For Nookie

This my story of the first time I tried to catch a bridal bouquet, at my Evil Sister's wedding. I find that I have no photos of that wedding. I must have purged my files, lol. But I do have this photo of me wearing the dress I wore to her wedding and taken that same weekend. (Note the classy, lady-like white gloves! Lol...) Anyway - evil sister married at age 18 so I must be 12 & 1/2 in this pic.

Really, I was too young to try and catch a bouquet, but I wanted to anyway. My sister told me that I absolutely could not try to catch her bouquet. No way; it was hers. My mom said, "You're the sister of the bride - of course you can try to catch the bouquet!" Guess which person I listened to?

Anyway, sister's wedding was in our front garden and sister threw the bouquet from the top of our porch steps. When she saw me standing at the front of the small group of girls and women waiting for the bouquet she briefly gave me the evil eye, then turned and got ready to throw the flowers.

I was near the front of the pack, so sister HEAVED that bouquet! It soared over our heads, over the grass, over about 10 rows of folding chairs and into a group of adults who were getting drinks at a bar set up under the old maple tree. My father's secretary caught it because it was about to bash her in the face if she didn't.

Everyone laughed. Mom asked sister why on earth she threw the bouquet so hard and sister said "Gee, it didn't feel that hard." But I knew (and mom probably did too) that sister wanted to be absolutely & totally sure that I couldn't catch it.

Funny thing? Three weeks later the secretary announced her engagement to one of dad's engineers! So I like to think that I was an agent of destiny, making sister heave the bouquet like that.