If you don’t know, the garter was originally designed to hold up women’s stockings. Thank goodness they aren’t necessary anymore! However, the garter has held its place of importance on the bride’s left thigh on her wedding day. A bride’s garter is meant to be good luck to the single man who catches it at the reception.
This tradition is a lot more civil than the original idea. Long ago, wedding guests would rush the bride after the ceremony and literally rip off a piece of the wedding dress because these shreds would bring luck to the bearer. Did you know that another old tradition was that the single man could not just catch the garter but had to use his nose to catch the enviable garter? Now, he just has to catch it.If you want to abide by true garter-throwing etiquette, here is the order of events for this tradition. First, the bride throws her bouquet to all of the single women in attendance. Then the groom removes the bride’s garter and throws it to all of the single men at the reception. AND then the lucky single guy puts the garter on the single lady who caught the bouquet. The whole event is to share the luck of the day with the next to wed. These two lucky people are said to be the next to get married (maybe even to each other!).
One other tradition that I like is that the bride should wear two garters on her wedding day. One is to throw and the other to keep. The one kept is to be removed in “private”.
With all that said, I have added some precious examples of garters that you might like to wear under your dress. Don’t forget that you can always customize one just for your day as well.