Flower girl

mtrosales

My fiance's niece asked me if she could be my flower girl, and of course I said yes!
Turns out we're not allowed to use flower petals or anything like that in the church.
Has anyone else run in to this too? Does anyone have alternative suggestions? [aside from the tacky pictures I've seen of the kids holding signs that say 'last chance to run' and that sort of thing]
I thought about asking her to carry our rings instead [we don't have a ring bearer at this point], but she's so set on the "flower girl" title.

professorscience

I've seen a lot of flower girls who just carry those little "kissing balls" instead of worrying about actually distributing petals.

Here's a picture:

http://www.rebeccassilverrose.com/weddings/flower-girl/10flower-girl-kissing-ball-pomander.jpg

Honestly, I've never been to a wedding where the flower girl actually throws out her petals.  If we'd had one, she would have carried something like that.

BTCarolus

It's really common for churches to ban flower petals, because they make quite the mess, and they know most weddings aren't going to end with a responsible person on her hands and knees peeling the crushed petals off the floor.

I've seen less tacky signs that say "Here comes the bride" which is kind of cute. A lot of weddings have the FG just carry a bouquet (often a "pomander" bouquet) or a basket of flowers, ring bells (I imagine this is really annoying), or just walk up while looking cute. 

You could attach the rings to something floral, like a basket of flowers, and have her double as FG and RB, but depending on age it may be best not to entrust the rings to her. A 7 year old can be trusted to get to the front of the church just fine, but really young children sometimes panic, and there are stories on TK of little RBs throwing the pillow, running away w/ the rings, ect. Our RB is going to be really young (barely 2), so he is definitely NOT carrying the rings himself. He is just there for cuteness purposes.

bibliophile2010

Ditto others on a pomander, mini-bouquet or basket. We ended up going with a pomander.

Honestly, the flower petal thing usually doesn't work that well anyway. It is hard for a little girl to "scatter" petals down an aisle. I've seen one or two dropped every 5 feet. I've seen a whole handful at the top of the aisle. I've seen nothing make it out of the basket -- all adorable in their own way, but not the movie vision anyway.

debbiem56

My flower girls carried pomadors -
 

newlyseliski

Most of my friends with flower girls either had mini bouquets or baskets with flowers!  My parish didn't permit petal-throwing either... but we didn't have a FG so it didn't matter :-)

divinemsbee

Ditto the pomander idea. Out church doesn't allow real flower petals but does allow a very very small amount of fake ones to be used. I think it's because they're easier to pick up afterwards. Our church also has an age limit on both the FG and RB, they have to be at least 6 or 7 and be in the first grade. So, we're not having any because we either have kids that feel they are too old (girls) or they don't meet the age cut off (boys). It made that decision easy. 

Simply_Caitlin

Our flower girl is carrying a basket with flowers in it.  She's too young to try to get her to toss any and our church wouldn't allow it anyway so we're making her a basket so she will have an easy time carrying it.

Louisa1000

Same scenario. We wen't going to have one because scattering isn't allowed, but Fi's daughter really wanted to, so she's holding a basket of flowers. It's all about the title and the dress anyway.

junebug19

My FG isn't allowed to throw petals either so she will be carrying either a small basket with flowers in it or a small bouquet.

Tami87

Same deal for me. We are using a pomander made of silk flowers (even though bridesmaids will have real flowers) for our flower girl. That way she can keep it and I won't have to be as worried about it getting messed up before she walks down the aisle. We also had an age limit, although it was 5 for flower girls and ring bearers. We are only having a flower girl though because only had a female cousin who was the right age and who wanted to be in the wedding.

COSmitty

I made a pomander of silk flowers... bought 2 hydrangea stalks from michaels and glued them together with a ribbon in the middle as a handle. Less than $10 and my neice will have a blast playing with it, throwing it at her brothers (she'll be about 1.5), and no matter what she can't ruin it.

Easy, indestructable, and meets the chapel's rules :-) A win all around.