Happy Memories or Tears and Tantrums--How Can You Be Sure Your Flower Girl Will Behave?

Whether you are the bride, or the mother of the flower girl, you are probably worried about getting that precious sweetheart down the aisle without incident. We’ve all seen those funny videos of flower girl antics, and while we get a good laugh, we are petrified that this could happen to us. Here are some tips to set a first-time flower girl up for success:

• Don’t try to force a reluctant child into being a flower girl—While you may want your adorable niece to fill the position, you could be setting her up for failure by pressuring her into a role that she isn’t yet emotionally or developmentally able to handle. Keep the child’s disposition and level of development in mind when selecting your flower girl.

• Be realistic about your time-frame—Wedding days are long, full of preparation, pictures and unforeseen delays. As the mom, you need to be upfront with the bride about your child’s schedule (naps, meals, etc.), as well as her limits. For example, if your child does not have the patience to wait for extended periods, discuss a later arrival time with the bride to maximize on your daughter’s attention span. For brides, talk with the child’s mother and figure out how you can tweak the schedule so that her routine isn’t excessively disrupted.

• Provide activities to keep her entertained—Plan on something to keep her attention during prep time. A tablet, DVD, new toy or other distraction will help avoid boredom that leads to meltdowns.

• Save dressing her for last—Inevitably, the flower girl is going to want a snack or a drink, and you don’t need the stress of worrying about whether she will stain her dress. Furthermore, a hungry or thirsty child is not a happy child. Make sure her meal schedule isn’t hampered.

• Practice makes perfect—Allow for plenty of practice and rehearsal. Parents can practice with her at home, but she still will need the opportunity to get comfortable in the venue. Even the most outgoing child can freeze and panic in unfamiliar settings. Empower her at the rehearsal so she knows exactly what will happen.

Above all else, remember that life is not perfect. Even with the best planning, you may still end up with a rogue flower girl who makes a mistake or does something silly. Before you get frustrated, remember that she is still a child and she doesn’t need to feel the pressure or responsibility for someone else’s idea of perfection. In the end, the memories of the day need to be positive.  Treat your flower girl with the same care and consideration as your family and wedding party, and you will help her shine in her awesome role.

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Tips & Tricks for a Happy and Healthy Flower Girl

The flower girl plays a vital role in traditional weddings. She will be seen by everyone in the ceremony as she embellishes the aisle with rose petals to present the blushing bride. As one who is given this significant task, making sure the flower girl is fully prepared for the big day is very important. Here are some essential tips to make sure your flower girl will be at her very best.


Talk About It
It's important that the flower girl realizes that she is indeed an important part of the wedding and that she knows her duties. Talk to her about the tradition of the flower girl, what she will be doing and what will occur during the wedding, so she does not feel uninformed. Available in our store is 10 Neat Things About Being a Flower Girl.

10 Neat Things About Being a Flower Girl, by Penelope Paine

Our Price: $8.95

Helps little Flower Girls understand their important role in wedding celebrations. Colored illustrations of wedding accessories throughout are suitable for many cultures.




Health
Make sure the flower girl goes to bed early. Your girl getting enough sleep could mean the difference between her waltzing down the aisle like a princess or her hunching down the aisle like Frankenstein. Ideally, children aged 7-12 should be getting around 10 hours of sleep a night to ensure that they are well rested.


Also, making sure she is eating healthy is crucial. Make sure she is eating a balanced meal the night before and eating healthy throughout the day of the wedding. Foods that are high in fat can make her drowsy and less attentive to what is going on around her. A balance of protein and carbohydrates will make sure she has energy for the day, along with fresh fruits and veggies.


Reward
After a long day of having to stand around, walking from here to there, temporarily going blind from camera flashes and being the victim to some harsh cheek-pinching, your flower girl will need a well-deserved break! Perhaps treat her to a scoop of ice cream, her favorite candy bar or just let her know that she did an awesome job. Don't let her amazing performance go unnoticed!


With these tips, your flower girl will undoubtedly do well on the big day. Are there any tips I missed? Let me know in the comments below!


And don't forget to check our amazing selection of flower girl dresses we have available!


Best wishes,
         Jocelyn


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Tips On Making Children Behave on Weddings

Disclaimer: I'm no expert on child behavior but these tips are from my own experiences and observations. 

A wedding is never complete without flower girls and ring bearers but it's not always a breeze to keep them for too long during the ceremony. Here's what I suggest that you do in dealing with children on weddings:

1. Bring them on rehearsals and make sure they know their roles. There are books for flower girls and ring bearers that you can buy and give in advance so the children will have a grasp of what they need to do. 

2. Make sure they are familiar with holding a basket and walking the aisle while throwing petals. Sometimes the kid freezes and will forget about the petals. 

3. Prepare the children right before the ceremony. Bring them to the potty and feed them. You don't want fussy children because they're hungry, thirsty or want to pee. 

4. Bring with you a non-messy snack for all the children to share. Bring water bottles too. 

5. Make sure the children had their nap or if it's a morning wedding, make sure they had a good night sleep. 

6. Bring emergency kits (yes, Moms usually carry unfashionable bag) because someone might need few stitches on the hem or the strap of the flower girl dress came off. It pays to be ready. 

7. Assign someone to stay at the front most aisle to encourage the kids to walk and not lose their focus. It's nice to have a familiar face for the kids to focus on specially during tense situations.

8. Encourage your child, explain the importance of his/her role and why he needed to behave because everyone is counting on it. Promise a nice treat if you like :) 

9. Bring extra clothes for the kid. It's possible that the ceremony took so long that the child feels itchy and warm with her flower girl dress. To avoid this you might want to change her to a more comfortable party dress for the reception. This is why it is very important to use high quality fabrics on your flower girl dresses because you don't want a whining child because she's not comfortable with what she's wearing.

10. Lastly, enjoy the wedding. Your child is a flower girl or a ring bearer for a time and when he grows up you'll surely miss those moments. A child is a child. You'll never  know what will happen when you're with them. 

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Free coloring pages!Summer days can be long and lazy for the little ones. To help you encourage them to be more productive on days or weekends when there's simply not much to do, you can always print out our free coloring pages.

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If you want to learn more about flower girl stuff for your daughter (tips and etiquette), we've got great content for you!

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Wedding Planning tips

You dream of a beautiful wedding with family and close friends (or even not so close ones) to celebrate it with you and your honey. But then money constraints keep you from having it. Honestly though, you can have your dream wedding for a fraction of the actual cost. Learn to do-it-yourself things like invitations, save the date card, flower girl baskets, ring bearer pillows, wedding cords, candles, etc. There are so many ways to do it and you can ask your creative friends to help you. These things will be a huge savings from your wedding budget.

You can opt not to hire wedding planners and plan the wedding with your honey and your friends. Just learn to delegate the work especially on the big day. Make a list of do to task for them so you can smile and be pretty on your wedding day.

Flower girls and ring bearers can also be a handful during and after the ceremony so it's best that you keep them occupied and entertained all the time. Give them coloring pages to and activity sheets on a separate table. These coloring pages you can have for free! Just choose what you want and print them.

Most of all, don't over stress yourself or your honey. Have fun planning your wedding :)

Put Wow on Flower Girl Dress

How to do that? Add COLOR to your flower girl dress! Plain white is the traditional way but time is changing and so must the dresses! Weddings are now upbeat, happy and fun. So what good way to cope with the changing times? Choose the right color for your flower girl dresses. Either one solid color or combination of two.

Girl's beautiful Off White Organza and Satin formal dress with accents at waist and shoulder		Girl's beautiful White Cream sleeveless formal dress with wide Sage bow		Girl's beautiful Peach and White sleeveless formal dress
List Price: $48.00 Our Price: $29.99 You Save $18.01!		List Price: $48.00 Our Price: $29.99 You Save $18.01!		List Price: $48.00 Our Price: $29.99 You Save $18.01!
The dress features White satin top and White chiffon skirts. White chiffon ribbon in back to create a beautiful bow. Two layers of skirts: White chiffon over White satin. Accents include three removable white flowers at waist and a removable flower on shoulder. Flowers at waist are accented with a narrow sage and cream colored ribbons creating a bow with streamers.		The dress features a Cream satin top, a gathered cream satin skirt and a wide sage satin ribbon for accent color with a beautiful bow in back.		The dress features Peach Satin Top and White Organza Skirt. Peach satin ribbon in back to create a beautiful bow. Three large flowers of peach and white organza in front.

Be bolder by choosing darker colors:

		Girl's beautiful Black sleeveless formal dress		Girl's beautiful Navy Blue sleeveless formal dress
		List Price: $48.00 Our Price: $29.99 You Save $18.01!		List Price: $49.99 Our Price: $29.99 You Save $20.00!
		The dress features Black satin top and black chiffon skirts. Black chiffon ribbon in back to create a beautiful bow. Two layers of skirts: Black chiffon over Black satin.

What is the perfect age for flower girls?

I'm asking this because a friend is getting married really soon (as in 3 weeks soon!) and we as her bestest friends are in a panic preparing the details for the wedding. This question popped in my mind while doing the measurements for the flower girl dresses that my friend chose for her entourage. The youngest of the flower girls is 21 months old and the oldest is 5 years old. I wonder if the 21 months old cutie pie will be able to walk the aisle without so much a cry. In my opinion the age bracket should be 3 to 5 years old. Even at that age, tantrum is very very unpredictable. And my friend specifically said she wanted a peaceful and solemn church wedding!

What to do???

Few things come up my mind:

Maybe I can ask the mother of the younger ones to stay on the front and motion to their kids to walk to them. This way, kids will tend to focus on getting to their Mom and voila! walks the aisle with no trouble.

Or, I can ask the Moms to accompany the cutie pies while walking the aisle..but that won't look good huh?

Well, Sept. 8 is pretty near so I'll just have to tell you how it went :)

Or maybe you have better ideas?

How to Make a Flower Girl Up-do for Shoulder Length Hair

Is your little girl going to be a flower girl and you want to pile her hair up but her hair is not long enough?

I know your dilemma, I've been a low-maintenance girl on hair since childhood so I can relate if some mommies out there have no idea on how to make a nice updo.

I looked around so that the hair-clueless like me and you will have a chance to try this out. Updos always look nice for formal events. There are lots of ways to pile up the hair, but here is one simple technique I would like to share with you.

What you'll need:
- comb and clamp
- ceramic curler iron or alternative curlers you have access to
- hair pins that match your little girl's hair
- optional: a nice blingy headband for formal wear

1. Curl the hair with the curling iron. Put some hair product after to retain the volume and curl.
2. Fix the bangs area as you wish, side or middle parted, or leave a tendril or two.
3. Lightly handle the curls and take the hair in the crown area and upper half of the head. Lightly clamp high on the head, near the crown.
4. Take the loose hair on the lower part of the head, and twist into a bun near the middle of the head. Secure with hair pins. Hide the pins from view. Loosen the clamped hair.
5. Here's the tricky part: take the left half the loosened curls, sweep back and pin in a line on the left side of the bun. Then sweep back the right half of the hair, pin in a line on the right side of the bun. Curls will just be swept back away from the ears but still loose at the back. Pins don't have to be in a line if you find something that works, we all have different hair types anyway.

It will look like the hair is longer, and put up.

6. Spritz with hair spray for "durability" in case your little cutie decides to bounce around later.

7. Put a nice blingy headband suited for formal dresses.

Tip: Practice, practice, practice. If you're concerned with damaging your little girl's hair with your diligent practice, grab your best friend and practice everyday. Then if you feel you're good at it already, have one practice session with your daughter as the wedding nears. Also have her wear her flower girl Elite Dress. Yup, like a dress rehearsal of some sort.

Hope you'll find this useful :-)

Add flair to your flowergirls!

Flowergirls alone are cute and pretty and most of the time one of the reason for awwss and ohhhs on weddings. Make your flowergirls prettier by making them wear butterfly wings or angel wings!

Give them flower wands instead of the usual basket full of flowers.

Just make sure that your butterfly wings are color coordinated with your flowergirl's dress!

What shoes should she wear?

Okay so you're sister is getting married in a few weeks and of course your daughter is her flowergirl! You have the perfect flowergirl's dress, you pictured how your daughter hair should be but then you kinda left something out--- her shoes! It's understandable since having a family member preparing for wedding is enough reason to forget about small details because you all tend to focus on the big picture.

Anyhoo, I have a simple suggestion. Buy a generic white shoes--if you're daughter is young as 5 years old, please do not let her wear high heels as she would just likely throw it on the ring bearer's face (kidding!) but seriously, white flat shoes is more appealing. It could be as plain as it could get or with simple design. Next have the shoes dyed by your local wedding shop (or if you're a DIY mom, you can actually dye it yourself!). Choose the color appropriate to your daughter's flowergirl dress. But in my opinion, with silver you can never go wrong.

You can then adorn the dyed shoes with whatever you like. You can hand paint it with flowerette designs, or just glue in crystals (the cheap ones of course) if you're not the artistic type.

I hope you'll be able to do this project in due time. Send me some photos of whatever outcome you have! :)

Hairstyle that suits the EliteDressers II

Girl's beautiful Yellow sleeveless formal dress
Product Code: D033

The yellow flowers complement the yellow color of the flower girl dress. The design of the dress is elegant and simple that’s why intricate hairpieces are necessary. The hair was curled, divided into parts and put in a bun.

Summer Flowergirl's Sale is also up at EliteDresses!

Hairstyle that suits the EliteDressers

Girl's beautiful Peach and White sleeveless formal dress

Product Code: D034

This flower girl dress is by itself fully adorned so even the most simple hairstyle and hair accessories will do. No need of loud hair accessories as this will contrast the design of the dress.

The Wedding Month Everyone!

Eversince we've known June to be the wedding month but don't you agree that Wedding season is every month? I mean there are couples getting hitched every month and all for different reasons. In fact, many of the wedding suppliers would agree that December is the most busiest month for them.

Anyway, as it is June and for the sake of conformity, let's share wedding tips and tricks :)

I've come to notice that some weddings have little flower girls carry a bouquet instead of the usual basket and shower of flowers. I think they look cute. But the flower must complement the flower girl's dress because no matter how expensive and pretty the dress is, it'll look nothing beside an uncomplementing flower.


The trend now is using vibrant colors for wedding flowers. It doesn't matter what kind of flower--expensive or ordinary. The more colors we see, the better. That's why most flower girl dresses are in single color because it will blend more with beautiful flowers both as bouquet and as hairpieces. But I'm not saying you stick with creams and satins--try other colors such as blue, pink, burgundy. Especially when your wedding is on a summer season.

Lastly, when you choose your flower girl dresses, choose something that the little girl could still wear on different occasions. It'll be practical and perhaps will thank you for it. :) Or if you're a mom and you are buying your little girl's dress for a wedding, buy something that your daughter would still use even after a single event. Maximize your dollar power- who doesn't need to with this kind of economy, right?