We were in the Bridgestone Arena for the 45th annual Country Music Association Awards (CMAs) last night in Nashville, Tennessee. It really was country music’s party of the year and even the celebrities were in on the party. Here’s some of the moments that didn’t make it to television:

• Only 9,000 lights were handed out to fans for Martina McBride’s performance of “I’m Gonna Love You Through It.” During every break, the announcement was made not to turn on the lights until it was announced later in the show. Somehow a bunch of the artists got a hold of the lights and were playing with them during some performances.
• Blake Shelton was late to his seat after the 10 second countdown to the live performance of Taylor Swift. He ran back to his seat right in front of Taylor almost 20 seconds into her performance: he was too busy talking with friends to realize the show was on. It was a pretty funny moment.
• The boys of Rascal Flatts were dancing behind the wall during Lionel Richie’s duet with Darius Rucker. Their dance session included Jay DeMarcus dancing with his bass guitar in circles.
• Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton both had their red solo cups on hand under the seats the whole show. During breaks they would take them out and drink.
• Half-way through the show they had to start “please return to your seats” announcements because the artists were having too much fun chatting with each other to hear the live countdown.
• There were no harnesses or safety nets on the ribbon dancers in Sara Evans’ performance.
• Miranda Lambert gave every crew member and band member for her performance fist-pumps before they went live with “Baggage Claim.” The heat of the fire from the finale of the performance was felt even at the top rows of the arena.