ST. PAUL, Minn. — The highlight of Ryan Hartman’s August wedding was tough to pick.
There was the live band/DJ mix that had turned a jampacked dance floor at Bavaria Downs in Chaska into a mosh pit. The only slow song might have been for the first dance for Ryan and his wife, Lauren, Aerosmith’s “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” a stick tap to their prom.
There was Hartman’s younger brother, Tanner, 21, bringing his family — and the rest of the 280 in attendance — to tears during his emotional (and comical) best man’s speech. Way to one-up the groom.
“He got a standing ovation,” Ryan Hartman said.
But even that didn’t top when the happy couple, Ryan and Lauren, were literally tossed into the air repeatedly by a group led by Minnesota Wild teammate Marcus Foligno — a tradition, Foligno said, that started with his father, Mike, the longtime Sabre. Think “Wedding Crashers,” only without the chairs.
The newlyweds were caught, of course, but not before a few close calls.
“They were really launching me,” Hartman said, laughing. “I was touching the (string) lights in the ceiling.
“You definitely have to be worried about chandeliers,” Foligno joked. “You don’t want them paying for extra. But it’s fun.
“It makes for great photos.”
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