Sunday, August 24, 2008

The reluctant ring bearer

This actually happened on July fourth this year. I was photographing a small wedding by myself, Bonnie being at a rehearsal for a wedding we would do the next day. The young lad, he must have been four, who was the ring bearer for this wedding suddenly announced that he was retiring from his duties. He was not going to do it . He quit. Now so far he had stood amiably with the bride and groom for their photos. He had been a team player, but now, he had decided that he didn't want to play wedding anymore and he was through. His grandmother was a little upset by this. The wedding was about ten minutes away and here was the ring bearer sitting on the floor in a hallway in the church in his white suit with his little pillow with the stand-in rings laced to it by his side. Now, I know that weddings can be strange for little kids. Everyone is all stressed out and they are wearing clothes that they don't like and they can't play or get dirty either, so its kinda miserable for them. I went over and sat down on the floor next to him and started reviewing some of my images on the back of the camera. When I came to some of him and the groom I asked him, real casual like, which one he liked. The kid had a good eye because he picked the same images that I would have. Next I showed his some of him and the flower girl. Again he picked good ones and I told him what a great job he was doing looking good in the photos. I asked him if he could do me a little favor and help me out with the flower girl. I knew that he and the flower girl were coming down the aisle together so I asked him to make sure that she didn't walk too fast. "Just walk with her slow so she drops flowers all along the way" I said. He agreed to that, and I showed him some photos of him and Rita, the bride. Again he picked the best ones, that kid could grow up to be a photo editor. I got up and walked away and he was back on the team. He did fine the rest of the day. The truth is he might have anyway but I like to think that giving him a job and some respect satisfied his need to do more than wear a suit and stay clean. ~Kelly