Bergjord Boarding

By: Luke

Our wedding was set for July 18th, 2020. That is either the set-up or punchline to a bad joke. When March, 2020 came we got worried. By April we were pivoting hard.

The result of all the last minute adjustments was an absolutely perfect day. There are so many stories form that time, but I want to talk about one. Our dance floor!

We had our wedding and reception in our back yard. That posed a lot of challenges, but one of the biggest on my list was; where are we going to dance?

We chose this area in our yard just because it had a branch perfect for our “disco ball”. This area was previously used as a dog kennel. It was slightly elevated and packed with rocks. I had to shovel around dirt and try to even out the ground. After the rough terraforming I tied a rope to a weighted down pallet and ran around. After some experimenting this ended up working pretty well. Then came Sam plucking all of the rocks in that area and taking away multiple buckets worth.

The ground was level enough to build. I used my cowboy carpentry skills to bust out multiple 8’x4′ frames. After laying those down and attaching them, we added sheets of composite board. I think we used 1/2″ board. I was second guessing and we ended up adding another layer of 1/2″. The thought of someones foot busting through the dance floor kept me up at night.

After those were on I spent hours sanding any roughness out of it and making sure the seems were even. The next addition were the pillars around the dance floor. I knew I wanted as much lighting while not ruining the ambiance. This meant strings of pretty rope lights. Some dangled above and there was a ring of lights to mark the step up to the dance floor.

I fear how boring this is getting. All of a sudden it was party time! Our DJ was awesome. The weather was perfect.

Eventually I had to disassemble that dance floor. My friend and his dad (The Stadels) were the ones with a truck and trailer that helped me transport all of that lumber to my house. A couple of months afterward, they were building a garage and needed composite board. I was more than happy to pay back their generosity. The memories live on forever and that wood was put to an excellent, more permanent, use.