Wedding receptions and family celebrations

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I love listening to Father Hugh. The other day he was speaking of wedding receptions and the garter toss. His answer was great, but he needs to go to a good mid-west german Catholic wedding! The whole family celebrates the couples future dancing and laughing late into the night! I’ll invite you to the next Ptacek wedding so you can experience it! 😊
 
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Garter toss? Family Life
I am getting married in a couple months and I unsure where I stand on the garter toss. A part of me thinks it would be fun and that it is generally accepted at wedding receptions. The other part of me is not comfortable with the immodesty of the groom taking it off with his teeth as is the way nowadays. My fiance did mention he could just take it off with his hands, and I know he would agree to completely omit it if I wished. I know the garter toss is a big thing for the guys- well so it seem…
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We did it at our wedding, since my mom made a special garter for me to wear for the occasion. We did it the “clean way” though. Definitely no teeth involved! The dress I was wearing had so much poof, my husband might have gotten lost on the way out!
 
The big controversy we had was actually about the “duck dance”. It wasn’t about whether or not to have it, but whether it was called the “duck dance” or the “chicken dance”. We’ve always refered to it as the “duck dance”. The B section of the music clearly signifies the duck swimming gracefully across the water. And people always “quack” on the rests in the melody. However, my husband’s family insists that it’s the “chicken dance”. They have no arguments. They just say so.
 
We did a garter toss, primarily because my sweet 85-year-old grandma made me a garter for the toss. At the time I had no idea it was a controversial thing. We didn’t do anything tasteless, though. I had the garter on below my knee, and my husband just pulled it off with his hands. I always thought of it as just the male version of the bouquet toss. It certainly doesn’t have to be anything crass. In fact, I had never seen or heard of anyone removing the garter with their teeth.
 
We did the garter toss too, and Hubby certainly didn’t pull it off with his teeth! I wore mine below my knee too and he removed it modestly. It was absolutely adorable - my brother’s then-fiancee (now his wife of several years) caught the bouquet, and my brother was going for the garter when he was caught out by my little cousin who was then 6 years old! My garter had a blue ribbon in it because that was my “something blue”. (Something old - my shoes, a nice second-hand pair from my mom; something new - my wedding dress; something borrowed - my mother’s pearls which I gave back to her afterward; something blue - my garter.)

The garter toss stemmed from a time back in the day when it was important that the marriage be consummated immediately. The custom was that the guests would follow the couple back to the bedroom and the couple would go in and shut the door. The groom would later reappear with a piece of the bridge’s underclothing as evidence that the marriage had been consummated. A garter was considered a piece of intimate apparel at the time, so it was often the piece of underclothing that the groom brought out. Later, this was adapted into the garter toss.
 
The post won’t let my links post…so from the bridal rail facebook page…

If you’ve ever been to a South Texas wedding, you’ve probably participated in the Grand March, but did you know the meaning behind each phase of the dance? The dance is typically led by a couple that has been married for many years and is set to upbeat music. It goes as follows:

• The dance begins with the couples being led around the room - life
• The couples separate - quarrel
• The couples join back together - making up
• The couples join together in rows of four or more - growing family
• The dancers make a single-file line that snakes throughout the venue - twists and turns of life
• The couples form a bridge which each person goes under - strength of the new couple’s bond
• The newlyweds dance together as the wedding party and guests form a circle around them - support of the marriage
 
We call it the chicken dance, but your arguments are the best I’ve heard
 
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