Mrs. Bluebell, New York
Age and Occupation in 07: 26, Finance Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Playing with the cat and/or Consulting
Engagement Date: December 25, 2005
Wedding Date: June 2007
Venue: Bride's family summer home in the Adirondacks
About Me: Trying to find the perfect balance between family tradition (marrying at the house everyone else in my family gets married at), making our's modern, interesting and different from everyone else in my family's, and incorporating some Chinese tradition for my Chinese fiance. I really have no idea what it's going to end up looking like!
Also, I picked Miss Bluebell for my name because I have blue eyes and I'm a loser like that.
Surprise Bouquet Toss
October 17th, 2007 @ 10:26 am by Mrs. Bluebell
We had decided a looong time ago not to have a bouquet toss or garter toss. I think they’re fun at other people’s weddings, but I’ve heard a lot about single girls feeling awkward at the bouquet toss, and there was no way at all ever that I was going to let anyone - even a brand new husband - go all up my skirt in front of everyone I know. Yes, it’s entertaining to watch as an observer, but I am just one of those people that would be way too humiliated to enjoy it aaaat all.
Regardless, the decision was made many months back, and no one made any objections, so we were all set.
Until. After everyone had been dancing a while, one of my bridesmaids started desperately pleading, um, I mean, politely asking 
, if we could please please pleeeeease have a bouquet toss. She kept asking and asking and, honestly, I was just in a pretty good mood at the time! I’d just gotten married! Big happy party!
So I was just like “okay, fine, sure!” My only caveat was that I didn’t want to throw my actual bouquet (because it was huge and heavy) so I told her I’d throw one of the bridesmaids’ bouquets if she wanted. She thought the MOH’s bouquet would be better since it was a little larger and also had some of the coral peonies in it like mine (and unlike the BM’s), so I said she could ask the MOH and if she didn’t mind, I was down! She didn’t, so we just started yelling “Hey we’re going to do a bouquet toss now!!!” randomly, and I trotted off to find Jane (our awesome photographer) to make sure she caught it on film, since I’d previously told her we wouldn’t be having one. So, picture time now!
<All photos by Jane Heller.>
First, the bridesmaid who insisted we do the toss, yelled out instructions to me on where to aim.
I tried to turn as I tossed to make sure she caught it….
So so close….
…but NO!!! 
Instead it was caught by a family friend….who is twelve years old!!! 
Luckily, my uncle (above) had seen the whole story play out, so even though my begging bridesmaid was acting very brave and nonchalant, he asked the 12 year old if she wouldn’t mind giving it to “that tall girl who really wants it.” The twelve year old (who’s soooo sweet, and seriously, would you ever guess she was 12?!?) agreed, but, hehe, I don’t know if she misunderstood, or if my uncle (who has a tendency towards making things dramatic just for entertainment’s sake) suggested it, or what….but she decided to throw the bouquet again!!!
Note how no one else is even trying to catch it in that picture. 
Aaaand….
She finally caught it!!! Look at the pride in her face as she gazes lovingly at it!
So yeah, all in all, I am very glad we had our surprise bouquet toss, and that these two girls caught it! An extremely entertaining if unexpected addition to the wedding!
Has anyone else ever seen a second bouquet toss? Or anything else unconventional about the bouquet and/or garter toss? Would you be up for a last minute change like this if the situation were to present itself?
15 Responses to “Surprise Bouquet Toss”
i’m realllly not into these things because it’s so awkward for single girls to go up~! but my roommate is doing something slightly different…this is totally her personality too. she wants to put $50 in her bouquet to toss. and instead of a garter toss, toss a nice wallet with $100 bucks in it..lol..she wants everyone to be running up to try to catch it..haha..
There’s a great YouTube video of an indoor bouquet toss getting caught on an air vent, and all the guests throwing rolls at it to knock it down. THAT’s a wedding to remember.
Also, I went to a wedding where the bride covertly untied her hand-tied bouquet before tossing, so there were loose flowers everywhere–everyone went away happy.
That is such a cute story, Mrs. Bluebell! Great pictures, too 
I remember being a flower girl at both my aunts’ weddings when I was about 6 or 7, and trying desperately to catch the bouquets - in retrospect, probably much to the annoyance of some of the more ‘mature’ female guests!
e, now that’s incentive to scramble! You could also do it for luck instead of love, so it doesn’t matter wether you’re married or not.
It’s funny how you decide to have or not have something at a wedding, but then it shows up anyway. Kind of a great impromptu and everyone gets caught up in the feeling. At one wedding this summer, the bride and groom told the coordinator that there would be absolutely no mother/son dance. But it turns that everyone was caught up in the moment of the father/daughter dance and it just seemed like the natural next step. (Of course what they didn’t see was the coordinator in the room over madly searching for mother/son songs that would work for the couple) It turned out beautifully and was a great unexpected moment. Huh….kind of like life.
ah yes- the lurking kids on the floor who zoom outta nowhere to catch the bouquet.
its hard enough to go out there for the toss
(looking pained but all the while thinking “oh please please let me catch it!!”- seriously!)
I’ve lost out many o’times to the youngin’s.
i’ve never understood why they went out there anyway, as a kid i was told to just watch the madness from the side 
I plan on doing a fortune toss, where the hand tied bouquet breaks apart into seven smaller ones - so at least 7 people get to grab something pretty!
I was at a wedding just before my own engagement. My 3 sisters were all conspiring to get me the bouquet. One sister, Beth, made a fantastic catch & then shoved it into my (embarassed by the attention) hands.
A few moments later, my boyfriend easily caught the garter to the delight of everyone there. Within a few months we were engaged! We have a really neat picture of us holding the bouquet and garter- standing with the bride and groom… all because Beth managed to make such a great catch!
OMG - I’m trying so hard not to burst out laughing while reading this at work.
Your BM is hilarious and the complete opposite of most single gals I know - who would feign disinterest entirely in the boquet toss and have to be foreced onto the dance floor in attmept to get the bouquet. In fact, quite a few weddings I’ve been too where the bouquet has landed smack on the floor. I love E’s idea of putting something in the bouquet and garter. I will for sure be using that idea (a red envelope of lucky money perhaps)!
Your bridesmaid clearly wasn’t motivated enough in the first place — I had a similar situation at my aunt’s wedding as a young girl, but the grown-up actually KNOCKED ME DOWN to get to the bouquet that was coming straight at me!
Just kidding about your bridesmaid, of course…. That’s a super-cute story, especially with such great photos of every step of the process!
I love it!!! I’m not a fan of bouquet/garter tosses (as a guest, they make me squirm and as a future bride, I don’t like the symbolism), so I think we’re leaning toward not having them too.
Though we did come up with some gender-bending options, though I can’t remember what they were–like, I could take the tie off the groom and throw it to the girls & he could toss his bouttoniere to the guys to see which one gets married next…. or something 
But I totally LOVE that you just decided to go with it, spur of the moment. I would hope that I am having enough fun at my wedding to roll with it…
That’s such a cute story! I love spur of the moment things like that! They make for such awesome pix if you have a good photog.
I wanted to do what davis2b said: a fortune bouquet, but decided to forego it to keep the floral bill down (I was already getting a tossing bouquet plus my “real” one). A lot of people here do the money thing — but I think it’s usually in the garter only, not the bouquet.
To avoid the embarassment and awkwardness for the singletons, we asked everyone to come up for the gender appropriate toss. It was cute — his aunt caught my bouquet and was so happy! (We had the emcee announce that in the tradition of the original meaning of the toss — that getting part of the bride’s outfit was lucky — we wanted everyone to be able to share in our luck in love.) I always hated going to weddings where the singles didn’t really want to come up, and then when no one did, the emcee starts reading everyone’s names…
I missed the crowd by like 10 feet on the first try so I tossed mine twice. (yeah, I’m not a good bouquet-tosser) the second time one of the little flower girls caught it (5 years old) and she gave it back to me. I didn’t want to throw it again, so I just gave it to one of the little girls - none of my pals wanted it. haha!
I had to toss my bouquet four times! Yes, FOUR!!! First time my MIL who happens to stand close by caught it. So, next try. Then a friend of my sisters almost caught it. But she stepped aside, yelling: No, I dont want it!!!! Well, okay. Next one! As I am not such a great tosser, it fell on the floor to far away from the girls and none of them made an effort to catch it. At that moment I got really angry and thought: Okay, then I´ll keep it. Pffff… But my husband persuaded me to take one last shot and FINALLY a very close friend caught it. She phoned last week, telling us that she dried it and that she still is very happy, that she catched it.
I went to a wedding a few years back and caught the bouquet
Then when it was time for the garter toss - one guy (we’ll call him Mike) caught it and then he didn’t want it, sooo they did it again and he caught it AGAIN and didn’t want it, so everyone yelled at him not to try to catch it if he didn’t want it. Well on the third try Mike caught it AGAIN, but this time he wanted it.
Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that he had to catch it 3 times before wanting to dance w/ me.
Boys are dumb
