The Reluctant Flowergirl

Last Saturday, 17 March 2007, Abby was a flowergirl for the first time ever.  It was her Ninang Claude and Tito Jun’s wedding and she was exactly 2 years and 7 months old.  The wedding was held at Chapel on the Hill in Batangas City, just at Tagaytay City’s doorsteps.

When Abby showed signs of waking up early that morning, I made sure that the tv was turned on and tuned in to Nick Jr. so she would get up right away.   And she did!  She woke up happy, which I took as a sign of good things to come later in the day.

We initially planned to be in Tagaytay early so we could take a leisurely time getting to the wedding.  And besides, my Mom, who is one of the principal sponsors, will be doing all the driving since Dondi is in the US and my brother and his wife can’t join us.  As I almost expected,  the exact opposite happened!  We found ourselves practically chasing after time.  As is always the case when one in a hurry, traffic caught up with us (or is it the other way around?) near the Bicutan exit of the South Superhighway and at the Santa Rosa exit.  By the time we exited Santa Rosa, it was already 2:30pm, and as per the invitation, the wedding is at 4:30pm!  Since we’ve already had our hair and faces done (except Abby), we only needed to check-into our hotel and change our clothes.  But then traffic is just too unpredictable!

We got to Chateau Royale at about 3:45pm.  Fortunately, the church was just a stone’s throw away from the resort hotel.  Needless to say, we were like headless chickens rushing to get out of our everyday clothes to get into wedding appropriate clothes, that meant gowns for both Abby and my mom.  I was a nervous wreck on the way to church fearful that Abby might not make it in time for the “march”.  In spite of our efforts to do everything ever so quickly, we didn’t get to the church ’til 10 minutes after the time stamped on the invitation.  When we secured our parking space, I was surprised to see people already going down the church’s steps to ride their cars.  Oh, no!  The wedding’s over?  But I read and re-read the invitation several times and it said 4:30 in the afternoon.  How can it be over already?  It took me a while to realize that those were people from another wedding.  Whew!  Apparently, Claude and Jun wanted their guests to be in church a good 30 minutes before the actual wedding time, which was at 5:00.  Double whew!

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

When my nerves settled down, I presented my flowergirl daughter, whom I carried up the steps to the chapel, which was literally on a hill,  to the wedding coordinators.  We were handed Abby’s floral headdress and basket of flowers.  Alas, Abby didn’t want me to put her down.  After a few minutes of cajoling, she finally agreed to be put down but didn’t want the floral headdress to be pinned to her hair nor did she want to carry the basket of flowers.  Oh man!  There were two other flowergirls and thank God we caught sight of one of them!  I pointed to Hillary, the 10 year olf flowergirl, so Abby could see that she was wearing the headdress.  Finally, she agreed to have her crown of flowers pinned to her hair.  This was turning out to be more stressful than I thought!  She did proceed to carrying her basket of flowers but every now and then, she would let it rest on the ground.

When time came for the wedding entourage to assemble outside the church, Abby was very cooperative.  Maybe it helped that by this time, the third flowergirl was also already there…smaller and a few months younger than Abby.  There we were, standing patiently in line as every pair of sponsors, secondary sponsors, bridesmaids and groomsmen entered the church and took their respective places.  And then it happened, when Abby was given the cue for her turn to walk down the aisle, she suddenly froze on her tracks and stopped just when she reached the designated “entry point”, which was the last row of seats.  She seemed to be taking in the sight of unfamiliar faces before her.  She wasn’t crying.  She wasn’t whining.  And she didn’t even run to me!  She was just standing there in the middle of the aisle.  The coordinator signalled the older flower girl to go in the hope that Abby will follow her.  No success.  I started to hold Abby’s hand ready to walk with her.  She pulled her hand away and signalled me to stay on the side as if to say, “Stay there, Mommy.”  The younger flowergirl overtook her next.  And then the ring bearer, then the coin bearer, then finally the bible bearer.  All this time, I was encouraging her to walk and was volunteering to walk with her.  Every time I took her hand, she pulled away.  I tried my best to bribe her with chocolates, heck I even heard one of the guests say, “You’ll get chocolates when you get in front.”  :)  In a last ditch effort to salvage the situation, I told her her I’d re-apply lipstick on her lips after she walks.  It didn’t work.  The sight of the matron-of-honor signalled ”all or nothing time” for me.  I thought if Abby got overtaken by the matron-of-honor, we should just as well head over to our seats.  Finally, she allowed me to hold her hand and walked with her but not without stopping for a few seconds after a few steps.  My Mom helped by leaving her place and standing in front of the altar encouraging Abby to continue walking.  She We did get to the front, thank God! 

oOo

In the more than one month that Dondi has been away, it was during that wedding that I missed him most.  I so needed a tag team partner.  For one, Abby didn’t want to sit down nor stand up on her own.  She wanted to be carried.  And at 2 years and 7 months, she’s not exactly very light!  Out of pity for me I guess, she would agree to sit down or stand up for a few minutes, but would want to be carried again.  When time came for the picture taking, I carried her to the front of the church so she could join in.  Guess what, she wanted out.  At that point, I was too darned tired and pikon already.  So I simply carried her again and went back to our seats.  She got a “dagger look” from me after that.  I know, I know, she’s only two and didn’t know better.  But I did try my best to be a good sport, and for the greater part of the day, I was.  I really was.  Since I was a single parent that day (and night), I couldn’t take a lot of pictures.  I would have wanted to take a video of Abby walking down the aisle.  But that just wasn’t possible because I was walking down the aisle with her!  Oh well, there’s always a next time.

She was almost her normal self at the reception except that she wasn’t as friendly to everyone as she normally is.  Well, that’s the story.   Hopefully, she’ll we’ll do better next time…lipstick or no lipstick.  

And before I forget, for those of you who read UnHappy Feet, here’s a pic of Abby’s gorgoeus SM bought shoes….

  

As always, here’s the link to the rest of the Flowergirl pics…and then some.