People often see a selection of quirky traditions at a wedding. The most common and arguably most traditional, however, is the bride's iconic bouquet toss.
The tradition has existed for hundreds of years. The rule is simple - a bride tosses their bouquet over their shoulders into a group of women. Whoever catches the bouquet is allegedly the next person to walk down the aisle.
Taking to popular forum Reddit, a man has admitted to causing a stir at his sister in-law's wedding after he stopped his girlfriend from catching the bouquet. Captioning the post, he questioned: "Am I the a**hole for interfering in the bouquet toss at my girlfriend's sister's wedding?"
The man explained: "My girlfriend (we'll call her 'Maggie') and I went to her sister's wedding on Sunday (1/22). It was a great event, and things were going well for most of the evening.
"This was the first time I met Maggie's mother, but I had already met the rest of her family.
"When it came time for the bouquet toss, Maggie was one of the ladies in the group to try & catch it. I thought I had an opportunity to be funny and lift the mood, so I stood behind Maggie and slapped the flowers to the ground before she could catch them.
"Idk if she actually would have been the one to catch them, but I did it anyways. I was doing it as a joke, which I thought would be obvious to everyone (I was like 0.0001% serious, I'm actually not interested in marriage. I'm in my 20s).
"I really had no bad intentions & wasn't trying to upset anyone, I thought I would get a chuckle from the crowd," he added.
The Reddit user went on: "After I slapped the bouquet to the floor there was an audible gasp from everyone around, followed by an awkward silence. I was a little embarrassed but I laughed anyways to try to nonverbally show everyone that it was a joke. Nobody laughed.
"After a bit, the moment had passed, and everyone was starting a big dinner. Nobody talked to me and I was getting a couple sideways glances. Maggie's mother eventually pulled me aside and (very respectfully) asked me to leave. To which I obliged. I didn't want to cause a scene.
"A few weeks later my girlfriend & her sister are over it, but the mom still seems weird about it. I haven't spoken to her since then."
Seeking advice, he questioned: "Was this an a**hole move? Or was it just a light-hearted joke that was misinterpreted?"
Taking to the comment section, one person claimed: "You're the a**hole. It's a tradition that not many people take to heart. It's not an automatic you must be married thing."
Meanwhile someone else wrote: "You made a unnecessary scene and damaged your relationship with your girlfriend AND her family."
"OP definitely hurt his relationship with the 'joke'. But what's going to end it is not apologising, and acting like getting kicked out of a wedding isn't a big deal," they added.
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