Do I have to have a garter? What is even the point in them?!

The tradition is that the groom removes it at the end of the reception (with his teeth!) then he throws it for the single men to catch. So it's a bit like the male version of a bouquet.

No you don't have to have one. It's your wedding and you can choose to have/not have whatever you like I'm not going to worry about having a garter.

Ahh wonderful, thank you. I will not be having a garter!

I've just started making these are they are still quite popular, but in my experience they have a tendency to end up round the grooms head while he throws some shapes on the dancefloor ?

It's an American thing to remove with the teeth- beyond tacky.

i had one because some lovely hitchers bought me one. I used it to keep my borrowed and blue in.

I bought a couple just to wear (not at same time) as thought quite cute, but no removal would have taken place in front of an audience.

but it made my leg look fat, so i didn't bother, and gave 1 brand new one to each of my friends.

It's just that's the biggest part of my leg (taking my thigh out of the equation) and having something frilly wrapped around it just made it look even bigger.

Not for me.

Some choose it as an easy 'something blue' option.

I had one as my something blue- then forgot to wear it on the day!

In the 80's I went to a wedding as a child & remember the teeth pulling the garter off thing- NOT something we had planned to do though!

It's a pretty old school traditional thing. Personally I am not keen... partly because I've seen some pretty awful wedding photos involving garters that border on some sort of cabaret poster... urgh

Oo the garter thing, can you imagine sitting on a chair in the reception in front of the 'rents with ya OH crawling under ya frock..grandma and Auntie random looking on I am sure they will love that..NOT!! ?

I don't mind them if they are for something traditional/blue gift but not to put on a show for anyone!

Tradition for the groom to remove it. each to their own, but I think they are tacky.

Traditionally, of course, you would have two to keep your stockings up! At some point it became more of a kinky/show thing. I had one as my something blue, and there are one or two shots of it, but no cheesy removal by OH with his teeth or anything.

I'm not having one.

What Helenia said about the practical point of them but these days people just have them for photo opportunities or a way to fulfil the "something old" rhyme.

For our abroad ceremony, I'd already asked to borrow my sister's as my something borrowed.

In the meantime, we went on my hen weekend and went to a knicker making workshop. Part of the day was to make a garter which all the hens sewed a little piece of. I wore that for the home ceremony, just because it was a nice memento of my hen!

My best friend (also CBM) is a lacemaker and is handmaking mine for me. The work in it is incredible, it will probably take about 40 hours of work (if not more) to complete! I feel very lucky and it will be one of the things that I will keep forever from my wedding. However at no point am I intending for anyone other than her and the groom see it on!!!

My mum has still got hers so I might wear that! It's old, borrowed and blue! My parents have been married 42 years so hopefully bring luck too!!