Kids: Cuteness and Carnage

For the most part our wedding went pretty smoothly. There were only two things that were weighing on my mind days and even weeks after the wedding. One of those things I'll tell you about when the time comes in recaps. The other I'll be talking about today. I decided I wanted to get this off my chest before I start my official recaps. I swear this is the last post before I start them!

As you can probably tell from my title, I would like to take a moment and talk about kids. There was never a question of whether we would invite kids to our wedding. I come from a large family, there are a lot of kids and they were all coming. I do not regret this decision at all. I was happy to have a kid friendly wedding. I made kid bags, which were very highly received, and I came away with amazing photos like these.

Photography by Palos Studio

My ring bearers were angels. They sat in the bridal room for two hours before the wedding and never made a peep! They were amazing. They walked down the aisle like pros and genuinely were so happy to be included. I couldn't get over how well behaved they were.

But with the good comes the bad.

I'm writing this post as my last vent about this situation. I knew that by inviting children to our wedding there was a chance of something happening, a photo bomb, a scream during our ceremony, or running around during our first dance. I was prepared, and some of those things did happen. I have had many friends ask me, "Who were the kids running around during the ceremony and reception?" Luckily I was blissfully unaware at the time, but I know my family well enough to know exactly which kids my friends were referring to.

Which brings me to the point of my tale.

Remember those flower Poms I slaved over? The ones that I made myself that took me weeks to complete? Here's how beautiful they looked before anyone arrived.

Just the way I had envisioned it...

A close up... look how pretty.

Well, before the ceremony started it seems one of my younger cousins thought this was something he could take and play with. He started a trend and four other cousins did the same thing. For some reason it never crossed their parents' minds that perhaps the Bride intended for those to stay on the chairs for her walk down the aisle... I guess to them it seemed perfectly fine. And I know their parents knew this was happening because there are pictures :(  I did notice it as I made my way down the aisle and my thought was, "Really?" And then I moved on.

I didn't think about them again until after the wedding when we were all gathering for a group photo. I saw the kids had taken ALL the flower Poms off the chairs and had now started to rip them apart. Now I know the Poms had already (sort of) served their purpose, but I was very proud of my poms and had been planning on passing them along to another bride. Now I was watching half of them get ripped apart.

Bridesmaid C saw the horror on my face and ran over to the parent and told her that was not OK and the kids had to put them back. I was glad that C had my back and tried to make it better but the damage was already done. The older of our two ring bearers knew I was upset and found a pom that hadn't been destroyed. He thoughtfully presented it to me hoping it would make me feel better. And it did. Like I said, he's and amazing kid. MIL Castle was able to save the other three out of ten Poms that were not destroyed. She was pretty upset for me because she knew how much work I had put into making them.

It did not ruin our day in the least. I let it go immediately and had an amazing day, but it was on my mind weeks after the wedding. Even when we got back from our honeymoon I found myself getting really angry about it. I'm usually pretty laid back about things and let them go, but this was really sticking with me. I guess the bottom line is, I was mad that no adult in their family, namely their parents, told the kids what they were doing was not OK. I mean, who goes to a wedding and assumes they can take down any of the decorations?!? I thought maybe I was over reacting until I spoke to my Dad about it. He was pretty angry and said something along the lines of, "And they wonder why people don't invite their kids to events..."

I love my family. They are far from perfect, but I still love them. At this point I'm pretty much over it, I would never bring it up to them because at the end of the day it's not worth it. I'm just going to advise any of my cousins or siblings getting married in the future to maybe think about which kids they want to include on their big day. :)

My awesome friends J and lady Di  decided to take pictures with the destroyed pom balls at the end of the night. These girls actually helped me make two of them so they knew how much work they took! I find these pictures hilarious and they definitely made me feel a little better.

Guest Photo/The Carnage

Guest Photo/They are hiding the worst side of the destruction. 

Any one else have a similar situation happen at their wedding? I'd love to commiserate!