Wedding Traditions Explained – Bouquet Toss
As part of our Wedding Traditions Explained series, we wanted to write about a wedding tradition that is slowly dying. Ten years ago the majority of weddings included a bouquet toss. Today, more and more couples are foregoing this tradition, with only about 30% of weddings still partaking in the bouquet toss. So why does the bouquet toss exist and where did it originate?
Photo Credit: Fox Fotography
The bouquet was originally incorporated into weddings as a sign of fertility for the bride. In ancient times, brides would walk down the aisle carrying a bouquet of herbs, such as garlic and dill. These herbs were also believed to ward off evil spirits. Over time, the bouquet evolved to include florals and to become the extravagant arrangements that they are today.
Now onto explaining why the bride actually started tossing her bouquet. This tradition began in England in ancient times. The bride was believed to have good luck on her wedding day, so her guests would try to rip off pieces of her dress and bouquet so they could have her good luck. Wedding guests would get pretty aggressive with this and chase the bride. To escape, brides started tossing their bouquet to wedding guests to distract them so they could get away.
Photo Credit: Quinn Miller Photo
As with most traditions, the bouquet toss has evolved over time. In today’s modern world, the bouquet toss has progressed into a show at the wedding reception. All of the single female guests are paraded onto the dance floor to try to catch the bouquet. The catcher is deemed the next female to get married. We’ve seen bouquet tosses all over the spectrum, from only a few women trying to catch it, to a full on pushing and shoving match to be the winner.
Photo Credit: IN Photography
As we mentioned earlier, at each wedding we DJ we see less and less couples including the bouquet toss tradition in their wedding reception. We have found this to occur for several reasons, the main reason being that couples are getting married later in life. Due to this, there are less single guests at weddings. To put the spotlight on only a handful of single women at a wedding can be embarrassing for those partaking. Most couples just don’t want to make their guests feel uncomfortable, so they are passing on the bouquet toss tradition. With the bouquet toss having been a wedding tradition for hundreds of years, we hope it will be one that will stick around.
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