Wedding

Yay! Ryan and Leyila are married! It was a beautiful ceremony -- the groom was crying before the bride even started down the aisle - I love that. And the reception was joyful and full of great food... definitely a fun time. Hopefully, Ryan and Leyila are now on a beach somewhere recovering from all the excitement of yesterday. I had forgotten how tiring weddings can be... and the only thing I had to do was manage the 2 smallest participants in the wedding.


Speaking of the little people, here's the Ring-Bearer:


And the Flower Girl:

Practicing their big job: walking:
And practicing their other big job: holding the basket or pillow.

Pre-wedding conversations with the lovely bride... Rayna was enamoured and curious.... And then the kids' big moment arrived!

Colsen, happily and rather unexpectedly, did exactly what he was supposed to do: walk down the aisle.

Rayna was the one with the more "interesting" performance...

When we had rehearsed, there hadn't been anyone sitting in the pews of course, so for the real deal, she came around the corner and.... spotted all kinds of fun people. Quite audibly she exclaimed, "Hey, there's Strider! And look at all these people!" She enthusiastically threw all the petals out of her basket in one grand gesture.... and then proceeded to stop and start visiting with the various friendly faces she recognized. She even side-stepped into one of the pews to say hello... As I squirmed uncomfortably in my seat in the front row, trying to decide how much of a scene I should make to call her forward, she eventually got herded by the friendly faces all the way up. Whew.

Colsen, meanwhile, had left her in the dust, keeping his eye on the prize, which was a promised piece of gum from my purse.

With that nerve-wracking part of the show out of the way, I could now sit back and enjoy the rest of the ceremony....

Here comes the Bride!
Pictures afterward:

I was proud of my little participants. :)

We managed to get a couple family shots at the reception:

Fun day!