20 students serve as their teacher's flower girls and ring bearers
Here comes the bride — and her 20 flower girls and ring bearers, all students in her kindergarten-first grade combo class.
Marielle Slagel Keller shared all of her wedding planning details with her students from IPS Butler Lab School in Indianapolis ahead of the big day, and she realized there was no way she could walk down the aisle without them there. "They're the kids that mean the most to me," Slagel Keller told ABC News. "They're a part of who I am."
For her June 24 wedding, the children all wore white and carried a garland together, walking into the chapel ahead of their teacher. Several told Slagel Keller it was their very first wedding, and "there were a couple that shielded their eyes when we kissed." Her new husband, Mike Keller, told ABC News he wasn't sure how things were going to turn out, since it was "a herd of 6-year-olds coming down the aisle in this very important moment," but the bride "really had a passion for it on this special day, and I'm glad she went with it. It ended up being perfect."
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After the ceremony, the students couldn't stop hugging their teacher, who was so grateful for the support they showed her before the wedding. "To have those kids walk down the aisle for me was really special," she said. "There were a lot of tears." Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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