A New Spin on an Old Toss?

I saw the cutest thing the other night while reading my daily wedding blog, weddingbee. For current brides, if you don’t already subscribe to this, you need to! Visit their site at http://www.weddingbee.com/ – it’s one of the BEST resources for creative ideas that I’ve found.
So what do you think? Isn’t that just the cutest packaging idea ever for birdseed/rice? The bride that posted about this will actually have lavender tossed at her since rice and birdseed tend to be a little bit hard on the landing…but the whole thing got me thinking about our toss and the logistics of it all.

Traditionally, the toss is done as the bride and groom make their “escape.” While this is fine, if you’re just having a cake and punch reception, doing the toss at the end of the night after a dinner reception has its hiccups. Mainly that these days, all guests don’t wait for the bride and groom to leave before making their own exit. I know, Miss Manners says that a wedding guest should NEVER leave before the bride and groom, but I don’t happen to agree. Especially for couples that brought their children along and older couples, making an early exit can be the smartest thing as the evening wears on longer and later.

But this causes a problem for the toss…it could be that SO many of your guests leave before you choose to make your own exit that the classic photo that you’re hoping to catch with the bubbles blowing in the wind won’t happen simply because there are not enough guests left at the end of the night to pull it off.

In order to try to avoid this, I’ve been thinking about doing out toss between the ceremony and the reception. At our venue (Texas Old Town) the ceremony site is in a wooded glen across the road from our reception hall. I think that it would be a simple enough matter to have a small table or even just a barstool set out at the edge of the road with a sign instructing guests to grab a bag of whatever and form the line along the walkway to the reception hall. The photographer could then stand at the doorway to the reception hall and snap the much-sought-after picture of the toss and everyone is happy. I’m happy because I got my picture. The guests are happy because they don’t have to feel guilty about leaving early should they choose to do so since the toss has already happened.

What do you think? Do you think that my venue setup allows for this to happen in this way? Do you think that this is a good compromise? Is it ok to “buck” tradition and do the toss before we’re actually planning to leave?