The “Ring Bear” and Flower Girl

There is always some risk involved, when adding a whole new family to yours and recruiting them for roles in your wedding. Everybody has a few nuts hanging off the family tree. Fortunately, in this case, we have some of the good kind to illustrate.

Christa’s niece, Daphane, and nephew, Parker, were the leading and only candidates for the roles of flower girl and ring bearer. She was seven and seemingly born to play this role. Overcome by the request, to the extent of wide-eyed, smiling speechlessness, she had already started on a program, seven months out, to grow her hair for her title role, Daphane Flower Girl Extraordinaire. She asked every day, “How many days until the wedding?”

As further evidence of our exceptional choice in flower girl, I am providing the following amusing quotes and gems of insight—gathered when Christa went with Daphane to try on flower girl dresses in San Diego.

“I knew you would be a good bride from the first time I met you,” Daphane said off-handedly. This first meeting had occurred years earlier, when she was one. That kind of vision is a gift.

And “Christa, we’re a lot alike. We’re both stylish.” Classic, almost understated in implying, “Christa, I don’t have to tell you how good I’m looking; you’ve been there. So you understand my concern that you might be blocking the view of my admirers in that yonder, less aesthetically gifted bridal party.”

On the other side of the coin, we have the ring bearer, who at last checkup believed he was playing the role of Ring Bear. It was never clearly established what the role of the ring bear was, but it was important.

The Bear has a need for speed. He is a headfirst, downhill, don’t check for traffic type of guy. I gave him an audition, where I made him stand still and then counted down from ten. I was hoping that he would proceed at a somewhat leisurely pace across the fifteen feet of floor space to present the imaginary rings to me. Unfortunately, he rammed headfirst into my groin, covering the distance in three strides and less than a second.

Christa smiled. “He is going to need some practice.”

“What he needs is a padded helmet,” I replied.
- Drew Lloyd
From "Will You?" to "I Do.": A Groom's Tale of Survival