Sarah Kennedy and Timothy Munsell (Nashville, TN) are getting hitched They met on Wednesday, December 19, 2001 at the Global Education Center in Nashville (no they aren't that cheesy, the date was simple to figure out). Each having been told "You must dance with Tim/Sarah" by various friends, they were introduced and danced to Nina Simon's "Love Me Or Leave Me".
That was the first of only two dances that evening (despite the presence of less than two dozen dancers). Tim was impressed with Sarah's dancing considering where she learned (he still resided and had learned to dance in Chicago, she knew nothing but dancing in Nashville) but Sarah was "underwhelmed".
With his very northern attitude and approach, Sarah was quickly turned off by Tim's "arrogant cockiness". She didn't even like dancing with him, feeling totally lost and inadequate. She didn't realize that he knew more lindy hop and would revolutionize her dancing for another 3 months.
They traded email addresses, Sarah assuming that he'd never actually write, and parted ways at the end of the evening. Sarah went home to Austin for Christmas and didn't return to Nashville until after Tim had departed to Chicago.
Tim was taken by Sarah, through no efforts of her own he was smitten, enamored and enthralled by the very idea of her. Having no comprehension of her impressions of him (for in true southern style she hid them well) he emailed her, careful though, not to show all his cards. She replied and surprisingly prompt. Taking a cue from the movie "Swingers", Tim waited a week to email her back, and continue that pattern for the remaining winter months. After describing a lonely birthday and Valentine's Day, Sarah had all but written him off as an absolute loser, but continued to respond graciously and Tim privately gained confidence in his chances of successfully wooing her.
About this time Tim had decided to move back to Nashville, a large consolation (he loved Chicago and did not want to leave) being his misconceived notion that Sarah would be interested in dating him upon his arrival in Nashville.
Tim, with the financial and planning support of high school buddy (and now groomsman) Nathan Honeycutt and collegiate compadre (and groomsman as well) Drew Fansler, hosted his first workshop in Nashville (The Lindy Shop) the opening weekend of March, 2002. Sarah showed up, determined to uncover from whence Tim's exuberance for Lindy Hop came. And over the course of two days she fell in love with the legendary dance and began to realize the potential Tim held for her as an instructor.
She was still unconvinced about his worth as human, let alone his value as a friend, but she sidestepped these concerns in favor of learning to dance for no one resided in Nashville at that time with the ability to take her dancing to the level she experienced at the workshop. Still unaware of her true opinion of him, Tim took advantage of every opportunity to spend time with Sarah, nearly exclusively within the context of dancing.
The turning point for Tim was approaching soon. The first weekend of April would bring the inaugural DCLX with it. Tim knew (or was it instinct rather?) that if he could get Sarah to that event there would be two results. 1) Sarah's dancing would never be the same and 2) their relationship would never be the same. So he began working on her, but she wouldn't budge. For each defense she put up he found an answer, except for her claim to not be able to afford it.
Southwest Airlines provided his answer to this final objection with just over 1 week to go. "Friends Fly Free" the email read, and his solution was found. He called Sarah and essentially told her he was taking her to DCLX. She attempted to object yet once more until he informed her that he was buying her flight. She had no further objections.
The Tuesday night before they flew to DC Tim was able to convince Sarah to meet him for dinner. This was not a date and not really meant to be (though he did maintain a secret hope). They met at Princeton's Grille in Franklin to talk about the logistics of their trip to DC. "I have a crush on you" Tim admitted during the meal, going on to explain that the trip to DC was strictly platonic but he needed to reveal his crush, otherwise he'd spend the weekend wondering and hoping about every brush of the hand, every touch, every whispered comment. This was one of the smartest things he'd ever done.
After his well received revelation early into to dinner, Tim realized he'd left the car lights on. As he walked through the parking lot in view of Sarah, "he's kinda cute" invaded her thoughts for the first time. She kept this to herself but the thought was emphasized throughout the exchange weekend.
It was during DCLX as a result of the long hours spent together that Sarah began to view Tim as an actual friend, as someone she enjoyed spending time with, and this development she readily admitted on multiple successive occasions, perhaps sheerly out of her surprising change of opinion. This of course made Tim's mission to take every opportunity to woo her significantly easier. They started dancing together more especially as he made plans to open up Music City Motion and hoped to teach with Sarah a couple of classes a week.
Tim's second foray into dance weekend organization came in early June. The Music City Mini Camp culminated for the instructors and workers at dinner at Blackstone Brewery. As Tim and Sarah walked up the steps to the entrance Sarah spun around and kissed him, then turned back and walked inside as if nothing had just transpired. Tim however, struggled against falling down for his universe had just stood still. Sarah came back outside to find him held up by the iron rail. She apologized, she didn't know what came over her, she didn't mean to do it. He didn't care and he barely even noticed what she said. He floated into the restaurant and it was days before he returned to earth.
The rest of the spring and all that summer was fluctuation between a veritable nightmare and heaven as Sarah bounced between the desire to date Tim and a misguided conviction that he was completely wrong for her. Though occasional displays of jealousy and frequent displays of affection lead him to believe otherwise, Sarah insisted theirs was merely a close friendship and any subsequent change of that status was remote indeed.
Following a dramatic falling out, the result of some of Tim's severely inopportune quirks during a visit by Sarah's mother, he nearly gave up. Slowly their friendship recovered, again centered around dancing. Still convinced Sarah would be the last girl he'd ever date and propelled by a sudden row catalyzed by Sarah's violently jealousy reaction to some affectionate displays directed towards him by another girl, he gave one final pursuit.
As Sarah prepared to leave her current job and begin offering freelance German translation she took Labor Day weekend (and a few days surrounding it) to head home to Austin to recharge before she ventured into the world of the self-employed. Her dad had flown to Nashville to drive back with her, and Tim had planned to fly to Austin to drive back to Nashville with Sarah. With everything in the air, and that air often tense between them, he hedged his bets with a tiny portion of deceit.
Letting her think he'd already bought his flight tickets he left her to decide whether she still wanted him to come west. After a couple of days away she called, and asked him to keep his flight and fly out largely because she didn't like the thought of a wasted plane ticket. While on the phone with her Tim bought his plane ticket, blaming the delay on telling her his itinerary on his computer freezing up. The ploy worked, while she still wasn't convinced his visit to Austin was a grand idea, she never guessed that he could have actually stayed in Nashville.
Their Labor Day vacation was the final turning point. Midway
through his stay in Austin Sarah conclusively unchained her feelings
for him and upon their return to Nashville finally allowed for the
dating label. Exactly three years later, dancing to Honeysuckle Rose as
sung by Steven Mitchel in front of Lindy Hop Heaven at Swing Out New
Hampshire, Tim pulled a ring out of his pocket and slipped it onto
Sarah's hand. She said "Ja".
