To throw a bouquet or not, that is the question… Popular Fox Valley Wedding DJs Ameritune, have played for over 10 thousand weddings in our first 26 years of service. We have noticed lately, that some brides and grooms are skipping the traditional bouquet and garter toss, with the thought of squeezing more dancing into busy reception with limited time.
Anticipation
In the olden days, this tradition was a way to hook up the singles attending the wedding feast (or at least identify them). Tradition says whoever catches the bouqet and garter are to be the next ones to get married. Of course, we know that’s silly. Really, whoever catches the bouquet and garter are the next to be photographed!
The happy catcher
These traditions actually have a lot of hidden value to your reception. As a DJ, I consider pacing the party to be my main job. I think of the dancing portion of the reception (around here it’s usually about 3 hours long) as separated into two halves. The initial more conservative, on your good behavior halve- and the louder, wilder (yes go ahead and say it drunker) second half of the evening. The bouqet and garter ceremonies make a nice separator between the 2 halves. They don’t have to happen exactly in the middle, but somewhere in that area works well, for a few reasons.
1) Your non-dancing guests are ready for something else to watch.
2) Your early risers, are about ready to go home and get to bed, but would like one more fun to see before they say their goodbyes.
3) Some parties have more than 3 hours of time alloted for people to dance. Unless you have a real young group, or a bunch of athletes at your party, that could be too long. Too much time for dancing can mean an empty dancefloor at the end of your reception-not a good way to end. By taking 5 or 10 minutes for bouquet/garter ceremonies in the middle of your night, your dancers get a nice rest, and can go longer and later on the dancefloor.
4) Memorable events can happen during these ceremonies. Look at the faces in the second picture. Think these women are having fun?
Ameritune is available for your Chicagoland wedding. Call us at (630) 372-TUNE (8863). You won’t be dissappointed.