Bridal Bouquets--musing

I just came home from a wedding reception. The second in a week. It must be after Christmas, but before school starts again, because college students are getting married in between semesters. I did it that way myself.

As I watched the bride throw her bouquet to a small crowd of girls that included my eleven year old daughter, I remembered how excited and hopeful I felt to catch the bouquet when I was a pre-teen. I would fight just a bit for it. Like at a pinata. I could tell the pre-teen girls there felt the same way.

Things changed as I got older. I still wanted to catch the bouquet, but I didn't want to appear too aggressive for it. Like I wanted to reach out and casually grab it, but not jump or push for it because that would show I wanted it too much. So the pre-teen girls would snag it first. Because they didn't care how they looked, they just wanted to win.

As an older teen I remember feeling a bit of consternation towards the pre-teens, and I think it is common to the age. The females who are of marriageable age (or close to it) feel like they deserve to catch the bouquet because they're closest to using the "luck" that comes from catching it. The pre-teen females treat it like a competition, like its the tip off of a basketball game. It's probably a common statistic now--the younger the female who waits to catch, the more likely she is to catch a bouquet, because she'll push for it.

But I think brides have noticed the trend--have you seen them try and fix it? I've seen brides try to rig the throw so they can get the bouquet to their eligible friends. The older females stand in the rear of the group (and then they don't appear too eager either) and the bride hucks the bouquet as hard as she can over her shoulder so that it reaches her friends in the back. I've even seen brides pretend to throw it the first time, look over her shoulder so she can see where her friends are, and then throw it.

I don't know what older females do with the bouquet after they get their photo with the bride. I never caught it as an eligible maiden. I know what pre-teens do though. They're so excited to win the toss, and get a picture with the bride (who's always a princess to a romantic pre-teen) that they hang the flowers up in their room. Even after they are long dead and dusty. I know, because that's what I did when I was a pre-teen who caught the bouquet.

My daughter missed today's bouquet toss. She was up at the front with all her friends, and the bouquet went to the bride's new sister-in-law in the back. An eligible maiden. And she didn't even have to jump to catch it.

It was rigged.