The traditional wedding bouquet toss involves the bride tossing her flower bouquet over her shoulder to a group of screaming single women. It is a funny sight to see as the “single” women jostle each other trying to grab for the thrown bouquet. It is said that whoever catches the flower bouquet will be the lucky one to get married soon.
Nowadays more and more brides are moving away from the traditional bouquet toss. If you are getting married and want to put some fun/twist into the traditional wedding flower toss, then take a look at the following:
- Breakaway Bouquets – Ask your florist to create a “throwaway” bouquet that is made up of several smaller flower bouquets. Bundled together, it will look like a regular wedding bouquet. Just before the toss, the bride will separate the breakaway bouquet into the individual ones and throw those over her shoulder. This way, more than one single women will receive the bouquets.
- Single Flowers Toss – Have your florist prepare you a bundle of single flowers. On each flower you can attach a ribbon or note with some fortunes written on them. Then toss those flowers into the crowd. Similar to the above, more than one single women will receive the fortune flowers. Instead of tossing them, you can also hand out the flowers to the single women.
- “Finnish style” Bouquet Toss – This is a Finnish tradition. In this scenario, the single women forms a circle around the bride. The bride holds her wedding bouquet in front of her. She is then blindfolded and then turns slowly around when the music starts. When the music stops, the person the wedding bouquet is pointing to, gets the bouquet.
- “Musical Chair” Bouquet Toss – Somewhat similar to the above, the single women forms a circle. The wedding bouquet is then passed around the circle when the music starts. When the music stops, the person holding the bouquet is eliminated. This is then repeated until there is only one person left holding the bouquet and that is the winner. Another twist is that when the music stops the first time around, the person holding the bouquet gets to keep it.
- Combined Bouquet/Garter Toss – If you plan on having a garter toss as well, then both of you can throw the garter/bouquet at the same time. Here you can mix the “single” women and “single” men together. You can put a slight twist to this one by having the bride toss the garter and the groom toss the bouquet.
- Bonbonnieres/Favors Toss – Instead of tossing your bouquet, you can toss your wedding favors/bonbonnieres. Here you can invite everybody to participate. If there will be many children, you can even toss candies and toys.
- Others – Give the bouquet to an important person in the family (your mother or grandmother), to the next couple that is engaged to get married next, to the couple married the longest, to your maid-of-honour, to the dancing crowd if you do not want to stop the dancing for the bouquet toss.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you plan on keeping your wedding bouquet, have your florist make another bouquet that you will use for the toss.
