Sunday, September 28, 2008

The Flower Girl

Reagan was in a wedding last weekend for some good friends of ours. We were pretty nervous about her being a flower girl as at the age of two, she can be pretty unpredictable in how she'll choose to behave. But our friends wanted her to be part of their special day and were willing to take the risk.

The Dress
Reagan's involvement with the wedding started several months back when we had to get her flower girl dress. We went with the couple to go look at the dress that the bride had selected and try it on Reagan. Reagan is quite the girly girl and loves nothing more than dressing up in pretty things. I put the dress on her in the fitting room and brought her out for everyone to see. She twirled for everyone and looked at herself in the mirror. Then when it came time to take the dress off, we had trouble. She fought me every step of the way in getting the dress off. She kept sobbing, "my dress, my dress."


It was quite a deja vu experience to when I was trying on my own wedding dress. My mom, sisters, and nieces were with me. The youngest niece was just Reagan's age and is another girly girl. Since she saw me trying on all of the dresses she wanted to try one on too. She picked out a dress and her mom put it on her. When it came time to take it off, just like Reagan she just kept crying "my dress, my dress" and didn't want to take it off.

Since we had the two year old in the pretty dress, my sister wanted to put other girl in a dress too and take a few pictures. She was four at the time. She had quite a different reaction from her two year old sister that wanted to live in her new dress. When my sister tried to put a dress on the four year old she cried, "No! I don't want to wear the dress! I'm TOO YOUNG TO GET MARRIED!"

The Shoes
As any good girly girl would be, Reagan chose a pair of heels to wear with her dress. Of course, this would not be her first pair of heels. Before summer started she chose a pair of sandals with a little wedge heel that she wore all summer long and wore out and outgrew. So when it came time to wear these little shoes with the heel, no problemo. She ran, jumped, hopped, and danced the night away in those shoes. You'd never have known she was wearing a heel. She did better than some of the adults that were there that clearly put on heels twice a year and acted like deer on their new legs.




The Rehearsal
We practiced with Reagan for days before the rehearsal on walking down the aisle with a basket and tossing rose petals. It wasn't going so well. Sometimes she would toss the petals out and then immediately turn back around and pick them back up and sing the "Cleanup song" while shoving every last petal back into her basket. Other times she would take out one petal at a time and strategically place them all equidistant from each other in a perfect straight line. It took her five minutes to place about ten petals five feet and if you tried to hurry her along she'd pitch a fit.

So when it came time for the rehearsal, Reagan wasn't cooperating. She boycotted her nap at daycare that day and she was tired, cranky, in a new place, and lots of new people. She finally partially cooperated but it wasn't making me feel any better for the following big day. I told the couple it wasn't too late to replace Reagan with Bailey. They could just wheel Bailey down in a wagon and plunk her on the floor and she wouldn't make a peep. They tried to assured me whatever Reagan decided to do would be fine (I think they were trying to talk themselves into believing it too). I wasn't buying it, I didn't believe they were either.




The Wedding
When it finally came time for the wedding, Reagan pulled it all together and was a champ. She walked down the aisle with the other flower girl, she even tossed a few petals, she posed in pictures. She did unfortunately only stand in the line for a few minutes before she decided she'd rather sit with us. That was fine. But then she started talking and when I tried to quiet her she pitched a fit. So I had to take her in back and miss most of the wedding. But truthfully I saw more of the wedding than I ever expected in the first place. The last wedding we went to I missed the whole thing because Reagan had just learned to do somersaults the day before and insisted on practicing her newfound skill in the nice long, and open aisle. At least she didn't do any somersaults this time.


The Reception
Reagan is the original party animal. She shook her booty on the dance floor all night long. She danced with anyone that approached her and even showed off a few breakdancing moves she had learned from a previous wedding reception with her cousin Noah.




More Pictures
Here are some additional pictures from the wedding. I had hoped to get a lot more photos, but I had my hands full and took very few pictures this time. From what I could tell they actually had an awesome wedding photographer anyway so I know they aren't lacking in any awesome shots.














Congratulations to Dave and Lori!

21 comments:

Michelle said...

Wow, that first picture is such a keeper! I love the dress chosen, and I'm so impressed with her adeptness in the heels!

I promise not to even mention how jealous I am of her beautiful long hair... oops. It looks like a lot of fun, and I'm impressed at how well she did!

Janet said...

Wow! Both girls look beautiful! I love both of their dresses. I'm so glad things went well for y'all. Yay for Reagan! I love the pic of her on the dance floor. She is too cute!

Kaycee said...

oMG! Those are gorgeous!! Both of the girls look beautiful! Such fancy pretty dresses :)

Love the one of Bailey trying to grab Reagan's dress ..hehe!

London said...

How cute is she? And Bailey too!

Lauren said...

So sweet and pretty. Brings back lots of memories. My oldest was in three weddings last summer at the age of 2. We had some of the same issues, as well as others. She was complelety different every time.

Jen said...

Oh wow, she is so adorable and so is her sister! You are right, you do have to be brave to have a 2 year old for a flower girl.

Stacey said...

Wow those dresses on both of the girls are beautiful. I am glad that Reagan decided to do her thing. Your girls are beautiful

Mama Mia said...

VERY CUte

Lara said...

I'm glad she pulled it off in the end. Both her and Bailey looked so adorable in their dresses! Carlie was in her first wedding 2 1/2 and our experience sounds almost exactly like yours!

Aly @ Lip Zip said...

How on earth did you manage to get her to be so good?! I can't even get my two year old (boy) to do that well in the house in his 'normal' clothes. Beautiful pictures and some darn good parenting/luck -- it's always a combination of both with toddlers, right?! :o)

Belle (from Life of a...) said...

Oh...that brings back so many sweet memories for me of when my Lorelai was a flower girl. It's very nerve wracking, isn't it?

Kelly Deneen Raymond said...

Wow! She did awesome in those heels, and I am impressed that she kept that wreath on her head! She is so good! Your girls are both beautiful. :)

Joanna said...

Oh, I could just eat your girls up. They are the cutest little things. Reagan is such a character.

Now I'm off to distract myself from thinking about how wonderful it would be to have a little girl to dress up in pretty dresses.

Unknown said...

Hi its just me. You are gething married so fast in us!! Last time i saw Dave hi was singel and that is only 2 years ago =)

Kara said...

Her dress was sooo pretty! I'm glad she cooperated. It's just hit or miss with 2 year olds. LOL

Kelly said...

Awww!! Love the pics!! The dress and shoes looked great on her!! So cute!!

Anonymous said...

The pics are SOOO CUTE!! Yes, it brings back memories of the other family weddings! :-)
I LOVE the shoes! She sure takes after her MOM on that one!!
I love the b/w of Bailey, too!! Beautiful!!

Congrats to Dave!

LYM...

Anonymous said...

These flower girl dress pictures are just too cute!

Susan said...

Reagan looked beautiful.

Snowbound Gal said...

She looked cute as a button in that dress! Your label is spot-on, though. You do have to be brave to have someone that young in your wedding. Although my husband would say that as long as you get married that day, everything else is just icing on the (wedding) cake.

I have a secret mission for you but I can't find your e-mail address. Would you please send me an e-mail (my address is in my profile) so I can explain?

Amanda @ notsoextraordinary said...

i just have to say (in case you don't already know) that your girls are absolutely beautiful!