Love and Marriage...and Little Awestruck Girls

Almost as soon as we arrived back in Canada from Brooklyn we were scheduled to scoot off to our good friend Serree's wedding (Mike's our good friend too but we knew Serree first so she get's the preferential treatment here, plus, she's the bride so...you know how that goes). Zoey was asked to be Serree's flower girl and she was pretty excited at the task. It would be her first wedding, of any kind, and it just may have been the sweetest thing ever witnessed by these sometimes cynical eyes.



It was sweet for a million obvious reasons. First, we love Serree more than just about anybody on the whole entire planet. She counts as one of the best people wandering around the earth, and our affection for her runs super, super deep...so deep that when confronted with the notion of who we'd want looking after Zo if something awful were to happen to us or our families the first name that often comes up is Serree Gougeon...ahem, Wainman. We love her and Zo does too.

Secondly, this was Zoey's very first wedding of any kind and she was absolutely in awe at most of it. She was fascinated with the pretty girls, and how dressed up everyone was, with the flowers and the music and with all of the attention. She was mostly mesmerized by Serree and her dress, even her wedding ring... she was every bit what you'd imagine a little girl to be.

Zo was even more entranced by Mike and Serree's first dance. She could barely take her eyes off of them as she sat in my lap watching, and I nearly swooned with the realization that my little girl was already wanting what Serree had. She saw something magical in all that was happening. It baffled me, this most obvious difference between boys and girls. Zoey was fully mesmerized and was so totally engaged by the whole wedding thing that anyone couldn't help but sigh. Boys don't do that.

Zed was set to do the same thing for our good friends, Dustin and Kelly, later this Fall but the logistics of it all made Dustin offer us an out. The wedding's distance from home and no obvious way to take care of Zo without having to leave the wedding entirely made it an easy decision but it's obvious now that Zo would have loved it.



The Zedder was on her game at the shindig...making friends with everyone, hanging out with all the girls, sitting for photos like a pro, etc... It was as if she had practiced all summer for it...she didn't. She didn't slip into her dress and shoes until ten minutes before the wedding, in the front seat of our car as it sat in the parking lot and guests streamed past. She's just a natural I guess. She made us pretty proud and helped us feel like the super-family that most of us are trying to be everyday.



When it was all said and done we watched one of the nicest weddings we've been to in a long time, we watched our daughter look so much bigger than one and a half years old, and then scooted off to a lacrosse tournament in Whitby before the night even really got going. Our exit was timely, before Zo ruined any of her previously planted magic as the day's fatigue set in, and with a three hour drive ahead of us, we said some heartfelt goodbyes -- to Mike and Serree, to Serree's parents Rick and Carrie -- and as we pulled out of the parking lot that little awestruck girl was already slipping off to sleep...smiling.

Thanks Mike and Serree...you just gave Zoey one of her earliest memories of what love should look like.