Tornado can't stop 'perfect' first dance at Lake Geneva wedding

The first time a tornado interrupted Alex and Sarah Schilke’s romance was in May 2022, when Alex proposed in Eau Claire under a tornado watch.

Alex and Sarah are both from Wisconsin and don’t have much experience with tornadoes. But they encountered another one last Saturday, when a severe weather system and a tornado warning interrupted their wedding reception shortly after family photos.

One of eight tornadoes that hit Wisconsin on Saturday forced guests into the basement of the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa on Lake Geneva, but the storm didn’t stop the couple from having a special first dance.

The couple had been worried about bad weather all day, but hoped their carefully planned outdoor ceremony would go ahead.

“Let’s take a chance,” Alex told the staff at the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa. “I have a feeling there’s going to be a break in the rain.”

After a morning of steady showers, the rain stopped and the sun came out long enough for the ceremony.

The storm returned as the venue staff brought in dinner for the reception. The DJ approached Alex and Sarah to inform them of the tornado warning, and the couple led their guests down to the basement.

In addition to the Schilkes’ wedding guests, Alex said at least two other weddings were in the basement. The power had been cut off after a tree fell on a nearby power line. The Schilkes’ guests were scattered in the chaos, until someone from the Gordon family noticed Sarah in her wedding dress and asked if the couple had had their first dance yet.

Singer Jack Jones attended the meeting and offered to play a song for the first dance. Alex and Sarah ran through the basement, calling everyone who was attending their wedding to come watch.

“We caught as many people as we could,” Alex said. “The place was totally dark, just emergency lights. And we walk into the room and everyone turns on their flashlights, and it’s like this illumination of the whole ballroom that we were in. It was magical.”

Jones played Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect,” while the crowd gathered around the couple and sang along.

The Schilkes had planned to dance to Louis Armstrong’s “La Vie en Rose,” and they took four weeks of dance classes to perfect their routine. But the couple said they wouldn’t change a thing, looking back.

“Honestly, the song that Jack chose was, I mean – pun intended – perfect,” Alex said.

In a later conversation, Jones shared that while he knew a few wedding songs, this one stood out for its lyrics about dancing in the dark.

“It was a great moment of humanity,” Alex said of the gesture. “It felt very Midwestern, like everyone treated each other like family, even though that wasn’t the case. »

Jones posted a video of his impromptu performance on TikTok, garnering over a million views and over 200,000 comments.

“Well, it looks like you’re all family now,” commented Lauren, a viewer of the video.

“As an event planner for 30 years, I don’t think I could have created a more memorable moment,” commented TikTok user Bayoumom04.