Weddingbee Blog

When I last left off on our recaps, my bridesmaids were using safety pins to feverishly repair the gaping hole that Mr. Cookie had accidentally made by stepping on my dress. Unfortunately, by the time my dress was back in working order, the conga line had dissipated. However, it was that time in the evening for the ol’ garter and bouquet toss.

I’d love to tell you that Mr. Cookie and I conducted ourselves with class and decorum by keeping the garter toss strictly PG, but hey, there wasn’t anyone under the age of 18 in the room. And thus, all our class went right out the window…

Mr. Cookie was quite insistent that the garter be pulled off using only his teeth:

And with the garter, off went my shoe:

The single men at the wedding, who just happen to be all of Mr. Cookie’s groomsmen (minus the best man), lined up to push and shove their way to garter toss victory. One… two… three… and the garter went flying through the air:

Who’s going to get it?

Sorry to leave you in suspense, but you need a little background before I reveal the victor.

The reason I titled this post “Love Made Simple: Paying It Forward” is because both the garter and bouquet tosses were rigged. Yes, rigged. You see, Mr. Cookie and I met at the wedding of our very dear and mutual friends. Had they not gotten married, we wouldn’t be together today. So, we felt it our duty to pay it forward in the relationship department to two unsuspecting couples during our wedding. As you are probably very well aware, the recipients of the garter and bouquet tosses are supposedly the next ones to get married. We choose two couples, one very established, and one newly minted, to be our unsuspecting victims.

With a minor fake-out from my brother and the other groomsmen taking a step back, they were in on the scheme. Mr. Cookie’s brother grabbed the garter! I am happy to report that two months after our wedding, he proposed to his long-time girlfriend, and they set the date for this June. Now, we can’t take 100% credit. Actually, the garter toss had nothing to do with them getting engaged. But regardless, our mission was accomplished.

Up next, the bouquet toss.

In an effort to keep our wedding under budget and DIY as much as humanly possible, I decided to make the toss bouquet. The night before the wedding, my MOH and I went to the task of constructing the bouquet — knowing nothing about flower arrangement. The ribbon on the bouquet was a little loose, and we completely forgot to bring scissors to the hotel to cut the ends of the flowers, but overall I was pretty pleased with end result.

For supplies, we used floral tape, wire, and blue ribbon, plus a few floral pins that I bought at Jo-Ann’s. The flowers were a combination of repurposed roses: the ones Mr. Cookie gave me on the day of my bachelorette party, and the others were spray roses my MOH had bought for a bridal luncheon that was also held on the day of the bachelorette party. Total supplies, minus flowers, were $10. If you add the flowers, the toss bouquet cost $25.

My victim target for the bouquet toss was one of my bridesmaids. Like Mr. Cookie and myself, she had been introduced to a certain mister the day prior to the wedding. We were very hopeful and optimistic that their meeting might lead to something more. Another bridesmaid, whose wedding serendipitously brought Mr. Cookie and me together, pointed me in the right direction.

I took three turns, and then tossed the bouquet in the air:

SUCCESS!
I am happy to report that my bridesmaid and her date’s budding romance that evening did turn into a relationship. Again, can I 100% say that the bouquet toss had anything to do with it? Well, that’s still up for debate, but I’ll also call this toss a mission accomplished.

Next up: The wedding party decorates our getaway car with paint and confetti stars.

Photography by IN Photography