Monday Memory: Little Girls in Blue Dresses

Five-and-a-half years ago Dan and I got married. It was important to us that our families be a part of the event, so we asked three nieces to all be flower girls. We thought Holly (then 6), Allison (4), and Avery (2) would be adorable walking down the aisle together in their frilly dresses. Dan's mom (Grandma Sue) actually found the dresses at a children's boutique and bought them for all her granddaughters. On our wedding day, all the little Lenssen girls looked sweet enough to eat in their matching blue dresses. The girls dutifully posed for pictures before the ceremony and we figured there would be no problems with stage fright once the music started.

 

(Our awesome nieces and nephews on October 20, 2007. Their numbers have since increased, as has their adorableness.)

Alas, that was not to be the case. The youngest two girls came down with some pre-wedding jitters and adamantly refused to walk down the aisle. I was in the back of the church watching them both cry, their patient mothers trying to coax them into following their older cousin into the sanctuary. Nothing worked and niece Holly made the trek solo, without her two young accomplices. Sweet Holly did a great job, walked and stood where she'd practiced, and was quiet and cute during the whole thing.

 

(Lovely little Holly workin' the aisle solo at our wedding. She's still super-great at weddings and did a bang-up job as a candle lighter a couple months ago in Grandma Sue's wedding. I imagine she'll be a great bridesmaid one day too. Holly's friends should get their reservations in now.)

I recalled that bit of our wedding story recently because sis-in-law Angela saved her girls' two blue dresses for all these years and recently gifted them to Lana. I was nearly moved to tears of sentimentality at the thought of my sweet girl wearing the same blue frock her sweet girls wore all these years ago.

And of course, Lana looked just as adorable in the dress as her older cousins did years earlier. We used it as this year's Easter dress and she loved getting to twirl and dance in it.

The two shy flower girls are anything but shy now. They've grown into confident and amiable young ladies, and our little girl in blue thinks the world of all of them.