Flower girl resumes update pg. 5

[kherbert05]

So bizzare! I was mortified when my 7 year old DD told me she needed to bring 2 boxes of girl guide cookies for her teacher thinking that DD had asked her to buy them. (Dd was really into selling this year)

I received a lovely note from her teacher assuring me my dd had only said she was selling them the teacher was the one who asked to buy them.

I buy one box from each girl. I also  boys a donation during their popcorn sale. (I don't like microwave popcorn and most of the other products have peanut warnings.)

[Hunter-Gatherer]

The idea that a week after her engagement, Karen would have chosen the wedding party is equally mind-boggling.

Really?  I could have told you who my best man and groomsmen were going to be at my wedding long before I could have said who the bride was going to be. 

[jedikaiti]

The idea that a week after her engagement, Karen would have chosen the wedding party is equally mind-boggling.

Really?  I could have told you who my best man and groomsmen were going to be at my wedding long before I could have said who the bride was going to be. 

We ID'd the officiant a few years ago - the Chef & I have been together 5 years, living together 4, and finally decided this past July that it was time to start actually planning a real wedding instead of tossing about "oh, that'd be neat..." ideas.

[greencat]

Hmm...I distinctly remember that most of my teachers who got married during my elementary, middle, and high school years carefully avoided telling any of their students where the ceremony was going to be to avoid wedding crashers - especially for the high school teachers, where some of the students could have actually driven themselves to the site!

[kareng57]

With the update, I think some of the mothers must have been trying to see which daughter was the most popular (assuming that Karen would pick the child she liked most to be the flower girl). The idea that the parents would ask a third party (the teacher), who is not involved in the wedding at all is just mind-boggling. The idea that a week after her engagement, Karen would have chosen the wedding party is equally mind-boggling. The idea that Karen would want to have a student in her wedding party--well, that's an interesting assumption.

I agree with some PPs - many HCs have talked privately about the wedding for a long time before it's "official", so it's not really that outrageous to figure that they already know who will be in the WP a week after the engagement announcement.

DS #1 became engaged to his longtime girlfriend a couple of months ago, although the wedding will not be till 2014.  They haven't figured out the whole WP (at least, not to my knowledge) but they knew right away who the honour-attendants would be.

[kareng57]

As insane as it sounds - could some of this be fallout from the wedding of the Prince of Wales back in 1981?

One of the little bridesmaids (we'd call them flower girls in the US or Canada) was a pupil where Diana was a teacher - although I believe that she had some sort of royal connection as well; a great-granddaughter of Winston Churchill, I think?  As crazy as it sounds,  I wonder whether it made future mothers figure that their future daughters were fair-game as flower girls for future teachers??

[JadeAngel]

Hmm...I distinctly remember that most of my teachers who got married during my elementary, middle, and high school years carefully avoided telling any of their students where the ceremony was going to be to avoid wedding crashers - especially for the high school teachers, where some of the students could have actually driven themselves to the site!

I remember one teacher who didn't avoid this. I think she was less than pleased to make her exit from the ceremony and find ten of her students (literally) hanging out of the tree at the front of the church, and even less so when they proceeded to take photographs of the happy couple and plastered them all over the school.

She was fresh out of teacher college and wanted to be 'popular' with her students. Thanks to us she got over that notion very quickly... 

[kareng57]

Hmm...I distinctly remember that most of my teachers who got married during my elementary, middle, and high school years carefully avoided telling any of their students where the ceremony was going to be to avoid wedding crashers - especially for the high school teachers, where some of the students could have actually driven themselves to the site!

I remember one teacher who didn't avoid this. I think she was less than pleased to make her exit from the ceremony and find ten of her students (literally) hanging out of the tree at the front of the church, and even less so when they proceeded to take photographs of the happy couple and plastered them all over the school.

She was fresh out of teacher college and wanted to be 'popular' with her students. Thanks to us she got over that notion very quickly...

But it's also true that in some regions/some eras - the ceremony is indeed a public ceremony, if it takes place in a public venue such as a place-of-worship, or a park.

Of course this is quite less common these days.  But in previous generations, it really wasn't that uncommon for people who were not invited to to the reception, but knew where the wedding would be held,  to hang around to at least get photos, or to seek seating in the back pews of a church (I'm not familiar with the seating in non-Christian POWs, although I'd imagine that there are usually provisions for attendees who are non-observant).

Overall, I just don't have an answer.  Unless the HC hires a private venue (such as a golf/country club) for everything, then it's probably pretty difficult to exclude Mrs. Joe Average from the ceremony.

[scotcat60]

Perhaps the Mums had read the story of the primary school teacher in the UK who, some years ago now,  asked all the little girls in her class to be bridesmaids and all the little boys to be pageboys when she got married. She had about 15 of each, and write ups in the national press. Also, I have read stories of little girls who, wanting to be a bridesmaid but having no relatives about to be married, advertised thier services, (albiet without a CV) and their offers were taken up. I also read of a girl who not having grandparents, advertised for a grandmother, and got one. That too made the papers in the UK.