"Flower Girl" or "Junior Bridesmaid"

Invidosa

I'm wondering what you guys think,

I have a rather mature neice who will be 11 at the time of our wedding and I want her to be included in the ceremony, but I'm not sure if we should have her as a junior bridesmaid (for which she seems a little young) or a flower girl (for which she seems a little old, and I know she will be grumpy over) and drop leaves instead of flower petals since we are having an outdoor fall wedding. 

What do you think, how old is too old for a flower girl? How young is too young for a jr. bridesmaid?

bethsmiles

It really depends on the individual. If you know she will be grumpy if you make her a flower girl then don't force her to do that (and no dropping leaves instead of flowers will not make it better). Maybe she could do a reading? Or she could just be a guest because that is an honor too. Or she could be a jr. bridesmaid. There really aren't rules for any of this.

divadancer11

I would say Jr. BM as it seems too old for a FG for sure...especially if she would be grumpy to be a FG.....I think I would be too at 11

zitiqueen

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_moms-maids_flower-girl-junior-bridesmaid-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:357Discussion:0d3e7938-dbb6-4a88-bba4-a41a5fcf0cc9Post:b1524993-f5b1-412b-8f7e-0d7653e9300f">"Flower Girl" or "Junior Bridesmaid"</a>:
[QUOTE]I'm wondering what you guys think, I have a rather mature neice who will be 11 at the time of our wedding and I want her to be included in the ceremony, but I'm not sure if we should have her as a junior bridesmaid (for which she seems a little young) or a flower girl (for which she seems a little old, and I know she will be grumpy over) and drop leaves instead of flower petals since we are having an outdoor fall wedding.  What do you think, how old is too old for a flower girl? How young is too young for a jr. bridesmaid?
Posted by Invidosa[/QUOTE]

I would say bridesmaid. There's no need for a "junior." She'll be doing the same thing the other bridesmaids will be doing, right? Wearing the same dress, holding the same flowers, walking in the same straight line, standing with you at the same altar? Unless, of course, you're planning to refer to the rest of your bridesmaids as "senior bridesmaids." Are you?

tldh

Make her a BM.  There's no need for the "junior" in front of it.  Flower girl is a position for little girls and an eleven year old will deem it a baby's job.

MDmom2014

When I married 21 yrs ago my SIL was only 10. She was in the wedding party as a Jr. bridesmaid and there was no problem. She wore the same dress and carried the same flowers as the other bridesmaids.

Invidosa

Yeah, thats how I was kind of leaning anyways, thanks for the input

PetalPockets2012

My future niece will be 8 at our wedding. I gave her the choice. She chose BM because she will be a FG about 4 months prior and wants to "try something new" according to her. Her younger sisters are also going to be FGs.

raes19

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_moms-maids_flower-girl-junior-bridesmaid-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:357Discussion:0d3e7938-dbb6-4a88-bba4-a41a5fcf0cc9Post:1f7b1463-db37-4c21-b8e7-f3aa54205388">Re: "Flower Girl" or "Junior Bridesmaid"</a>:
[QUOTE]My future niece will be 8 at our wedding. I gave her the choice. She chose BM because she will be a FG about 4 months prior and wants to "try something new" according to her. Her younger sisters are also going to be FGs.
Posted by PetalPockets2012[/QUOTE]

I also let my nieces choose. The youngest is 7 and the older one is 10. I gave them the option of flower girl, ring bearer, or bridesmaid. The younger one chose flower girl because she wanted to wear an ivory dress like mine and the older one chose bridesmaid because she thought she was too tall to be a flower girl lol. Neither wanted to be a ring bearer because "that's for a boy," so we didn't have one.

TLD12

My daughter is 11, and she will be a bridesmaid for my wedding.

quiggels219

My 9 yr old neice will be a junior bridesmaid. She doesn't mind the junior and actually thought it was fun she got to choose her own dress from the junior bridal collection of the bm dress designer I am using. She's way to petite for even I size zero in the regular bm dressed.

Twowarlocks

The only thing is you might want to make her bouquet a little smaller than the other bridesmaid's bouquet (depending on your niece's size). Make it proportional to her size.

CassieeK

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_moms-maids_flower-girl-junior-bridesmaid-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:357Discussion:0d3e7938-dbb6-4a88-bba4-a41a5fcf0cc9Post:2c10aa3c-af10-4ff4-9a4d-3510035d6679">Re: "Flower Girl" or "Junior Bridesmaid"</a>:
[QUOTE]My 9 yr old neice will be a junior bridesmaid. She doesn't mind the junior and actually thought it was fun she got to choose her own dress from the junior bridal collection of the bm dress designer I am using. She's way to petite for even I size zero in the regular bm dressed.
Posted by quiggels219[/QUOTE]

<div>She could still choose her own dress from a different collection w/o a special title.  I am in the no "Junior" camp. We don't call the regular bridesmaids Seniors, so why call younger ones Juniors? They all do the same thing.  They are all bridesmaids.</div>