I went to a wedding of a colleague, it was beautiful and touching, the happy couple beaming ecstatically all day, and probably the first one I've ever been to where you wake up without a hangover (no booze,) hurrah! I'd never considered this not-drinking thing before.
Except for the 'ritual humiliation of the single woman' at the reception. 'Can all single women come to the front? Calling ALL SINGLE WOMEN...' as everyone rushed to catch the bouquet, suddenly all these people I'd only just met were poking me in the back quite hard saying 'Go on Annie! Stand up, Annie!' (until I was forced to snarl 'Look I don't wanna get married, alright?!') The other SINGLE WOMEN looked none too pleased about it either. I'd happily dispense with this part of the ritual.
(Though there was an additional bit which is apparently a South African tradition, where all the single men were forced to stand up - ha! - and catch the bride's garter.)
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As South African traditions go (apartheid, necklacing, the novels of JM Coetzee) that one sounds pretty benign.
I caught the bouquet at a wedding not that long ago. I think some people thought it was a slap in the face of tradition. I'm sorry to say I let out a caveman roar of delight.
Bib - I love that.
Annie – the horror. There's also the traditional German single-humiliation. The bridal party parades from bride's home to church in a crocodile of couples, with all the single people leading the way in pairs, so that the spectators can check out what's still available.
Even that's preferable to the bouquet tossing (at least you have company). Unless the bouquet tossing became equal opportunity.
I have a wedding next weekend. I hope they don't do this. Someone already told me this month that it was "my turn" to have a baby, and that was irritating enough.
they do the garter toss thing in America, too. I've always loathed that tradition. They sit the bride on a chair in the middle of the dance floor and all the guys crowd around while her husband hikes her dress up to her thighs and slides it off her leg so all the salivating bachelors get a show. It's disgusting.
I've heard of the garter thing. Thankfully, I've never been to a wedding where that has happened.
I like the sound of that garter throwing event. It sounds a lot more dignified than my usual methods of stealing the bride's undergarments.
As for bouquet catching, you could just try looking involved whilst using it as a good excuse to elbow someone in the face.
I thought it was any women who weren't married, rather than just single ones? The whole point being that the catcher can then put pressure on the boyfriend to do "the decent thing". Just picking on people there by themselves is adding insult to injury.
Like so much in life, I'm still completely split in my opinion on weddings. Each to their own, obviously, but I'm still in two minds myself.
Tim, one of the bars at my university was for a short time known as the Winnie Mandela Bar, until she started behaving in a slightly less than PC manner...
BiB, oh I would have loved that immensely.
B - good lord! Surely every country has its own unique way to celebrate matrimony and torture the hapless singles.
CB - this was nowhere near as bad, as it was a full-on Christian affair.
Billy - it was new to me.
Stevious - now why didn't I think of that? How else do you steal the bride's undergarments...? Do tell.
Del, as it was such a religious bunch they probably wouldn't have distinguished between single and unmarried. I like going to weddings as a guest, but the thought of getting married gives me cold chills.
I caught the bouquet (well actually it was thrown at me really hard as I was the only single one there at the time) at my friends wedding - 9 years ago - and I am still not married (thank god).
Thankfully all the relatives likely to marry have either done so or aren't speaking to me. And all the friends likely to get married know I'm the last person to want to catch the bouquet.
Now if they'd throw a big bar of chocolate into the crowd I might suddenly become athletic ....
In Yorkshire, they throw small change for the local children (at they did when I was there as a small child).
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