Flower girls first began walking down wedding isles in the Middle Ages. Back then it was grain, not flower petals, that the girls spread before the bride. But whether they carried seeds or flowers, the girls symbolized the bride’s own beginnings as well as the new marriage’s promise of fruitfulness and joy.

Today’s flower girls precede the bride, scattering petals or simply holding a bouquet. Although this procedure sounds easy enough to adults, however, all must remember that children are . . . well, children, and they need plenty of rehearsals and patience. Etiquette stipulates that while flower girls must be included in wedding rehearsals, they need not be invited to the rehearsal dinner. If they are invited to the dinner, their parents must also be invited. The parents, however, should pay for their (and the girls’) transportation to all wedding functions.

The bride provides the flower basket, flower petals (or other items to strew across the isle, and any hair decorations for the flower girls. Flower girls may walk arm in arm, tossing petals from a shared basket, or they may each carry their own basket, walking single-file down the wedding isle.