Generally, it is rare that you would find a woman who would wear a pair of garters on a daily basis. Unless of course, it was an occasion where she would really need to, like her wedding day for instance.
Garters are usually a simple, narrow strip of fabric that is worn underneath the skirt or dress, and just above the knees. Traditionally, the primary function of the garters was that they were used to help keep the stockings firmly in place and prevent them from slipping down the leg.
Now the garters worn by the bride on her wedding day are known as bridal garters, and even though they are worn underneath the dress and are probably the only items of clothing that no one except the bride is going to be aware of, they are still made up and designed to look as sexy as the bride wants. Why does a bride wear bridal garters in the first place anyway? Because there is an interesting tradition which lies behind those simple strips of sexy fabric.
The tradition of the wedding garters dates back to as early as 14th century Europe. In the old days, any piece of fabric that was worn by the bride on her wedding day was believed to bring good luck to whomever possessed the fabric, and so the old practice was to have the attending guests rip pieces of the bride’s dress. Well, as you can imagine the bride was not too happy about that bit! She would have taken great pains to ensure her dress was absolutely perfect only to have it ripped by the guests? Absolutely not! And can you imagine if that tradition were still practiced today? Imagine spending a small fortune on the most wonderful dress you could get your hands on, only to later have it torn and ripped by the guests? Over my dead body, would most likely be the response of some –if not all- of these brides.
And this is how the tradition came about that, instead of having the guests have a go at her precious wedding dress, the garters were the items of clothing tossed out instead. A much better solution, and a win-win situation too. This way, the bride gets to keep her prized dressed intact, and the guests could still get lucky and get to own a piece of the bride’s clothing. Everyone wins!
And so it is, that the wedding item would be removed from the bride’s leg and tossed out by the groom to the attending male guests. The man who caught the garters was believed to be the next one to walk down the aisle. This works much the same way as the bride’s bouquet tossing tradition. The bride would toss out her bouquet of flowers to the attending female guests and the one who caught the bouquet was believed to be the next one down the aisle. Looks like the men are not to be left out too. The ladies have their bouquet, and the men have their garters. In some instances, it was even believed that the woman who caught the bouquet and the man who caught the garters would even end up together!
So brides who are planning on carrying out this custom at their wedding would normally opt to have their bridal garters made out of material which would look either sexy or feminine. The materials could range from lace, satin silk, chiffon, even embroidered material if the bride wants it to be. She could even custom make her own, making it as simple or as elaborate as she wants it to be. If the bride were really creative, or just into fancily designed material, she could even go for garters which have embellishments on them such as tiny roses, pearls, crystals or rhinestones. How’s that for a garter worth catching?
Although the standard color for these garters is white, the bride could again choose to go for, if she wanted, different colored garters. Some brides today especially are fond of being different from the norm. Perhaps she could even choose to kill two birds with one stone and wear blue garters on that day, keeping to the “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue” cliché.
Whatever type, design or color the bride would choose to go for in the end, you can be sure it will be something that makes her feel feminine and sexy, because it is her big day and she wants to feel as beautiful as she possibly can. Even though she may not necessarily be practicing the garter-toss thing at the wedding.
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