I Loved Tom Petty So Much My Pants Fell Off At My Wedding Reception

by Julian Spivey
I loved Tom Petty so much my pants fell off at my wedding reception.
​
My wedding day – June 20, 2015 – will always be one of my favorite days. I married my high school sweetheart, spent the day with my favorite family members, my new family and my friends and got to jam to many of my favorite songs.

The reception was way more fun than the actual wedding ceremony. That part is scary as hell. The reception is the best party you’re ever going to have in your life if you do it right. I must’ve done it right.  

I didn’t try my pants on until the morning of my wedding. They were a little loose and unfortunately those fancy pants don’t have belt loops. I just knew there was a chance my pants were going to fall down right in front of the Catholic church during the ceremony. It would have led to a Runaway Groom situation and given the nuns something they’d never seen. Knowing this was a possibility I decided to wear shorts underneath the pants.

I made it through the wedding fine. For those of you who may get married in the future though don’t make your wedding party stand outside for almost an hour in 95-degree mid-summer heat to take photos. I wish the pants had fallen off then.

The wedding reception at another location was going well too. Aprille and I danced to our song, “When You Say Nothing at All,” the Allison Krauss version. I say dance, but it was just us holding on to each other while we made small circles in place and laughed at how ridiculous we looked in front of everybody we loved. The pants stayed up.

After the formalities – the first dance, the cutting of the cake, etc. the real party began. The DJ began to play “American Girl,” my favorite song by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It’s not exactly a punk song, but I believe it has punk sensibilities. I found my Tom Petty loving friend Chris Kelley and we began to essentially mosh dance in the middle of the room. We must have looked like complete idiots. I didn’t care. It was the greatest day of my life. As we were thrashing back and forth the moment I knew was a possibility became a reality. It finally happened. My pants fell to my ankles. The whole room laughed. Well, they may have gasped first and then laughed.

Normally I would’ve been so embarrassed I probably couldn’t have moved. Not this day – besides “American Girl” was still playing. I reached down for my pants between my ankles. People assumed I’d pull them up. A normal person would’ve pulled them back up. I took them off. It wasn’t easy over my dress shoes. But those pants came off and I threw them across the room. The slam dancing commenced. Tom Petty got me out of my pants on my wedding night before my wife ever had the chance to do so.
I’m going to miss the hell out of Tom Petty.