Hi everyone! We are in the process of deciding our wedding parties and I just wanted to get some thoughts and opinions on how to incorporate my cousin's 10-year-old daughter into the wedding. My cousin (the 10-year-old's mother) will probably be a bridesmaid, and I was very close with her growing up and have since become very close with her daughter. I would love to have her involved in the wedding somehow, but she seems to be at an awkward age of too old to be a flower girl but too young to be a bridesmaid.
My mom has mentioned the idea of making her a "junior bridesmaid," but the only experience I have with that is when my sister and I were junior bridesmaids at a cousin's wacky, last minute, shotgun wedding. It was totally bizarre and awkward and I felt like we were just thrown into the party because they didn't have anyone else (we weren't very close with this relative anyway...definitely wouldn't consider us close enough to be in his wedding party). I have never seen a junior bridesmaid incorporated into a wedding besides that experience. My mom has assured me it is an actual role that can be taken, and that she would walk down the aisle by herself and then walk back up with the flower girl and ring bearer. I'm not sure I like the idea of her walking down alone anyway; if the other bridesmaids are walked down by groomsmen, it seems like walking down alone would produce the same effect as my junior bridesmaid experience - looking like we just threw someone else in.
Do you all know of any other good ways to incorporate a 10-year-old into the wedding? We thought about letting her pass out cake or programs (I'm new to the wedding planning world and did not even know these were assigned duties?) and maybe get her a dress to match the bridesmaids a bit, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas.
Thanks!