War of the Roses

When I was a little girl, a friend of the family and his long time girlfriend promised me that when they got married, I would be their flower girl. I was delighted at this, but alas, little girls tend not to stay little for very long, and by the time they finally got around to tying the knot several years had gone by and I was no longer a cute little girl, but an awkward lanky, pre-teen with thick glasses. Don't believe me?

Yikes! Personal Photo

Needless to say, I was passed up for the opportunity, but I vowed that when my own wedding came, I would have the cutest flower girl of all time, and a petal explosion to match. When Mr. W and I started dating, his little sister (let’s call her Lil Waterfall) was just two years old, so when we talked about our future wedding, we just assumed she would be the flower girl. However, by the time we finally got engaged, Lil W was already ten years old, and she would be twelve on our wedding date. Of course, I wasn’t about to let history repeat itself, so we gave her first dibs on the flower girl gig anyways. She very vocally refused, declaring that flower girls were for babies, and that she, in all her training-bra-wearing, Justin-Bieber-loving Pre-Teen Glory, was simply too old for this sh*t.  

Image via anotherwhiskyformisterbukowski.com

We decided to ask Papi Waterfall’s little goddaughter instead, but my parents insisted that we also needed to ask her big sister so she wouldn’t feel left out, and also a family friend’s daughter of the same age, because you can’t have two without three. Fine, we said, there’s no such thing as too many flower girls. More girls = more petals = more fabulous, right? The more the merrier, and all that jazz.

Fast forward a few months and we had just booked our amazing chapel. I was emailing with the coordinator nun, asking her some questions about the church’s rules and regulations, having a good ol’ time, until I asked about petals, you know, as a formality. Her answer?

Image via knowyourmeme.com

NO PETALS. No petals inside or outside the church, no petals on a runner, no real petals or silk petals. No petals of any kind. I tried all my best negociating tricks to get her to agree, until sent me the following email:

"Miss Waterfall, 

You can always find a different church. If you’re not happy with our rules, you still have plenty of time to go elsewhere."   

Ouch! Who knew nuns could be so mean? Anyways, I let it go and decided my time was better spent coming up with a solution instead of trying to get my way. Here I was: three flower girls with nothing to carry. They couldn't throw the petals, so traditional flower girl baskets seemed silly. They couldn't carry pomanders because we had already decided on hanging silk pomanders from the pews. That’s when it hit me: single roses! Since Mr. Waterfall and I had already decided to perform a rose ceremony after our vows, we would already be buying two single roses from our florist. Just like that, we would be killing two birds with one stone. Plus, look how precious!

Image via mayihavethering.com/ Photography: Christina McNeill / Floral Design: Tulipina

The only problem was that we still needed to figure out something for FG #3 to carry. Stay tuned to find out what we came up with ;)

What are your flower girls carrying?