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I caught the bouquet at my girl M’s wedding in 2007. It was (and is) the only one I’ve ever caught, a million weddings into my wedding-guest career. It was also the first wedding I went to with my now-fiancé. I loved it, but I’ve always been into weddings.
Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone likes it.
Oct. 2007. I didn’t even have to move, really.
I do plan on throwing a tiny version of my bridal bouquet to all the single ladies, and I somehow have to find a way to get around the Beyoncé song everyone uses to accompany this task. (Cliché, no?)
A handful of friends are very funny about the bouquet-tossing and its highlighting of all the unmarried (note, not necessarily single) ladies. One gal said she just stands back with the other “bitter singles” and lets the little girls have at it while she chugs a drink. Another pushes women out of the way at all costs, as if a championship game rested on her goalie skills with this particular round object. I used to snidely point out how lovely it seemed to be a bride and do all these fun things (turned out to be a very good thing my exes never chomped on that bit of b.s. bait).
In ye olde times, the bride tossed pieces of her dress or stockings to eager singles, since the bride and her accoutrement were considered especially lucky that day. Someone along the way thought it was tacky to have the bride practically undress and rip pieces of her dress off, so bouquet it was from then on. Like the issue over whether women should change their names or wear white dresses (ha!), some wonder why such an outdated tradition is still featured in the modern wedding.
Well? Why is it?
I don’t think it’s outdated. It’s just a fun tradition. A lot of people I know like fighting for the bouquet or pushing the little girls up to the front to get it.
Oh and I used Martina Mcbride’s song “this one’s for the girls”.
Because then it would be just another party and we’d be just another girl in a party dress. Just a thought!
My DJ, who is probably the 2nd coolest guy I’ve met next to FI, suggested Single Ladies as well…I looked at him like he’d gone berserk! He said cliche is what gets people off their seat and into the action. I still haven’t signed off on that just yet.
Now for the garter toss (totally unsolicited advice haha) we (I) picked Born To Be A Bachelor by Gaelic Storm…found it by mistake when I was listening to the Irish channel on St. Patty’s Day!
I am not sure why it is still used, and I am not sure if will end up doing it, most of the people that are invited are already married. But to get away from “Single Ladies” I was going to do “It’s Raining Men”…nice alternative and a little humorous!
Still trying to decide if we’re going to do a bouquet/garter toss. I have to look through our guestlist - I don’t think we actually have that many single ladies, so I don’t know if I want to call out like…2 ladies.
Some people think it’s fun. I am at the age… and so are my friends and family… where the only single ladies I know are engaged (so technically not single), under the age of 12 or divorced. So we won’t be doing this but we are doing the Anniversary Dance which I think is slowly replacing the toss.
The only wedding I’ve been to where the bouquet toss was done, I caught it!! I had also clearly had one (or 5) too many cocktails and was so pleased with myself for catching the bouquet that I proceeded to spike it…Like a football…In front of everyone…It was awesome 
And then Mr Trail Mix caught the garter, so it was all in all a successful tossing traditions for us at that wedding!
@ Miss Hampster — I too was afraid I’d only have 3 or 4 single gals come up!! But since then, I’ve had a bunch RSVP so I think the bouquet toss is on.
Love the idea of using Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!
I was thinking I’d use Destiny’s Child Independent Woman, Part I, or maybe Bootylicious? I am pretty sure there aren’t too men men in the world ready for my ladies’ jelly.
I was going to skip this altogether, but there is something so appealing about a ladies’ dance. We are skipping the garter toss though, after seeing a brother/sister bouquet/garter catch at a cousin’s wedding. That moment died in a head on collision with a mountain of awkward.
I have no idea if i should do the Bouquet toss or not! My sister didn’t do it and i don’t know if i have enough single friends. We won’t have any kids at the reception a couple teenagers though. I know we are definitley not doing the garter toss. Do people still like the bouquet toss? i’m only 23 and i HATED getting called up for it at the two weddings i’ve been to.
Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan of the tradition but I do know a lot of people who are. We plan to skip both the bouquet toss and garter toss and do a couples dance. The DJ will ask all the married couples to stand up and dance, then have anyone married less than 5 hours sit down, anyone married less than 5 years sit down, 10 years, etc… until the only couple still dancing is the one who has been married the longest. We will then present them with the bouquet and garter and ask for their secret to a long and happy marriage.
Beats me - I just know it won’t be done at our wedding. First, not many of our friends are unmarried. And second, I was always the one that made a bee-line for the bar when it popped up, and I don’t want that to happen at my wedding.
We are actually not doing a bouquet toss (or garter toss, or mother son dance, or father daughter dance). It started out being because we didn’t want to include one tradition (I don’t speak to my father for close to 10 years, and only just decided to be poilte and invite him to the wedding), so we decided not to include it’s counterpart (can’t have mother son dance if not having father daughter). We nixed the garter toss because it can often end up raunchy, and the whole thing made me uncomfortable (especially about having people glimpse my thunder thighs), so we also nixed the bouquet toss. It’s more about them not fitting our situation and being cliche than an outdated premise.
Like #13, we too, didn’t do these things, but I can see how some people do enjoy it while others loathe it!
I think because weddings can get boring sometimes and some people think it’s fun to watch people chase after the bouquet or garter.
At my grandparent’s 50th anniversary party, they did the bouquet and garter toss, and my cousins, mind they are brother and sister(!), caught each one respectively. So, it was pretty funny when the dj complained that my cousin only put the garter and his sister’s ankle! (He didn’t know they where siblings!) That is still something that sticks in my head after all of these years!
Ditto to Miss Hamster, but I think it’s just been so customary to do so that a wedding just wouldn’t seem complete without the flower/garter toss!!
Most of my friends don’t like doing the toss so I have to think of an alternative activity for this. :\
I think it is a fun tradition because it livens the guests up and gets everyone to focus on a particular event. That is interesting that the bride used to rip up her clothes and throw them…I am pretty sure THAT part of the tradition is outdated and not making a comeback anytime soon.
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Mrs. Taco, San Francisco Age and Occupation: 29, writer/editor Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editor Engagement Date: May 13, 2009 Wedding Date: August 2010 Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans Building About Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
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