like they would be headed for marriage in no time at all.
Since things were going along at such a light and wonderful pace, Valerie was surprised when she made it clear to Kirk that she wanted to take their relationship to the next level, only to learn that he had other plans in mind.
Although everything in their relationship had gone great up to that point, Kirk was still too free-spirited and realized he just wasn’t quite ready to settle down yet.
He still had a lot he wanted to do in his career life that didn’t necessarily involve a wife and home in Richmond.
“I wasn’t ready for that type of commitment with anybody. I was doing other things-looking at the world, traveling, working on my career. Marriage wasn’t on my mind.”
To Valerie’s dismay, she had to call it for what it was and the two decided to separate for a while and refocus.
After their breakup, Kirk decided to move to New York City to delve deeper into his career as a dancer, and a broken-hearted Valerie recalls knowing that in order to get past the hurt, she would need to throw herself back into her own dance career as well.
“I continued to dance. When we ended our relationship in 2007, I knew I needed to move on, so I jumped back into my career.
Even though the beautiful ballerina was doing her best to move forward in life, her mother remembers how much she struggled to get over Kirk. While Valerie had made the effort to begin seeing other men, her mother knew the reason it would never work out for her daughter.
“Valerie still pined for him. She didn’t talk about it, but I knew it from having another daughter. Kirk was definitely the one she was comparing anyone to.”
Life has a very odd way of working out sometimes, and often times two lovers have to be pushed apart before they realize they are meant to be together forever.
That is how it happened for Kirk after he and Valerie had been separated for 4 years when he got the life-altering news that his grandfather had passed away.
This got Kirk, then 30, to really start thinking hard about what he wanted in life, and what kept coming to mind was how much he loved spending time with Valerie, that he wanted a family, and that she was his soulmate.
“Something in me changed. I knew I wanted that in my life. Valerie was the most awesome person I have been with. I knew if I got married, there was only one person I wanted to be with.”
The two lovebirds had had a rough go of it when they were without each other, and Kirk wanted their wedding to reflect their story.
Although Valerie had early on looked at groomsmen dance videos with Kirk when they began planning and he responded with disinterest in the idea, something changed his mind.
He had to be away on tour for much of the planning, though he worked as closely with Valerie as he could on it. That is when he realized that his bride to be was planning little “surprises” for him throughout the wedding and reception, and wanted to give her something special in return.
“She was amazing at planning it. I thought I needed to do something for Valerie as well. I wanted to do a surprise for her.”
So in April, Kirk got busy planning his own wedding surprise for his beautiful bride.
Kirk sent an email to all eight of his groomsmen asking them to jump on board a choreographed dance routine for the wedding.
To his excitement, every single one said yes, including his two brothers, his brother-in-law, and Valerie’s own brother, none of which had any formal dance training. Fortunately for the group, Kirk’s other four groomsmen were also professional dancers.
He knew Valerie was going to love it, and she did as you can clearly see her jumping up and down in the video throughout the six songs that Kirk had chosen to dance to, including tunes from Brittany Spears, Bruno Mars, and even a tip of the hat to the Top Gun theme song.
Seeing how much love is clearly behind the dance routine that Kirk devised, it’s no wonder that this wedding video went viral in no time at all.
With well over 13 million views now, it’s safe to say the world still pines for stories of true love and, of course, one hell of an EPIC dance routine!
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