Replacement for Garter Toss

kristend72

As far as I'm concerned, we could totally skip the garter and bouquet toss.
I think the bouquet toss is kind of demeaning - round up all the singles and then have them fight over this flying charm that will supposedly bring them a spouse and complete their lives. Since it's my thing, it's easy to nix. Really, I think the little girls are the ones who are most into it. So I would gladly just present each one of them with one of the centerpieces.

My FI is the sticking point on the garter toss because 'it's tradition' and his brother did it at his wedding. I'm not as morally opposed but I still think it's tacky even if he removes the garter with his hands from my mid calf. I really have no need to sit in the middle of the crowd and hike up my dress so he can remove part of my outfit and then fling it to his buddies. Eh, thanks anyways.

Does anyone know of a new tradition he might like to swap in instead?

MyNameIsNot

The only other tradition I've seen is having an anniversary dance and giving the toss bouquet to the longest married couple.  But that doesn't work with the garter.

Well, I've seen some disturbingly tacky things: selling it, putting it on someone else, etc.  But I wouldn't do that.  

aerinpegadrak

The only thing I could think of to say to him would be, "If you want to produce a garter from somewhere else to throw, then fine, but you're not going up my dress in front of my family, period."

tracy_k

He could always just toss a garter, it doesn't have to be removed from your body in front of other people (a concept which totally skeeves me out). It doesn't even have to be yours.

Or he could toss his bow tie (provided it's not a rental, LOL).

sbily2010

fi and i are playing around with the idea of tossing things people would use in a relationship like possibly him tossing earrings for the lucky guy to give to his lady friend or something like that idk i'm kind of stuck on what to toss to the ladies..... but something along the lines of what we toss for the guys.

khornack

No garter toss for us. I'm nixing the traditional bouquet toss too. I'm either going to do an anniversary dance or have all the ladies (married and non-married, it would be embarrassing for just the three unmarried ladies) to come up and make my own toss bouquet of roses where each stem is individually wrapped with a ribbon with a fortune written on it, so instead of one person getting the bouquet, 12 will get individual flowers.

megk8oz

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_replacement-garter-toss?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:85f4b1b6-7114-4815-800a-6c9c1006937aPost:ac9ec936-cdec-4942-8aae-d6529d6671d0">Re: Replacement for Garter Toss</a>:
[QUOTE]The only thing I could think of to say to him would be, "If you want to produce a garter from somewhere else to throw, then fine, but you're not going up my dress in front of my family, period."
Posted by aerinpegadrak[/QUOTE]


Ditto this, 100%. I told DH if he wanted to throw one (Turned out, he didn't), he was free to carry one in his pocket, because I certainly wasn't wearing one that day.

Also, I could be in a small minority on this, but I have heard of weddings where they threw the bouquet and skipped the garter toss. I have never heard of throwing the garter without the bouquet, though.

Sarah&Nick0530

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_replacement-garter-toss?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:36Discussion:85f4b1b6-7114-4815-800a-6c9c1006937aPost:5b2f0b83-e213-44e4-a8c6-7825c1c50114">Re: Replacement for Garter Toss</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Replacement for Garter Toss : Ditto this, 100%. I told DH if he wanted to throw one (Turned out, he didn't), he was free to carry one in his pocket, because I certainly wasn't wearing one that day. Also, I could be in a small minority on this, but I have heard of <strong>weddings where they threw the bouquet and skipped the garter toss</strong>. I have never heard of throwing the garter without the bouquet, though.
Posted by megk8oz[/QUOTE]

Yeah...my FI's friends have never done a garter toss.  All the weddings had the bouquet toss, but no garter. 

MISSCOURTNEY20

@ Cray...we had already decided that we were going to do the dance, and I think now we are going to give them the garter and bouquet too. Great Idea. I know the couple will be my sister's godparents. They have been married 50 years too. Thanx!!

maisery22

I never even thought about this, I usually looked forward to the tossing of items but since there's only one single girl at my wedding I could just give her the bouquet, several single guys though and they're all my really good friends, guess I better ask about this

happyfish103

I was just going to ask about this same topic!
Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks bouquet and garter tosses are sort of awkward. It's sort of a weird tradition. I've been known to go hide in the bathroom when I was at weddings back when I was single and knew the bouquet toss was coming!

bishababe

I went to a wedding one time where, when it came time for the garter toss, the newlyweds did something different.  The bride sat on a chair in the middle of the dance floor with the groom positioned to take the garter from her leg while music played and all the single men stood waiting for the toss.  Suddenly the music stopped, the bride & groom looked at eachother and shook their heads and waved their arms in the air like "Wait a minute, stop, this is wrong."  Then they switched places!  The groom sat on the chair and the bride got down and pulled a garter from under HIS pant leg (it was only at about mid calf) and threw it to the waiting bachelors!  It was hysterical! No one was expecting it and everyone was cracking up!  I think that might be something we do!