Weddingbee Blog

I’ve always hated the humiliation of being herded up to the dance floor as a single woman to fight for a bouquet. All of us “singles”—which often meant those of us who had a date to bring, but weren’t offered a Plus-One on our invitation—would awkwardly stand around, waiting for the bride to chuck the flowers over her shoulder. One of two things usually happened:

1. The toss would be short, and the bouquet would crash to the floor, petals breaking from the blooms. None of the waiting maidens would want to rush up and grab it, in fear of looking like the desperate wannabe bride. Eventually, one would venture up and retrieve it.
2. The bride would have a recipient in mind, and intentionally toss the bouquet in that general direction. Usually the other ladies would know who this intended recipient was, and would avoid her like the plague so as not to accidentally catch the bouquet. As an involved-but-not-engaged woman, this was sometimes me. Even more awkward than standing around in the company of other embarrassed ladies is being called out as the one who is taking too long.

I had all but decided not to have a bouquet toss.

Especially after finding out that most brides purchase a “tossing bouquet” as a stand-in to their real bouquet, so they can keep the original. That certainly doesn’t fit into our shrunken budget. And even more especially when I saw this:

(source)

Brilliant. But then I heard about the Fortune Bouquet…

(source)

The idea is to wrap seam binding around a few stems, and then wrap several stem-clusters together with a ribbon to create a single bouquet. Each cluster has a “fortune” printed and pinned to the end. When the bouquet is ready to be tossed, the ribbon is unwrapped and the clusters tossed. This way, more than one lady will receive a set of blooms, each with a different “fortune”.

So I gathered up several shades of ribbon, and got to work finding quotes to put on them. I cut the ribbon into strands of about a yard in length, and in the end, I opted for several quotes, life and love related. I wrote them on the ribbon in various handwritings using a paint pen. Behold:

(personal photo)

When we make my bouquet, one ribbon will be tied around a single stem. All of the stems will be hand-tied with another larger ribbon, and the long ribbons will hang down as I walk down the aisle. These are the quotes I painted on the ribbon:

• Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
• Let there be magic in your smile & firmness in your handshake.
• Only love lets us see normal things in an extraordinary way.
• A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
• The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
• Today is a lucky day for those who remain cheerful & optimistic.
• We cannot do great things; only small things through great love.
• The beginning of wisdom is to desire it.
• Life loves the liver of it.

So now I’m unsure about this whole bouquet toss business. On the one hand, the beribboned blooms would look beautiful scattering through the air. On the other, I’m still not sold on the idea of calling out all my single friends and family. We’ve decided not to do a garter toss, so perhaps the bouquet toss would be out of place, anyway? I could combine both ideas, and leave the bouquet untied, with an invitation to the “willing bachelorette”. Maybe I could do a “draw-straws” sort of thing, and let the ladies draw a bloom?

If you have any other ideas, feel free to post in the comments below!