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Must I toss anything?

 wedding bouquet

Dear Polite One,

We are now planning our reception, what it will include and the flow of the event.  Neither of us are interested in the bouquet toss and garter belt tradition. Do we have other choices or are these traditions mandatory?

Quizzical

Dear Quizzical,

Interesting question.

My book, Wedding & Reception Planning: The Etiquette Guide for Planning the Perfect Wedding includes information about where these customs originate. You will find alternatives to the wedding garter toss and the bouquet toss. Basically, you can skip them or create something of meaning to you. 

Once you know more about where these traditions began and why, it is much easier to decide what you would like to replace them with or skip them entirely. We can create our own new traditions for reasons only we know and believe in. You are only limited by your own imagination.

Sincerely,

The Polite One

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