Garter toss?

[Liberanosamalo]

Not to go off topic, but I did see on one of those tv shows a great reason not to have a plunging neckline on your wedding dress (in addition to it’s unsuitability for Church.) During Communion the Host slipped when the priest was giving a bride Communion and it fell down her cleavage. The first reaction of the priest was to retrieve the Host. His hand went for it…stopped… you could tell he wanted to get it, but wasn’t going to reach down her dress. She had to fish it out. Hope she got it all.

Awkward moment to say the least.

 

[Belle10]

We had a full nuptial Mass, and many of the guests commented that it was the most spiritual, beautiful wedding they had ever been to.

At the reception, we did the garter and bouquet tosses (no teeth were involved, and I threw a smaller bouquet made of silk flowers, not mine). It was lots of fun!

One of our priests (we had one from our college and my hometown priest co-celebrate the Mass) made a special request for “Shake Your Booty” by KC and the Sunshine Band and only those who had gone to our college were called out on the dance floor. We all boogied down (including our priest!) and it was a lot of fun!

We did not smash cake in each others’ faces (I told him not to even think about it!).

I wish we had also done the dance many here have mentioned, where you end up with the longest-married couple still dancing at the end of the song. We didn’t because I had never heard of it until we attended a friend’s wedding after we got married.

I think you can be reverent and respectful AND have fun – they are not mutually exclusive.

 

[SMHW]

I think the cake smearing where the bride ends up completely masked in the stuff is a very aggressive act of disrespect. Considering the amount of time and money spent on the make-up and dress, I fail to see the fun in this new addition to tradition. Thankfully, I’ve only seen it on TV.

I agree it is rude. It’s been around at least since the 1960’s according to my MIL.

 

[dakotagirl]

People, am I the only one who thinks this is grossly immodest, not to mention demeaning? I mean, what the heck, how tacky! I can’t believe this would occur at a catholic wedding reception. Forget about smearing the cake; removing the garter? eew.

 

[BeckyFlynn08]

I went to a wedding once where they omitted the garter and the bouquet toss and did something a lot more meaningful. They got all of the married couples onto the dance floor and played some slow music. Then they started saying “if you have been married less than 2 hours, leave the dance floor” and of course the bride and groom left. Then they said, “if you have been married less than one year, leave the dance floor” , “if you have been married less than five years, leave the floor” and it kept going and going until there were only two couples left. One was the brides parents and the other was my boyfriend’s parents. (they are all cousins). Then they said whoever has been married less than 45 years leave the dance floor and then my boyfriend’s parents were all alone on the dance floor. It so special and so meaningful and I think it was a great way for the bride and groom to celebrate their beginnings. They got to see how happy the folks who have been married for almost 50 years still were.

We did this because I’ve never really liked the tradition of the garter/bouquet toss. It was really neat to see some couples continue to stay dancing as the DJ announced 50+ years.

 

[Sabda]

The garter is not necessarily a functional one that actually holds up a stocking. In fact, it’s usually no more “functional” than the buttonhole on a man’s lapel.

There’s the old rhyme,

“Something old, something new,
something borrowed, something blue,
and a lucky sixpence in her shoe.”

My mom tells me she wore a blue garter at her wedding (1964), and I caught one at a reception back in the nineties.

I have not seen the remove-the-garter-with-the-teeth thing (praise God), but I have seen the toss, with the garter-catcher putting the garter on the bouquet catcher (with varying degrees of immodesty). I also have not seen (in person) the smooshing of cake in each other’s face.

If you want to do the “traditions” above, I suggest:

– spinsters (and widders ) gather, bride throws bouquet
– “eligible” menfolk gather, bride discreetly removes garter, gives to groom, he fires it into the crowd
– garter catcher asks bouquet catcher for the honour of the next dance. And that’s that.

Oh, and as for the cake thing:

– bride and groom feed each other a small piece (an inch each way, at most) of cake in a gentle and loving (and RESPECTFUL) fashion; I always believed that this was symbolic of the bride and groom caring for and “nourishing” each other (but then again, I can be on the naive side)

I have also thought that the father of the bride and the mother of the groom having a “last dance” with their respective children was a sweet tradition…but then again, I’m a bit of a sap

With the exception of the dance, this is what we did. DH is uncomfortable with dancing. Not that he has anything against it he just doesn’t like being in the spotlight like that. I wore two garters. One was my something blue. I wore the one that was tossed way down on my knee and dh reached under my dress with his hands. No teeth or flashing skin involved. We gentle feed each other cake. I did playfully dab a little on dh’s nose and then cleaned it off with a napkin.

I have to agree the whole cake smashing thing is so disrespectful not to mention completely out of character with the whole wedding. Usually what I have seen is the bride is the one who smashes cake all over the groom’s face. What a way to treat you brand new hubby.