Hey ladies. About twice a year I try to post a good old fashioned etiquette topic that may or may be of interest to the vintage bride.
As weddings pull further and further away from tradition (sometimes for the better) some of the helpful old lessons get forgotten. One of those lessons is how to hold your bouquet.
Why is this important? It's important because it means the difference between hiding your dress while looking like your head is sprouting from a bouquet of flowers, and looking elegant while showing off your curves, and showing off the beautiful dress you fell in love with.
So. how to carry your bouquet. Steps:
1) first, when you get your bouquet for the first time, determine which "side" is the prettiest (assuming your bouquet is round).
2) be concious of keeping this lovely side pointing out and tilted slightly down, so that the stems of the bouquet are pointing toward your body, and the flower heads toward the camera.
3) when you hold your bouquet, grip it at the very top of the stem. keep your thumbs to the back (you can literally poke them up and into your bellybutton to remind yourself) and relax your fingers around the stems. you can interlock them if you like. Don't hold it in a fist or death grip. This will make your whole body tense up. Relax your whole hand, and this will remind you to relax your whole body.
4) with your thumbs in or just below your bellybutton, drop your bouquet as low as possible in your hands to be sure that it won't hide your waist. This is especially important if your bouquet is humongous.
5) don't tuck your elbows in. Hold them ever so slightly away from your sides in a relaxed manner. This will emphasize the curve of your waist. 90 degree elbows are a no-no. Keep the angle larger than 90.
Do NOT (I repeat) do not hold your bouquet
at your waist
or chest. You will be covering up your beautiful dress, and you will lose the elegance of your look. This is a very easy thing to forget, especially when you're walking down the aisle and feeling nervous. It's a natural response to want to "hide" behind the bouquet.
For those of you being walked down the aisle by a parent or parents, try to practice holding the bouquet with just one hand with one thumb in your bellybutton. This will keep your bouquet centred, and keep you from holding the thing at your hip or something.
Lastly, let's look at the difference between brides who held their bouquets correctly versus incorrectly. You can spend thousands on your dress and still look like douche when you hide the thing behind your bouquet.
<--fail
<--excellent. Notice even her lovely elbows
<--fail
<--fail. holding too high, and not centred. She looks like she's about to toss is aimlessly off to her right.
<--- one handed perfection
<--fail, if she'd held it in her right hand instead, she could have held it lower.
<-- nice one-handed technique. Could be a smidge lower, but her bouquet is small enough that she can get away with this.
<---Even royals get it wrong. Check out the 90 degree angle on her arm, causing her bouquet to completely hide her waist
It helps to perhaps practice with your toss bouquet if you have one. Have fun walking down the aisle, ladies!!