11 Exciting & Fun Alternatives to The Garter Toss

Everyone wants their wedding to be unique. While things like the garter toss are fairly traditional, they don’t have to be. After all, this is for the bride and groom, so there’s absolutely nothing wrong with making new family traditions or giving the garter toss a little twist of your own.

Today, as it’s all about the day that ‘two become 1’, we’re going to give you 11 alternatives to the garter toss, so that you can spice up your wedding with something sweet and a little more personalized to you. Let’s take a look at a few of the best alternatives and we can see what you think!

What are some good alternatives to the garter toss?

What you  use as an alternative to the garter toss should be a reflection of the lucky couple themselves. Whether it’s a values-based tweak, something exotic to delight the guests, or simply a reflection of the couple’s loves and hobbies, the alternative that you go with should be sweet and very personal.

Below you’ll find our favorites so that you can see what feels like the best fit.

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11. Why not toss the Boutonniere?

Corsages were flowers traditionally worn on the wrist, while a Boutonniere (which means “little buttonhole” in French) as a flower the man wore on his suit jacket. This is a tradition that dates back to the 16th century, and it’s interesting to note that the Boutonniere was intended to keep evil spirits and bad luck at bay.

Worn every day and especially for special occasions, corsages and boutonnieres were not only an old tradition, but they were part and parcel with good hygiene practices of the day. After all, not everyone had the luxury of everyday bathing, so they served a practical purpose to go with their ceremonial ones.

So, instead of throwing an intimate piece of the bride’s apparel like a garter, why not throw the Boutonniere? It’s still an old tradition that brings good fortune to the guests and if the idea appeals to you as a couple, then that’s all you need to know about it!

10. A Balloon drop with a twist

If you like the garter tradition but want to have a little more fun with it, while making it an all-inclusive thing that everyone will enjoy, why not set up a balloon drop?

 Imagine a hundred balloons, dropping from the ceiling in your queue. Some with candy or small, novelty gifts in tiny bags tied to them, and all of the balloons in your wedding colors. In one of those little bags is the garter, and you might even have a special prize for the one who finds it.

This way, everyone who gets a balloon will find something sweet or fun inside, and the ‘see who gets the garter’ tradition is kept – it’s just been given a fun and colorful twist.

9. You can also do balloons with a little helium

As another magical balloon alternative, you can select opaque balloons in your favorite colors, and hide the garter inside one of these. Inside the others, lightweight options might include personal notes from the bride and groom, as well as lightweight candy and other novelties that you can hide inside.

If getting them into the balloons is too time consuming, then you can use lightweight cloth bags, but you’ll need to experiment a little to find the perfect amount of helium so that they hover, rather than go straight for the ceiling.

When you DO – it’s nothing short of enchanting. Numerous, colorful balloons, all with cute little bags will hover 2 to 5 feet in the air, all with dangling strings so that guests can grab them and see who can find the garter first and what’s inside the bags as a ‘consolation prize’!

8. A taste of the Southwest – Chase away gloom and get candy

In New Mexico there is a yearly celebration where Zozobra, also called ‘old man gloom’, is burned in effigy or smacked in the form of pinatas. This is intended to chase away the gloom and troubles of the previous year so that everyone gets a fresh start —  free from their previous glooms and woes.

It’s a lovely thought and it’s one that you can incorporate into your wedding as well and make it your own.

If you look online, you can find Zozobra pinatas – that way, you can fill them up with tiny gifts and candies and your guests can symbolically ‘beat the gloom away’ from the lucky new couple to help ensure that the years ahead are sweet and free of trouble.

While it’s certainly off the beaten path, if you love the Southwest and want a garter alternative that’s definitely unique, this is one option that definitely fits the bill.

7. Save the garter for ‘something borrowed”

Rather than throw out the garter, you could always just decide to keep it, so that you loan it to a close friend, a daughter, or future daughter in law to keep up the tradition of ‘something borrowed’ from the old English rhyme.

This is a sweet and heartfelt gesture on your part, so it will carry a lot of meaning, so some of you may prefer this to the alternative of tossing it out into the wedding crowd and ‘hoping’ that it goes to someone who will appreciate the gesture.

6. Share the bouquet toss

Instead of tossing out what basically amounts to bridal lingerie, sharing a bouquet toss is a fine alternative that might hold some appeal for the more conservative brides and grooms out there.

While the bouquet is traditionally thrown by the bride to the single ladies in attendance, a tandem-toss of the bouquet means that all of the guests get a go at trying to catch it and to capture the luck and well-wishes of the couple that comes with it!

5. Toss a stuffed animal with a gift card for the kids

Who says that the wedding has to be all about the adults, anyways? As an alternative to tossing the garter or even as an accompaniment – it’s your decision, after all – you can take a stuffed animal and tie a bag of candy or even add a gift card inside to delight the kids in attendance.

There are lots of ways to personalize this, as well. The stuffed animal that you choose can be one with great sentimental value, or the bride and the groom might each pick a stuffed animal in advance that is their own favorite animal, so that there will be 2 lucky kids going home with wedding blessings and sweet treats.

It’s thoughtful, easy to do, and delighted kids really help to add the ‘cherry on top’ to the overall bliss of the couple’s special day!

4. Ring pillow Poems

Instead of throwing the garter out, you could tweak the tradition a bit by throwing out a ring pillow – and there are a few fun ways of doing this. First off, if you want to keep the actual pillow that was used for a keepsake, simply buy 2 ring pillows that look the same, and the problem is solved.

As far as what to put on the pillow, you could pick romantic poems by favorites such as Neruda, and tie the book securely to the pillow and toss it lightly, or you could attach ribbons with candy rings for the kids, or even bind a simple envelope with a surprise note and gift card or something comparable inside.

It’s different and delightful – there’s no souvenir quite like an elegant little ring pillow – and it gives you something unique to do in lieu of that garter toss.

3. The Sports Toss

Some couples LOVE sports and there’s no reason why you can’t bring that element into the garter toss. By tying the garter to a pillow and telling the bachelors to ‘go long’, you can give it a toss and add a whole new level of competition and fun to this ages-old tradition.

It’s not the perfect alternative for everyone, of course, but if you love sports and especially FOOTBALL, then this garter option might be right up your alley!

2. ‘You’re next’- a plush heart toss with a sweet surprise

The idea behind the garter throw was originally meant as a way to show that the couple had consummated the marriage, although these days the message is more of a ‘you’re next!’ type statement as it was believed that whoever caught the garter was going to be soon married themselves!

In keeping with the latter interpretation of the tradition, the bride and groom can get a plush heart, along with an envelope to ribbon-tie to the stuffed surprise, and inside it will be something to encourage the ‘catcher’ towards a marriage of their own.

This could be all kinds of things, so you can really get creative. For instance, there are travel agencies that actually have ‘random’ trips for couples, so that you don’t know where you are going.

 In that vein, you could include tickets for a random trip, or simply include gift cards for things like a couples spa or massage, movie tickets, a dinner for two – all designed to provide the basics for a romantic evening for one lucky guest couple

There’s no guarantee that Cupid’s arrow will strike home, of course, but who knows? Your own wedding might well be the inspiration for another one, and what a fine story that would be to one day share with the kids!

1. An Anniversary dance is a romantic alternative

 

The overall magic in the air is the most important part of any wedding. It’s a day that you’re supposed to remember for the rest of your life, when times are good and especially when things get tough. One romantic and frankly magical way to bring some good energies into your own wedding is an anniversary dance.

The bride and groom can announce that instead of throwing the garter, that they would like for all of the married couples in attendance to gather in the dance-floor area for a special anniversary dance. While the music plays, the DJ can call out numbers in the form of years.

One year, Two years… and so on, as the songs play, and when a married couple hears a year that is longer than their marriage, then they will leave the dance floor until the longest-married couple remains.

At this point, the lucky last-couple will be given the bouquet and best wishes for the bride and groom. It’s sweet and romantic and with a little luck, some of the longevity of the longest-married couple might well come to lucky newlyweds on this most magical of days!

Some final words on garter toss alternatives

Today we’ve taken a look at alternatives to the garter toss and we’ve tried to include a little something for everyone. We hope that you’ve enjoyed this mix of old and new traditions and found one or more that definitely caught your eye.

Remember, the garter toss is something optional, so whatever you decide to do on your magical day is going to be the right thing. So, give the old tradition a twist, a tweak, or throw it out the window altogether. It’s all about the newlyweds and making your wedding day unforgettable, after all!