7 Wedding traditions we said no to.

Wedding season is well and truly upon us. We had our first of the year a couple of weeks ago & we're off to another at the weekend. We took the kids to the first and it was my three year olds first proper wedding experience. As you can imagine there were a lot of questions. The majority I could answer, or at least come up with something half reasonable. It was only when my daughter asked 'why are we throwing plants at them' (confetti) that I stopped and thought, actually I don't know. I don't know why throwing confetti at the bride and groom is traditional at weddings. We didn't have it at ours. This got me thinking of all the wedding traditions we shied away from... There were quite a few.

Wedding traditions we said no to.

First dance.

A huge wedding tradition we said no to, and one which upset a few of our older guests was the first dance. We ditched doing a first dance because it's just not really us. I love dancing with my husband and once we're on the dance floor we stay on it, but we're not a romantic, slow dancing kind of couple. We had a local rock band play on the evening of our wedding, so instead of waltzing (thats a thing right) we were jumping around like it was 2008 again.

I also feel like picking your first dance song is kind of like choosing a name for your child. It's such a huge responsibility which stays with you for the rest of your life. If you have 'your song' then yes, I'm sure it's an easy pick. But I know for me and my husband it'd be really difficult.

Although it wasn't for us whenever we do go a wedding, I'm always so excited for the first dance. I'm on tenterhooks all day to hear what the couples first dance song will be. I can't wait to see what our friends will be at the weekend.

Carrying over the threshold.

I'm not going to lie, I wasn't carried over the threshold because I was running in to be sick. I was 10 weeks pregnant when we got married and although we kept it a secret on the day, there were definitely some tell tale signs. Vomiting being one of them! Ooops.

Maybe if I wasn't so ill I'd have been carried over the threshold? Who knows?

Throwing confetti.

So let's go back to the throne confetti thing. We didn't have any confetti at our wedding but I think that was more down to being so tight with money. Weddings can be really blooming expensive and confetti was just an extra thing that we didn't really want to pay for.

Yes, throwing confetti over the bride and groom is lovely, but I don't think we missed out on anything.

Also FYI throwing confetti dates back to Roman times where people would celebrate by giving out five almonds to the happy couple. These represented happiness, health, fertility, wealth and longevity. Let me know in the comments if you've learnt that today - Because I did!

Bouquet toss.

Traditionally the bride throws her wedding bouquet into a group of girls and the catcher is deemed the person to get married next. This is a bit of a boring one but we didn't do this quite simply because it slipped my mind.

I'm not really thought or against this one I'm a bit of a fence sitter. I think it's cute thing to do do but my wedding bouquet was so stunning I couldn't have imagined throwing it.

Old, new, borrowed and blue.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. It's a tale as old as time, but its a wedding tradition we didn't go for. And this one was down to pure laziness. I felt the four items would need sentimental value and quite frankly I couldn't think of things which quite fit the bill.

If you did this wedding tradition, I'd love to know what your four items were.

Receiving line.

We've been to weddings before where they had a receiving line although for us it never really happened. If you didn't know the receiving line is where guests enter the venue being greeted and thanked by the bride and groom. It kind of sounds a bit bad saying we didn't do this now. But I'd like to think we mingled enough during the day that each of our guests was welcomed and thanked personally by us.

I do think receiving lines are good ideas, just to ensure everyone gets spoken to (wedding days can be such a rush), but like I say for us, it just never really happened.

Veil.

I didn't actually realise it traditionally frowned upon for pregnant brides to wear a veil until writing this post. So I think technically I've done the traditional thing here, but I'm still including it in this list.

Whenever I imagined myself as a bride, it was never with a veil. I'm quite a simple dresser and for me I wanted to feel comfortable and still like myself on my wedding day.

I remember being questioned about my lack of veil on the day. Again mostly by the older generation. But some reason it seemed were less shocking than the first dance debarcle.

It turns out that our lack in wedding traditions was mainly due to laziness or costs. Looking back now there are a few things I'd change about our wedding day, but none of these missed traditions are on the list. I'm happy that we did things our way.

What are your favourite wedding traditions? How do you feel about ditching traditions and doing something a little different on your big day?