Ahh, a women's dream at another woman's wedding, catching the bouquet. The flame that is passed down from the bride unto her single or unmarried females is traditionally known as catching the bouquet.
As I'm casually scrolling the internet for unique wedding traditions, watching videos of sappy ceremonies, catchy rap lyrics, turned love poems, I come across videos of cutthroat, die-hard, bouquet-catching women. My first thought was, Where has this been my whole life? Followed by, Why do we do this?
Throwing your expensive flowers at your wedding over your head sounds pretty hilarious when I put it that way, but this tradition stems from wedding guests believing that having a piece of the bride's gown would then bring them luck into finding their prince charming and being the next to wed. I have to ask myself was this a manifestation thing? I now have a piece of someone's wedding gown and I'm going to find the man of my dreams... who knows?
So the throwing of the bouquet began when the bride wanted to preserve her beautiful gown for generations ahead and did not want guests ripping parts of her dress in hopes they would marry soon. As a distraction, the bride throws the bouquet, possibly because it was what was in hand at the moment or because traditionally flowers were given as a token of fertility, maybe both, Nonetheless if the videos I watched today were anything like what was going on decades ago, I would want to throw something in order to divert the mob from ripping my dress apart as well.
Throwing the bouquet usually occurs during the reception, the single ladies are all called to the dance floor and the bride throws her luscious, carefully picked flowers over her shoulders into a group of stiletto-wearing, wanting to wed, women. In a way, it is truly poetic. On a special day, a woman wishes well to another and I'm all for women supporting women.