8 months ago, Isabel was asked to be a flower girl in Ben & Saryn’s wedding with her cousin, Hannah.  Of course, she said yes right away because she loves attention. 

Dad and Daddy were a mix of emotions – excitement and nervousness.  First, she’s adorable and this is just another chance for her to shine.  But…as you may know, Isabel has a very strong personality and if she didn’t want to wear a certain dress there was no way we would be able to get her to wear it.   Dad and Daddy came up with a plan of action that would be months in the making. 

Step 1 (T minus 2 months)– get a dress that we think she will like.  This was up to the Bride, but she nailed it. 

Step 2 (T Minus 6 weeks) – Unwrap it when it showed up as if it was a present and immediately talk about how pretty it was, how much fun twirling in it would be, how it was a present, and how lucky she was to get to wear it.

Step 3 (T minus 6 weeks) – Try it on and start twirling right away.  (This step didn’t go well at first as I tried putting the dress over her head instead of stepping into it and it freaked her out.  Luckily, Gramma and Daddy were there to correct my error)

Step 4 – Put it away and talk about the dress and the wedding

Step 5 (T minus 2 weeks)– Try the dress on again.  Repeat step 2.

Step 6 (T minus 1 week) – Try the dress on and ‘practice’ throwing flowers (leaves I picked from the bushes outside).  Talk about how great she was doing (she was doing a great job)

Step 7 (Continuous) – Pray it works out.     

During our trip to Baltimore for the wedding, we had to actively prevent her from wearing the dress the night before to the rehearsal dinner.  We were feeling good about this! 

The day of the wedding was going great.  We had a fun family pool day and then took a solid nap.  We woke up and started getting ready for the wedding.  I went downstairs to meet Connor’s babysitter and disaster nearly struck.  Isabel lost it.  She freaked out and didn’t want to wear the dress.  Tears and yelling. MELTDOWN CITY!  Only quick thinking by Daddy saved the day – he quickly pulled out another dress she liked and said she could wear it underneath.  Who cares if it was purple and the flower girl dress was white and gold.  It worked!! 

We met her cousin in the lobby and went to the wedding site so we could do a quick run through.  They loved it. 

We coached them down the aisle in a practice run – Throw! Twirl! Smile! Walk! Throw! Twirl! Smile! Walk! Throw! Twirl! Smile! Walk!  They were crushing it! 

We found the bride and groom, gave them very excited hugs, and told them we were ready to kick some booty and we were feeling great. 

The moment of truth.  It’s our turn.  Dad on one end of the aisle and Daddy on the other – big smiles on our faces despite the nervousness we were feeling.  And it happens – they both freeze when they saw all the people.  We jump into action and encourage and walk them a bit down the aisle and that’s when the practice kicked in.  Throw! (pause) Twirl! Smile! (pause – forget to move forward) Throw! Twirl! Smile! (Still no moving forward)  Another throw of flowers.  The guests are laughing and the girls are loving it.  They aren’t moving and the flower petals are really piling up at the very start of the aisle.  No worries…it’s cute.  Then it clicks.  They start walking…and throwing!  Total success!!  Isabel gets near the end of the aisle and sprints to daddy, excitedly jumps 4-5 times, and gives daddy a big hug!  SUCCESS!