Kids Corner

(Olive Press/Phoenicia Times April 8, 2010)

I've been a Flower Girl in two weddings. The most recent wedding was my Aunt Mandy's. When you're a Flower Girl, you look to the bride and think two questions: "have I ever seen the bride look this good?" and "do I look good enough?" The job of the Flower Girl is to make the bride's entrance look fabulous and glamorous during the wedding. Before the wedding, you hang out with the bride and tell her she looks lovely. The first wedding I was Flower Girl in was my aunt Chelsea's and Chad's wedding. She got panicky and wheezy, and I gave her my asthma inhaler, and she felt less agitated after she used it. You need to be on your toes and prepared for anything that might happen. Flower Girls need to wear whatever the bride tells you to wear. In the first wedding, the bride picked out the dress. It was a nice dress, and I didn't look too shabby in it, if I say so myself. For the second wedding, I picked out the dress. This is better, because you can show a bit more of your own personality. There's a lot fuss about weddings. For a Flower Girl it's, "how many petals should I throw?" or "is my walk too messy? Should I be doing a step-together walk?" For the Groom and the Bride the fuss is really different. The Groom is probably thinking, "is there stuff stuck in my teeth?" or "did I spill something on my shirt?" The Bride is probably thinking, "Oh my gosh, is there a petal stuck in my heel?" or "am I holding my bouquet too close to my chest?" The fuss is all about three things: timing, apparel, and facial grooming. They don't remember the big picture. It's like your birthday: the night before your birthday, you have some toys you like to play with, and they are nice toys. When your birthday comes, you have new toys and you feel special. No one else has played with those toys and they are all yours. So, if you took all the fuss out of a wedding, you would basically just have a really special birthday.