Wedding Traditions
There will be a lot going on during the reception — the cutting of the cake, the dancing, the throwing of the bouquet and flowers … keep your wits about you so that you don't miss your cues.
The CakeThe wedding cake was, in ancient times, broken over the bride's head as a symbol of fertility. You probably won't opt to follow this tradition to the letter, but most couples choose to cut the first piece together and feed each other a bite to symbolize their unity. You might want to refrain from the
The bride's dance with her father. The groom's dance with his mother. Your first dance as a couple. The wedding party dance. So many options, so little time. You can opt to do each of these dances separately, or combine them. Have your bride start a dance with her father, and cut in midway, for example. Some brides dig the splendor of all of the dance numbers, but if you think this is going to go on for way too long, or you don't particularly want to be out on that huge dance floor with your mom for five long minutes, put on your thinking cap and get creative.
Choose appropriate music for this occasion. If you like a song and you think you might want it for your first dance with your bride, take the time to actually listen to the lyrics. Is it a love song, or is it a song about breaking up? Is it a song about coming together after being apart, or does the actual theme deal with death? Don't count on your DJ or band leader to counsel you here; do your homework and weed out the less suitable songs before one of your guests points out that you just symbolized your union by dancing to a song about someone's dead pet.
The Garter and the BouquetOnce a staple at receptions, the whole tossing of the garter and the bouquet is falling by the wayside in many areas. If you opt to continue the tradition of reaching way up under your bride's dress in order to find the blue silk garter, do it as tastefully as possible, while having a sense of humor. Once you find it, you'll throw it into a crowd of the single men in attendance. The guy who snags it will be front and center in a moment …
The bride's throwing of the bouquet is supposed to predict marriage for the lucky girl who catches it. This same girl is then subjected to having the garter placed on her leg by the recipient of the garter. The higher he goes with it, the better your luck as newlyweds, or so the story goes.
Keep this under control. If your female guest is obviously embarrassed by the whole thing, have a heart and don't insist that the garter go higher and higher up her leg. You want everyone to have pleasant memories of this evening, after all.
Don't cross over into extremely raunchy territory, especially if most of your guests are from the older generation. They may not find it funny when you actually crawl under the dress and stay there.
No doubt, some of your buddies will decorate your car with streamers and shaving cream and hopefully nothing that's more distasteful. Centuries ago, guests threw old shoes at the newlyweds' carriage for luck; this translated into the tradition of tying old shoes onto the back of a car; from there, we arrive at today's tradition of trashing the getaway car. Hey, they're just wishing you luck and hiding in the bushes laughing at your consternation of having to clean the car off before you can actually drive it. Only true friends would do that for you.
