Originally Posted By Stacers76 Hey all...I'm looking for ideas... As some of you might have read here n there, I'm getting married in a year from now. We're doing a simple, mostly traditional/nothing extravagant, outdoor wedding and indoor reception with about 80 friends and family. What I'm wondering is if anyone knows of, or has seen any alternatives to tossing the bouquet? Most of our friends are already married...there are more single men than eligble women (aka old enough), so my fiancee wants to do the garter toss, but I have, eh, a few divorced older aunts etc and then young (under 16) girls that would be eligble for a bouquet toss..,aybe 5 or 6, if that. My brother and his wife just gave the bouquet and garter to an engaged couple at their wedding..which was cute, but I don't really want to duplicate that scenario at my wedding after they did it. Any ideas would be great, I have lots of time I know, but I'm at brainfart stage on anything meaningful/cute/anything!! Thanks all!!! )
Originally Posted By LuLu Maybe others have suggestions, just thought I'd put in my 2ç that I *loathe* the garter toss. UGH! We did neither "toss" at our wedding, which sounds similar to yours.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I have the most awkward "tossing" story. My wife tossed her bouquet first and a 10 year old girl caught it. (There were a BUNCH of women trying to catch it mind you.) I tossed the garter and a good friend of mine, who is gay, caught it. It actually made for a pretty funny moment but it wasn't the "excitement" most people get when the guy is putting the garter on the girl.
Originally Posted By disneyfreaksk My husband is a mobile DJ and works weddings every weekend. So here are some alternatives: Have your florist make a "throw away bouquet" and use that one. They usually aren't as elaborate as the brides, therefore less expensive. You could give your bouquet to your mom as a tribute to what she has passed on to you. I will have to ask my husband for more ideas.
Originally Posted By SuzieQ I've never heard of the guy who catches the garter putting it on the woman who catches the bouquet. My son caught a garter when he was about 6 years old. The bride and groom LOVED it. The pictures were great. He then gave the garter to the boyfriend of the girl who caught the bouquet. If the age of those in the melee is important to you, I suggest having it announced for all the single men/women over the age of XX come forward for the toss. The best bouquet toss I ever saw was a throw bouquet that broke into several smaller bouquets upon being tossed. I had a second smaller bouquet that I tossed at my wedding.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper What our "couple" ended up doing was my friend put the garter on the little girl's arm. She loved it, of course.
Originally Posted By Stacers76 My main concern was more that we will have a few guys, mostly young 20-30somethings, for the garter toss...which by the way I'm not a fan of either LuLu ) But when it comes to the bouquet toss I'll have like 4 girls and women. I'd much rather give the bouquet to someone.....and yes I am planning on having a smaller bouquet as the give away
Originally Posted By SuzieQ I starting to think I'm odd or something, LOL. I thought the garter toss was FUN. And we smashed cake. Which was also FUN. I've got pictures that show the mischief on our faces as we each held a bite of cake daring the other to go first. I have friends who were so stressed out on their wedding days they were practically sick. I don't get it. Of course, I also got a surf board as a wedding gift, so maybe I am odd. LOL Stacers76 - it sounds like your bouquet idea will be very nice and meaningful. Do you have someone in mind to give it to? I really liked the idea of your mom if you two are close.
Originally Posted By Stacers76 Mom is a possibility....she wouldn't expect it that's for sure ) A surfboard huh...sounds cool, not weird. I also have a couple of my mom's friends that have known me my whole life that will be helping with some details of the wedding (my hair and picking up flowers) which I thought of giving them each a small bouquet too as a thank you.....keep the ideas coming...I'm still a work in progress here! )
Originally Posted By Kimrue I've seen this done at a wedding and it was very nice. The DJ asked all the married couples to come out on the dance floor and I think he played "through the years" or something like that. After about 30 seconds he asked all of the people married less than 2 years to leave the dance floor, then after about another 30 seconds or so everyone under 5 years, 10 years, 20 years until there was only one very old very much in love couple still dancing on the dancefloor...married 45 years!!!! EVERYONE was crying it was so beautiful. At the end of the dance the bride presented the women with her bouquet. The little old lady cried and for a split second, she felt like a bride all over again. It was beautiful. I don't know if you would want to use this idea, but it is a good one if I do say so myself. Good luck with your wedding and most of all...enjoy all the planning, you only get to do it once!
Originally Posted By Ursula I refused to do the garter toss at my wedding. (I have leg issues). My husband also thought it was stupid and relished the idea that I wouldn't make him do it as he hates the spotlight. I couldn't wait to do the bouquet toss, though. I had a small tossing bouquet to use for that. My husband's 14-year old cousin caught it and we couldn't think of better person. She was SO excited and it made for a great moment. I love the idea of a dancing through the years. I've seen it done before and it is so classy. So basically here is my advice: do what you want, how you want, when you want. I've also seen the multiple toss bouquet where the thing breaks into several long-stem roses. That's kinda cool, too. For another idea, there is a company that will wax your bouquet so that you can keep it forever. I considered this, but then decided against it at the time. I wish I had done that now!
Originally Posted By tuknshak We just got married on May 7th and this is what we did. I had a toss bouqet and had a toss garter as well. Sorry I didn't want to part with either for memories sake. We had only about 6 single women and men so insteed we had the DJ ask all the women and men to come out for each. In the end both people you caught them were engaged already but it was still fun and that is what mattered to us
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I was at a wedding where they did the "Through the Years" bit and it WAS very emotional. I vote for that one.
Originally Posted By LuLu I don't know what it is about the garter toss, I don't normally have such strong opinions about things like this, but I've always seen it played up in a way that seems very sexist and demeaning to women. I'm not normally the type to go looking for insults on that front, so go figure! I love the give-away bouquets for the special ladies, or oldest couple. Very cool!
Originally Posted By Kimrue I wanted a very "traditional" wedding so of course I opted for the traditional/ kind of questionable bouquet and garter toss. It was actually tasteful and not to mention hysterically funny. My sister who is normally very reserved had just been left by her husband for another women, she has two older teenage children and a one year old son. She prompted her daughter to go to catch the bouquet for fun and her daughter said, only if you come too! So my sister stood way in the back next to her shy daughter away from the spotlight...well, the bouquet fell right in my sisters hands...literally. She was embarrassed and kept saying, I was just here for "daughter's name"...I wasn't here for the toss...can you do over..blah blah blah...forget it..she was stuck. Well the guy who caught the garter was well...think Vince Vaugn's character in wedding crashers. It made for a funny story and made my sister forget about her problems for five minutes.
Originally Posted By Minnie1955 Kimrue, we did the dance that you described with married couples, and we had the DJ introduce it as a "tribute to marraige"... I really think it's the best alternative to tossing the bouquet or garter.
Originally Posted By Stacers76 Ahhhh I like the thru the years dancing idea..... As for the garter toss...we're going to have an extra that is just going to appear come time..none of that me sitting down him up under my skirt stuff...I personally just don't like it and have leg issues too Ursula..and feet and knees and everything else issues! I also hadn't seen any of the bouquets that break apart...they're designed to do that when they're tossed? Or it just happens to break up?? I haven't got into my flower stuff yet, but I'm assuming a florist that does weddings would know about them? Thanks again for all the suggestions, this is great!! )
Originally Posted By Ursula Yes, the new tossing bouquets are actually five or seven or so blooms held together by a removable clasp. The bride takes the bouquet in hand, slyly removes the clasp, and tosses the blooms out in all directions, so that a good portion of the gals get a bloom each.
