My Flower Girl

This last weekend Ellie and I were in Miss Lissa's (aka Miss, Melissa, Mel) wedding. We both got prettied up like princesses. I had the standard up-do and Ellie had lots and lots of curls. I'm sure Ellie loved the attention and loved getting her hair done. It made it so much more real than all the previous times she just played make-believe-princess.
But oh did she shine! I couldn't stop staring at my little girl who simply KNEW she was a rockin' princess.
And she had just a touch of silliness, I'm sure she got it from Brynn.



But she did fantastic. There was another little flower girl who was almost a year older than Ellie, but Ellie held her own. She took her role VERY seriously. We had been practicing at home and during the rehearsal, she had a handful of pine needles that she pretended were flowers as she dropped them. During the actual ceremony, she was very determined to put flowers down from the very beginning of the runner to the very end. I just love this picture of them. They were so precious.


I have to admit that I cried during my friend's wedding. No... it wasn't for her (as happy as I am)... It was because my little Ellie seemed so grown up. Images flashed before my head of her walking down the aisle of her own wedding, arm in arm with her Daddy. And yet here she was, just a small little 3 year old who already knew that weddings were special. It was a hard few minutes for this Niffer.

I include this photo because it's just darn cool. We got a new camera and have decided that every wedding should have a designated NEW CAMERA GUY. Michael couldn't stop playing with the settings and found this cool one that keeps one color but turns the rest of the photo black and white. I love the result.

After the wedding Ellie wanted Bun Bun to join in the fun for the party. I quickly devised a low-hassle location for Bun Bun that forced even more "awww, how cute" sounds from those surrounding us.
Ellie had a lot of fun with Alexandra. Since Alexandra was almost a year older than Ellie I expected Ellie to want to copy her every move, but much to my surprise it was the other way around. Alexandra adored Ellie and did everything she did, right down to the same meltdown during rehearsal dinner (when only Ellie had a valid face plant that deserved the tears).
But regardless, I took note of the subtle difference in interactions between Ellie and her new friend. I guess it goes to show that Ellie can be a leader too. Yay!

The wedding was a late one and by the time dinner got to us, it was already an hour past this girl's normal bedtime. But she hung in there, insisting that she stay to watch Princess Miss Lissa dance with her new Prince. In the mean time, she showed me the proper way to kiss a princess (I must say it's a bit strange getting kissing lessons from my own daughter).
And snuggled up close to her Daddy, who she hadn't seen for quite a few days because he was on travel. She knew that this was a special treat to stay up so late, so she was quite the trooper.

And when the father-daughter dance came one, the bride opened the floor to all the father-daughters in the room... There is nothing that can pull at a Mommy's heart strings quite as much as watching your daughter dance with her Daddy.
Though unfortunately I didn't realize the camera was as zoomed as it was. Doh. Here I was thinking I just couldn't get far enough away from them. Oh well.
Look at how she stood on his shoes. Sigh. Gasp. Sniff. Sob. There goes my heart.

Sigh. Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy being a Mommy to this little girl?

And as luck would have it, the very first dancing song was a fantastic big band song... and you know how Niffers are. I HAD to get out there and dance with someone. And you know how Ellies are. She LOVES dancing Niffer Mommies. Who doesn't?

All in all it was a pretty darn good night. Ellie wasn't quite as enthralled by the "real princess" as she was for the last wedding she went to. Maybe it was because she already knew Miss before she was a princess. Who knows? But that doesn't mean it wasn't magical for her. You could still tell that she knew the moment was special and she is looking forward to her turn. I caught her telling Alexandra "Yeah, we're bof Princess Lissa and we are spinning with our princes, right?" when they were practicing their twirls.

Well... Miss Lissa, you were beautiful. Your wedding was gorgeous and I'm so glad to see you so happy. As Ellie often reminds me, now you will live happily ever after and will never be sad again. Those are the rules.