To Toss or Not to Toss?

To toss or not to toss, that was the question. I had mixed feelings about the bouquet toss and whether or not to do it during our wedding reception. As a wedding guest, I thought of myself as "anti-toss."  That is, until last year when I caught the bouquet at my friend's wedding and sure enough, I was the next to get engaged! Of course I do not think it's because I caught the bouquet but I still think it's a cute story and decided that it will be fun to continue the tradition and maybe pass along a little luck ;)

I still have a couple of concerns about the toss though. 1) I really don't want to make the single ladies feel singled out (sorry, couldn't think of a better word). I will definitely not be asking the DJ to play Single Ladies for the bouquet song. 2) I have visions of an empty dance floor when it's time for the toss or the DJ having to coerce girls out on to the floor. Or even worse...what if I throw the bouquet and no one catches it? My soon to be sister-in-law told me about a wedding she attended where the girls just let the bouquet land on the ground because no one wanted to catch it. How anti-climactic!

I've come across various ideas for bouquet toss alternatives or ways of enticing people to participate. One idea that I kind of liked and toyed with was attaching a gift card (ie: Starbucks or MAC) to the bouquet so that the "prize" of catching the bouquet is not the pressure of supposedly being the next to marry but rather a fun little treat. I also liked the "Longest Married" idea of gifting the couple that's married the longest with the bouquet (in our case it would be my grandparents). At the moment, I haven't decided on if I'll try to spice up the toss a bit but if I do, I will surely let you know!

What do you ladies think of the bouquet toss? Yay or nay? I'd especially like to hear if you've been to a wedding where the bride either a) skipped the toss (and if it was missed) or b) the bride did an "alternative toss."

PS: You might have noticed that I did not include anything about the garter toss. Hubby-to-be and I easily agreed right away that neither of us want to include that tradition in our own wedding.

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