There is a reason why I chose not to have flower girls/ring bearers in our wedding. We didn't have any close family or friend tots we felt obligated to involve, and even in my pre-Mommy state I was not crazy enough to rustle up a pair of 2-3 year olds whose unpredictable and often socially unacceptable behaviors I am now all too familiar with. My (Jay's) niece, on the other hand, is far more brave. Elle was asked to be the flower girl in her outdoor wedding, and I must admit her performance at the rehearsal struck fear in my heart. There was aimless wandering... ok, blatant recurrent distraction... as she attempted to walk down the aisle.

Oh look, a caterpillar! Oh look, grass! Oh look, the ring bearer mom's stash of gummy bears!

Painful. 10 minutes and several dismembered gummy bears later, she finally arrived at the altar, only to immediately fall and hit her head. Which of course led to ear-shattering screams, and insistence that FlowerGirlMommy come hold her for the duration of the event. Don't say my trepidation for the actual wedding wasn't justified.

But the kid knows when to turn it on. And perform she did. Wedding night transformed her into the most perfect little angel, who nailed her role as Flower Girl better than Daniel Craig pulled off James Bond (and clearly, that's saying something).

She authoritatively (ok, bossily) grabbed Turner the ring bearer by the hand and said "Come on Turner, let's go to our Mandy", practically drug him down the aisle, and stood there angelically during the whole ceremony.

I beamed. I teared up. I noshed on gummy bears.

Post wedding got just a touch more sketchy, as we had long surpassed bedtime. Elle's too.

Apparently overtired Elle copes by making the "impending defecation" face.

But we both managed to stave off the over-tired grumpiness for the first few minutes of the reception. This photo was taken moments before the Flower Girl decided to plunge head first into the fountain. And nanoseconds before she leaned into the candle and we came a little too close to finding out just how flammable tulle can be...

Unfortunately, angel wings apparently disintegrate at 9:30pm, taking the flower girl's behavior with them. So she and I darted back to the hotel where I mistakenly thought she might actually go to sleep. Several drinks of water, potty attempts, rearrangements of bedding, and q30 second implorings of "Mommy?", "Mom?", "Mama?"....."Lauren!!" later, she was still awake. Guess the day's excitement was just too much... that or the gummy bears.