


I received an email from my florist the other day, and she made an interesting suggestion: instead of tossing my bouquet blindly over my shoulder to a gaggle of lunging bridesmaids, why don’t I offer it as a gift to the woman in attendance who’s been married the longest?And I thought to myself, what a spectacular idea! What a beautiful gesture and acknowledgement of all that matters on my wedding day: love, commitment, fidelity.
And what a surefire way to invite the wrath of my female attendants.
And actually, who could blame them? I know in weddings I’ve been to, that’s always a crowd favorite…who doesn’t love a full-contact sport fueled by champagne? And more than that–it’s one of those iconic moments in a wedding that I don’t want my photo albums missing.
“Iconic”. It’s a word I was discussing with a friend today, actually. And I keep coming back to it in my mind. Because as much as I want my wedding to be modern and hip, as much as I eschew the elements that I’ve come to regard as “cheesy,” I want those iconic images, too: the black and white photo of a corset-laced gown, the first bite of cake smooshed in my fiance’s face, the whole garter-flinging charade: I’m drawn to these things in spite of myself. I can’t help it–I crave the cheese.
Has anyone else struggled with this? Wanting to personlize and modernize your wedding, but also wanting to capture those beautiful, time-capsule moments called “tradition”? How did you/will you deal with that?