Hardly any romantic film that ends with a wedding is complete without the beautiful moment when the happy bride gracefully throws her bouquet, while her unmarried friends frantically try to catch it.
And they should, because they believe it will determine who will be married next! Something similar happens at real weddings today.
But in the Middle Ages, this beautiful tradition wasn't so pretty.
Back then, unmarried bridesmaids weren't even interested in a beautiful bouquet. A scrap of the bride's wedding dress was used as a guarantee for a quicker settlement of her private life. Can you imagine what happened to the bride's dress if many unmarried girls were invited to the wedding? After the wedding, the bride was most likely left in rags.
Then the tradition arose of keeping the wedding dress and even passing it on from mother to daughter. Therefore, brides took great care to ensure that the wedding dress remained intact after the wedding ceremony. For this reason, only certain parts of the wedding dress were passed on to the bridesmaids. For example, the garter, which guests tried to obtain by force by taking it from the bride during the ceremony. Or the garter, which was so precious that the bride refused to part with it.
This is probably how the tradition of throwing the bridal bouquet originated. It's quite possible that the event unfolded as follows: The guests approached the bride with serious expressions, and she, realizing the difficulty of the situation, attempted to escape and, to distract her pursuers, threw the bouquet into the crowd. It is unknown whether this was actually the case, but unmarried young ladies considered it a very good sign to catch the thrown bridal bouquet.
Before the custom of throwing the bouquet, the bride, on the contrary, tried to keep her bridal bouquet after the wedding day. She would dry the flowers and sew the petals into her husband's pillow. Back then, it was believed that if the bride slept on such a pillow, she would always be faithful to her husband.
If the bride so wishes, she doesn't throw away her bouquet today, but keeps it as a keepsake. To maintain the tradition, however, she can also throw a "spare bouquet," which is sometimes discreetly replaced with a spare bouquet shortly before the toss.
When the bridal bouquet is tossed, the bride has the attention of all guests and the wedding photographer's camera. Everyone wants to see and capture this beautiful moment of the wedding. To ensure everything goes smoothly and the bouquet flies beautifully where it's needed, the "toss" can be rehearsed in advance. A photo of the bride gracefully tossing her bouquet behind her back can become a decoration for any wedding album.
When deciding what to do with the bouquet, it's important to remember that it's your decision whether you sew the petals into your husband's pillow, toss it to your friends, or simply dry it as a keepsake—it's up to you!
Be happy.
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