Why do brides toss their bouquet?
Weddings are filled with traditions, both old and new and one of the most well known, and well used one is the bouquet toss! This tradition has been around for hundreds of years and has developed over time to become how we know and love it, today!
The bouquet toss is where the bride tosses her floral bouquet over her shoulder into a group of single women. Traditionally, whoever catches it will be the next bride to walk down the aisle! It certainly can get very competitive, but above all is a lot of fun and a great moment for the photographer to capture.
The tradition of the bouquet toss as we know it today started in England in the 1800s, but the origin of this tradition is even older. Prior to the 1800s, it was considered good luck to simply touch the bride on her wedding day. Hopeful single girls would often rush the bride—crowding her, touching her—in the hopes that a little bit of the bride’s wedding-day good fortune would rub off on them and they would soon be married.
As legend has it, some single women would even go as far as to try and take home keepsakes of the bride’s wedding dress as she walked by. To escape, the bride would often toss the bouquet and run.
As society has progressed, marriage has become more of a choice for women, so they don’t necessarily need luck. The bouquet toss tradition has endured over the years and evolved into a fun way for a bride to share the spotlight with her single friends and work some friendly competition into the wedding itinerary.
Above all, the bouquet toss today is a little bit of fun and certainly gets your guests involved!
