Traditional Reception Events - Bouquet/Garter Toss, Anniv. Dance, etc.

akbrown19

Hey ladies,

Haven't been on here in a while, just busy busy with a shower, bachelorette party, work, getting the invitations out and getting FI to take care of the groomsmen attire!

Anyway, been trying to sort out a reception schedule (less than 2 months to go, holy freak out!) and I am trying to figure out what to do for all of the more "traditional" reception events.

I think we will forego the garter toss - never been a fan, just don't want to do it. We will do the bouquet toss, though, at the pleading of lots of friends, moms, etc. I'm ok with doing that, but I had been thinking about scrapping it and giving the bouquet to the anniversary dance winners. 

Here's my question - if I do the bouquet toss AND anniversary dance, what do we do for the winners of the anniversary dance? Just a round of applause? That seems kind of lame. I have a toss bouquet ordered, so maybe use that for the bouquet toss and the real bouquet for anniversary dance? That also seems confusing.

Any thoughts?

mspurr

I have never seen the anniversary dance "winners" get anything.  I have seen them offer words of wisdom to the bride and groom which was super cute.  I'm thinking about doing that at my wedding.  We are not having a garter toss at the request of my FI.  I'm doing a bouquet toss but I'm thinking of doing it to everyone as a sign of good luck as I don't have many single girls coming to my wedding.

smartlypretty

Hmmmm if you really want to do both (and i think that's perfectly fine), then I would give the toss bouquet to the winner of the bouquet toss and I would give something else to the winner of the anniversary dance. What about a bottle of wine? I was at a wedding where some couples "won" things for doing different things and the prizes were bottles of wine. It seemed to go over well. 

The "competitions" were things like: first person to RSVP, last person to RSVP, couple married the longest, couple married the shortest, etc. I think they gave out like 5 bottles. It was  good fun. 

mamameech

I like smartly's idea of a bottle of wine or something like that. I think you will need to have something for them and it should be something they can share (maybe even a gift card for a restaurant).

On a side note, we are skipping the garter and bouquet tosses. I think we are the last ones to get married so the floor would be empty HAHA

calindi

I do like the idea of giving the anniversary dance couple a bottle of champagne.  We're not doing a bouquet toss, but we're giving the anniversary dance couple a bottle of champagne and a bouquet of flowers (I'm keeping mine).

volleygurl0306

Ditto the bottle of wine.  You can get a decent one for $15-20 (which may go farther than a gift card to dinner though if you can afford it I like that idea too).  It will just differentiate it from the bouquet toss and is more enjoyable IMO than a bouquet that will die by the next day considering it won't be watered right away. 

AshnRobo

I love the idea of wine or champagne, but honestly if you are only doing the bouquet toss to appease people I would reconsider. Unless this is something you just don't care about then go ahead and do it.

For me, I am not doing the bouquet toss b/c I have never liked (I even remember thinking this when I was 7!) how it singles people out for being alone. That just seems cruel to me. I'm skipping it. Instead, I'm doing my own version of this:

mamameech

I like that idea Ash - I might have to use that inspiration!