Flower Girls for rent!

 

The Girls attended and participated in their first wedding ever! The bride was GORGEOUS and and the girls behaved very well considering the ceremony lasted over an hour.  A FULL Catholic Mass. The wedding STARTED at 7:30 p.m. which is about the time that my girls are reading their bedtime stories.

 

We live next door to this family and they have five children--who have all babysat for us over the years.  The bride is the oldest of the five children.

 

Brooke tried on the Brides 5 inch heels (briefly before she fell over).

 

I was honored to be in the Brides' room before the ceremony watching such intimate moments between the bride and her family.  I tried my best to stay out of the way. My duty was to keep the girls entertained, clean, fed, happy and tidy.  That is three more things than I do on a regular basis. It really stressed me out, y'all.  I love this pic (that I took with my cell phone) of the girls with the bride in the reflection of the mirror:

 

The biggest crisis in the Bride's room wasn't my kids doing something, but that she couldn't find the Groom's ring...anywhere.  After an hour of searching, they found it in some random bag back at the hotel.

 

I was most concerned about the Girls sitting still for such a long ceremony (especially after a tough rehersal the day before.)  Also, they had never even been to a wedding before, and the whole process was fascinating to them.  They did such a great job soaking it all in (quietly).  Brooke did have a few questions for the bridesmaids......"Why are they kneeling? What language is the priest speaking? What are those crackers and juice for, and why can't I have some? Is it over yet?"

We only caught Madison falling asleep once after a zillion yawns.

The ceremony ended at about 8:45, then there was a Mariachi band outside of the Cathedral to greet the guests and new couple, then we took bridal party pictures.....then, things started to go downhill with a whine fest, and I couldn't WAIT until I had WINE in my hand.  We drove back to the hotel (we got a room even though the wedding was in town) for the reception.

Cocktail hour STARTED at 10:00, and the girls literally fell asleep in a chair in the corner after BEGGING to go to bed.  BEGGING and crying just to go to sleep.

Zak took them up to the room, and because he couldn't leave them asleep in the room, stayed there for the night.  

Dinner and the toasts STARTED after 11:00 (was delicious!), but I felt so terrible that our table had 3 missing chairs.  By 12:30, the couple cut the cake and the dancing began about 1:00 am.  

I'm sad that the girls couldn't see the whole process, and would have had so much fun (if was six hours earlier). I watched the first few dances, then went up to bed.

The Girls, of course, woke up at about 5 am, hungry and cranky, and rambunctious.  

So, we'll rent out Maddie and Brooke for weddings in the future, as long as your ceremony starts before 5:30.   Otherwise, Zak and I will be the only guests from now on.