Shanelle + Jared

My good friend Shanelle got married on Sunday. It was a beautiful wedding.


I was a bridesmaid, Eden was a flower girl, and Peter helped officiate the ceremony. Eden was actually just supposed to walk down the aisle with Peter, and then sit with him in the front row (except when I held her while he was speaking). No flower-petal-throwing required. But I was worried (of course). She's been known to have a mind of her own from time to time, after all. And when we held a "dress rehearsal" in our kitchen a few days before, she'd let us know her opinion about the dress by screaming and violently yanking on the collar.

So yeah, I was worried.

To my great relief however, things went really well. She wore the dress (and the hair bow!). She walked down the aisle, just stopping to look behind her a few times. And she let Peter hold her in the front row... for a few minutes. She had been away from me for most of the day, so when she saw that I was standing just a few feet in front of her, she kept trying to wriggle away from Peter to get to me. Which meant I held her most of the ceremony. This worked okay for the most part - while she sat relatively still. But toward the end, she decided she'd also had enough of mom and just wanted to get down and explore. I kept trying to distract her (quietly) and shush her when she started to fuss. And in the end, there were really only a few tense moments (for me) when she whined a bit. For the most part, I don't think anyone else noticed much. She ripped quite a few flowers out of my bouquet, but the damage wasn't that noticeable. Probably the worst moment (again, for me) was when she was trying to get down out of my arms during the exchange of vows, and upon discovering my resistance to this plan, started murmuring "no, no, no." Not the most ideal backdrop to two people communicating life-long commitment to one another. But again, I'm hoping most people (including the bride and groom) didn't notice. And I'm really hoping it wasn't loud enough to be recorded for posterity on the wedding video.

Unfortunately, after a few days off of her normal routine, Eden wasn't up to a long night of dancing at the reception. Peter took her home just after the dinner and ended up having a nightmare of a time getting her to bed. But we've taken it easy every day since, and apart from an on-going battle with some incoming teeth, she's had a good week.

The wedding was fantastic, and despite the normal difficulties of planning anything involving a 14-month-old, it went off really well. It was an honor to be a part of such a special occasion, and I'm so glad that Eden's first flower-girl experience could be with a couple that mean so much to us and have played such an important role in her life already. (Shanelle was Eden's babysitter for most of the time that I was working full-time.)

Here are some pictures (special thanks to Merlin F. for the actual wedding ceremony pictures!):

Eden's dress rehearsal.

Shanelle, and our friend Skip, getting manicures and pedicures the day before the wedding.

Out for breakfast with Shanelle the morning of the big day.

Skip, Shanelle, and Luz (the maid-of-honor).

Another good friend (and bridesmaid), Nikki, getting her hair done. She and I had a bit of a stressful morning as the salon goofed up her appointment and then had to try to squeeze us both in with the same stylist at the same time. They did our make-up for free to try to make up (hee hee) for the mistake, but Nikki ended up washing it all off later because they put it on so thick. Thankfully, everything worked out in the end.


Congratulations, Shanelle and Jared! We love you!