Runners sprint to wedded bliss live on TODAY

As if the extravagance of the newly refurbished Plaza ballroom weren’t heady enough for the newlyweds, TODAY added some star wattage by bringing in award-winning country music superstar Martina McBride to serenade the couple with TODAY’s traditional “throws a wedding” song, “I Just Call You Mine.”

Video   Leigh and Nick’s first dance July 15: Newlyweds Leigh and Nick share their first dance as a married couple to a live performance of Martina McBride’s “I Just Call You Mine.” Today show

Nick and Leigh showed they can dance every bit as well as they run, gliding gloriously along the ballroom’s polished hardwood as McBride sang to them. TODAY’s Roker and Natalie Morales — hosts for the reception’s first hour — got into the act as well, tripping the light fantastic along with the rest of the wedding party. Gregarious Al also seemed to find time to dance with most of the couple’s female relatives during the first number.

Sound advice
McBride, who attended the wedding along with her husband of 21 years, sound engineer John, offered Nick and Leigh a bit of advice on what makes a marriage last. “I think dedication, commitment and respect for each other — and a sense of humor is very important.”

As TODAY’s Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford took over hosting duties for the reception’s second hour, they put together a panel of wedding guests and relationship experts to dispense additional advice to the Cordes.

Particularly animated were wedding guests Ed and Elizabeth Pound, who commented on what’s made their marriage tick during their nearly 50 years together. “We had our first argument in 1959, and we haven’t settled it yet, but we still talk about it,” Ed said glibly.

Video   Nick and Leigh cut the cake July 15: Newlyweds Nick and Leigh cut the cake at their wedding reception at The Plaza Hotel. Today show

When Gifford asked Pound what started the fight, he responded, “I forgot!”

Wife Elizabeth got a chance to needle her husband when addressing marital longevity to Leigh and Nick. She said the passion in a marriage “never stops; it ebbs and flows, but you’re together and you will be together.”

“At some point in the marriage, you realize it’s too late to get out anyway,” she added. “So you might as well relax and enjoy it!”

While guests feasted on filet mignon and monkfish, Nick and Leigh moved on to the wedding cake display stand, where Leigh delicately sliced through a spectacularly sinful chocolate on chocolate confection. Appetites sated, the guests and TODAY then took to the dance floor to lean a new wedding favorite “The Cha Cha Slide,” a slightly slinkier version of that old standby, the Electric Slide. Agile Nick and Leigh mastered the steps in moments — but TODAY’s Gifford looked slightly lost before acquitting herself nicely near the song’s end.

Video   Kathie Lee and Hoda’s toast July 15: TODAY’s Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford toast Leigh and Nick on their wedding day. Today show

Eyes only for each other
In between the festivities, TODAY’s Morales took a moment with mother of the bride Jan Tilley, who said she “is thrilled” to have Cordes as the newest member of the family.

She also noted that even though every bite of wedding cake and every dance step (or misstep) was being caught on camera for a national TV audience, she believed her daughter and new son-in-law only had eyes for each other. “She and Nick look at each other, and they just looked so in the moment with each other,” the mother of the bride observed.

Hoda Kotb made a similar remark as she toasted the couple. “You’ve been like family to us,” Kotb said. “You are a wonderful couple, I could see when you guys were looking into each other’s eyes just how much you meant to one another.”

Gifford, who said she felt touched that both Nick and Leigh expressed their commitment to God in their wedding vows, read from Psalm 143 and then added, “Than you for letting us share your glorious, glorious day with your wonderful family and friends. We wish you great, great happiness in this world and in the next.”

Slideshow   Leigh and Nick say ‘I do’ Go behind-the-scenes as the winning couple of “TODAY Throws a Wedding” finally take the plunge on Rockefeller Plaza. more photos

As the couple took a break from the congratulatory hugs and kisses from wedding well-wishers, Leigh told TODAY the pair is excited about the prospect of starting a family, though there is “no rush.”

Nick added he has supreme confidence that the couple will be together to enjoy their grandchildren — and that a day won’t go by when Leigh doesn’t know how he feels about her.

“I know we’re going to make it,” he said. “She tells me sometimes that I tell her too much information, I’m too honest — but she’d rather have me that way because there’s no secrets, no games.”

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