the toss

So there is a lot to catch blogland up with, but I don’t have the time or thought process to do it right now.  But I did feel like telling you about a brief little part of events that happened this weekend and hopefully I’ll follow up with more actual detail on everything that’s been going on.

Anyway, Saturday was my very good friend and old college roommate Naomi’s wedding.  I was a bridesmaid (and got to wear a very fun, cute dress!) and was really happy to be a part of the whole event.  But what I want to bring up is a very specific part of what typically happens at a wedding reception.  You know, they do the cake cutting and the first dance and the father/daughter dance and blah blah blah.  And then…they throw the bouquet.  Now is the time to tell you that I have had somewhat of a history with this wonderful wedding reception tradition.  :S  At my brother’s wedding, I caught the bouquet and my cousin (who had brought a guy on their first date to the wedding) actually jumped on my back trying to get it from me.  I just remember being shocked and leaning over with her still on top of me while I tried to elbow her off.  And come to think of it the guys were even worse – wrestling all around like crazy.  But in the end the groomsman (my brother’s freshman roommate in college) that I walked down the aisle with (of course I was a bridesmaid in that wedding too!) caught the garter.  Little did I know that my new sister-in-law subscribed to the tradition that the catcher of the garter had to then put the garter on the leg of the bouquet catcher.  Good times, good times.  My brother was quite the chaperone for that memorable moment.

Ok, so time goes on…I obviously don’t get married (not as the traditional wedding lore says is supposed to happen to a bouquet catcher).  Then my cousin’s wedding comes along (ya, so it looks like she didn’t need to attack me for that last bouquet – she actually married that first date guy from my brother’s wedding!), I am the maid of honor and it is time again for the toss.  This time I stood more near the back, I wasn’t too excited about the prospect of having a random guy put a garter on my leg again.  But still the bouquet makes a line drive right to me and I have no choice but to put of my hands to catch it or else its just going to hit me in the head (I love the SATC episode where that basically happens to Miranda – “Ok, now you’re done”).  Luckily my cousin did not prescribe to the same bouquet traditions – in fact I can’t even remember if there was a garter toss.

After these two memorable experiences you would think that perhaps I would be smart enough to just avoid the whole situation and not stand up when they call all of the single girls out to the dance floor.  But here is the problem.  People know that I am single and I’ve found that the bride at weddings seems to know who all of the single girls at their wedding are.  Like somehow they’ve memorized their guest list and I’m in the section with a specific heading like Girls Who Couldn’t Come Up With A Date or at the very least Bouquet Catchers. So they hunt you down and the DJ calls out your name over the mic and EVERYONE at the wedding has to swing their heads around to see who the crazy single girl is who won’t get up for the damn bouquet toss.  “Why won’t she get out there, she’s ruining the whole wedding!”  And if there is one thing you should know about me it is that I am a people pleaser.  I am not going to ruin the whole thing – I am going to give the bride what she wants and what she wants is to have a big group of girls who she can throw her bouquet to.  Plus I’m saving myself the embarrassment of being searched out and dragged up there.  So I think that I’ve caught a few more bouquets, although I don’t know for certain because none of them have been as memorable as the two I have already mentioned.

But on to the wedding at hand.  I do my typical thing of going up when we are called – and actually Naomi was cool enough to make all the single people go up for the bouquet toss, both men and women.  But I really don’t think one guy came up…I’m not positive but I’m pretty sure they all just stayed in their comfortable padded seats, leaned back and waited to see the spectacle unfold.  So again I stand to the back and actually our whole group was pretty far away from Naomi.  Far enough away that I thought for sure it would land on the ground in front of the group and some young, naive girl would dive for it.  But apparently Naomi has a strong arm.  It flew to the back of the group and I instinctively stuck my hand to the side because I knew it would fall on the ground otherwise.  And remember, I am a People Pleaser – bouquets cannot hit the ground at a wedding – it would “ruin everything!”.  Luckily, one of her younger cousins grabbed for it too, so I was able to just push it at her and she “got” it.  I thought I was safe.  But suddenly this cousin’s older sister thrusts it back into my hands and declares “She’s still in high school, she cannot have this!”  So I have caught the bouquet yet again.  And come to find out from my mom who was a guest at the wedding – Naomi looked over her shoulder for me and my current roommate who was also a bridesmaid right before she threw it.  Mom is convinced that she wanted one of us to have it.  Thanks Na, thanks.

Obviously it hasn’t really helped me in the past in terms of being the next girl to get married and I pretty much doubt its going to help here in the near future.  Maybe for me it is some sort of reverse work at hand – the more bouquets I catch the longer I will be single.  Or not.  Whatever.  I just find it interesting that I’ve got such a good reflex for catching flowers.  This is not the case with any type of balls in sports.  No, I let those just fly past me or hit me in the head (yes, this has happened!) or I cringe, squat down and let someone else jump and get it for me.  But I guess there’s something about flowers that call out to me.  I’m starting to rethink the getting up at receptions – if I time it right maybe I can figure out to be in the restroom at that moment – but, oh how embarrassing if they called you out and everyone waited for you to come from the bathroom!