You are Cordially Invited to Sydney's Wedding
(even though she's just four)

A few months ago, our church's Fine Arts Committee (they help host special musical guests and other "artsy" events at our church) asked the children in our church to take part in a "Tom Thumb Wedding." I'd never heard of such a thing, but apparently this used to be a popular event back in the 40s and 50s. It was based on the real-life wedding of General Tom Thumb, a famous little person who performed in P.T. Barnum's circus and sideshows; as years went by, groups of children would perform a "play wedding" with all of them playing parts of the wedding party.

When plans began being made for the play, our children's director asked several of the girls to be the bride, but they all said no. When she asked Sydney, though, could she have any response other than "yes"? Sydney, after all, is my child who loves to sing in front of huge groups and never meets a stranger. I wasn't surprised at all when she got the "starring role."

And let me just say right now that it was something-else. She really got into her role and only briefly had the jitters (she thought it was pretty funny that she had to join arms with a boy...ewww!).

This was my favorite photo from the evening...

We also, of course, had to have pictures of Sydney with her sweet friends...



And then of the "wedding party" (like the girls in the group)...

And the parents of the bride (notice Meg wearing black... the funniest part of the play was when they asked "who gives this bride?" and she just wailed very loudly!)...

And then Sydney and her groom, Luke (who is such a sweet boy and friend of Sydney's)...

Then, the "ceremony" got started. There were celebrity guests (like Pat Benatar and The Janitor shown here...but also Hannah Montana/Delaney, Little Red Riding Hood/McKenna, Paris Hilton, Miss America, Cinderella, and others) entering the sanctuary, and then the procession of the bridesmaids, groomsmen, the flower girl, ring bearer (who Sydney liked to call the Ringmaster), and the Bride...



The ceremony itself was really cute. Instead of getting married (which was really the sorta bizarre part of this whole thing when I heard about it...they are little kids, after all...LOL), they betrothed their "friendship"with each other (with lines like, "Do you promise to be his true friend through baseball season and football season...at least until another cute boy comes along?" and "Do you promise to be her true friend and give her ice cream from Dairy Queen...as long as her Daddy lets you?"). And the second picture below was so cute...Luke lifted Sydney off the stage and put her in a wagon, then pulled the wagon out of the room, all while Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" was playing in the background.

Then the wedding party members and the celebrity guests exited the sanctuary...


After the "ceremony," we went to the "reception" where we enjoyed the best parts of any wedding reception. That would be cake, punch, and dancing!!



(I did some serious dancing along with all of the kids...me and maybe three other adults, LOL...but, thank goodness, I was taking pictures. So, there are no pictures of me. At least I think so!)

It really turned out to be a fun evening...and, seriously, can you imagine how precious it will be someday to have those pictures of Sydney used at her real wedding reception? I can already see one of those pictures in a frame next to her cake (but, a long, LONG time from now...I'm not ready for any "real" weddings yet).

And now?
well, it's Spring Break, so I'm going to try and relax and have as much fun as possible this week (even though I have a serious deadline to get finished. I'll be working hard...but also multi-tasking with the fun!).

We aren't getting to go to the beach (I know... bummed about that), but we'll do our best to have some "home town" getaways (I'm thinking movie marathons, baking green shamrock cookies, visiting my parents, a day at the park).

Because of all of that fun, and the writing deadlines I have, I may not pop in too much during the week (although you all know that I'm pretty bad about keeping true to my keep-away-from-my-blog promises, so there's an equally good chance that I may be back tomorrow!).

I hope you all have a wonderful day, a fun St. Paddy's Day tomorrow, and a great week!