5 Wedding Traditions We're Ditching in 2018

Apr 11, 2018

Ah, wedding traditions. From white dresses to bridesmaid protocol, weddings are steeped in tradition. While some wedding traditions are alright, other wedding traditions can leave us questioning, "why is that a thing?". Even if you consider yourself a more traditional bride I'm betting there's at least one thing on this list we can all get behind ditching as a wedding tradition in 2018.

I would say that our wedding, while keeping some traditional aspects such as having my father walk me down the aisle, is a bit more of a celebration of our relationship than just having a traditional wedding. Here are 5 wedding traditions we're ditching in our 2018 wedding!

PS: Don't forget to submit a question for Friday's Q + A session! Seriously, ask me anything!

Tossing the bouquet and garter

I actually can't remember the last wedding I went to where the bouquet and garter toss were actually part of the reception activities. While I like the idea of a bouquet toss, I would never want to toss my actual bouquet and it seemed silly to pay extra money for a toss bouquet. Tossing the bouquet is definitely one wedding reception tradition that I won't miss at our May 2018 wedding. The second part of this tradition is the garter toss. I don't know about you, but I've always found the garter toss to be extremely tacky. Is this a new age version of the people literally carrying the bride and groom into their marital bed? No thank you. The idea of having my husband of literally two hours put his face under my dress and remove a garter from my leg with his teeth... in front of 65+ family and friends is cringe-worthy. Yikes.

Not seeing each other before the wedding

I don't know about you guys but I think the tradition of the groom not seeing the bride before she walks down the aisle is one of the most outdated (and creepy when you look into the reasons behind this) wedding traditions there is. While some couples seriously stand by this tradition, Justin and I aren't one of those couples. Having a first look has been a top wedding trend in recent years and it's one that we're planning on doing for our own wedding. Having a first look frees up so much of the timeline for the bride and groom and I'll be damned if I miss the mashed potato bar we're having at cocktail hour.

Having wedding colors

Not having wedding colors is a wedding tradition we didn't intentionally skip out on. I just seriously couldn't choose wedding colors. Normally, wedding colors are two or three colors and we've just chosen to go with a pastel, garden type feel to all of the colors and elements we use in our wedding. It's truly been a huge relief not to be boxed in by wedding colors because as my tastes have changed over the course of our rather long engagement.

Matching bridesmaids dress

Suprise! My bridesmaids won't be in matching bridesmaids dresses. The matching bridesmaid's dresses is a wedding trend that some people love and some people hate. Guess which one I am? While my bridesmaids will all be wearing the same designer in a similar color palette, they all got to chose their own dresses. I'm so excited to see how all of the dresses look together and how each one reflects the gal wearing it.

Having flower girls and ring bearers

Justin and I don't know very many children so the thought of having flower girls and ring bearers never really crossed our minds. But after listening to horror stories of what can go wrong when you entrust rings to young children or force a young girl to walk down an aisle in front of a ton of people she doesn't know, I'm actually happy we didn't spend much time thinking about having them. Just like... what is the point? Flower petals are going to blow away during our outdoor ceremony and we have more than enough adults in the bridal party to keep check of the rings. Since most couples are opting to have kid-free weddings free weddings these days, it seems like we're not the only people ditching this wedding tradition. While we are having a kid-friendly wedding, we still didn't want to deal with the hassle of having flower girls and ring bearers. Stay tuned to find out if my Great Aunts make an appearance.