Favorite Wedding Moment #1

John’s three-year-old nephew had been told to ‘behave at the wedding’ so many times that whenever he saw John’s mom he’d shout, “Granny, I’ll be good at the wedding!” And he was. I’m not sure that anyone enjoyed our wedding more than he did.

He went with his mom and dad and granny to try on his tails before the big day. He shimmied on his dress pants and dress shirt and then his bow tie. “You look handsome Drake,” granny fawned. “No. Not yet,” he was adamant. He slipped on his silver vest. “Not yet,” he warned. Then he put on his black coat with tails, launched a huge smile and said, “NOW I’m handsome.”

The night of the wedding he danced almost every dance, never taking off his coat. The next day he asked, “Can we go to KK’s and John’s wedding again today?”

My goddaughter Rachel, who is also three, was equally thrilled to be in the wedding. So much so, that in the days leading up to it she referred to it as her wedding. “Mommy, when do we get to go to my wedding,” she’d ask.

At the rehearsal she was none too sure of the little boys who were traipsing around. I asked the five-year-old later, “Why were you chasing Rachel?” “Because she wouldn’t hold my hand,” he answered. But something magical must have happened because after that they were inseparable. They held hands at the rehearsal dinner and at the pool the next day – he showed off his canon ball and she showed off her goggles.

There was actually a plan of who would walk with whom down the aisle, but we were prepared to witness almost anything during the real event. As it turned out my two-year-old goddaughter walked down the aisle with her mom Jen, my five year-old cutie walked down with John’s two oldest nephews, and the two three-year-olds accompanied each other.

The aisle has two short sets of steps and at the first one Drake let go of Rachel’s hand and jumped down all three steps at once. Then he did a little dance and finally caught up with Rachel who was sprinkling petals nicely along her way. When she reached the front, she turned her basket upside down and shook it to make sure not a petal was left. Then she kicked off her shoes and sat down right next to the preacher. Meanwhile Drake said, “Now I’m going to walk down again with KK and her daddy,” and before anyone could stop him he was blasting back up the aisle. His dad’s face dropped and he silently mouthed Stop Him but to no avail. John’s friend Rob started whispering, “he’s at the 50, the 40, the 30, he may Go. All. The. Way! Oh – stopped at the 10 yard line,” where he was scooped up into his mom’s arms.

That was a tough act to follow!