The traditional bouquet toss at a wedding is mostly a symbolic gesture, but to 37-year-old Utah resident Jamie Jackson, it’s a sport. She has caught 46 bouquets since 1996, earning herself the nickname ‘The Bouquet Slayer’. Ironically, she’s still single, but that doesn’t seem to bother her.
It all started out when Jamie attended her cousin’s wedding in Layton, Utah, in 1996. “I’m kind of competitive by nature, so when his new bride tossed her bouquet, I went for it,” she said. “Some single girls might shy away from it, but not me. After that wedding, I just knew that I could do it again.”
“I’ve pretty much crushed that ‘next-to-be-married’ myth,” Jamie told People magazine. “I’ve had boyfriends, sure. But I’m liking the single life. Besides, if I were married, I’d have to give up my favorite sport.”
Photo: Jamie Jackson
In fact, she’s so proud of her achievement that she keeps all her dead flower ‘awards’ in a display case for everyone to see. “I can’t help it – it’s now an obsession. At every wedding I get invited to, I just have to have the bouquet. I plot out my strategy as soon as I get there.”
“Jamie is definitely a force to be reckoned with in the bouquet toss,” said her close friend Nichole Keddington. “Some girls might be a little bitter that they’d caught so many bouquets and had never thrown their own, but not Jamie.”
Photo: Jamie Jackson
“Jamie is spunky and aggressive, but always kind,” added Bethany Hall, a former high school friend. “It was so much fun to see her short and petite body leap into the air and catch my purple rose bouquet. Over the years, she’s really turned her hobby into an art form.”
Her secret is quite simple: “Position, position, position,” she explained. “You have to be in front if you want the best chance of catching the bouquet. Because usually when the bride tosses it, she throws it straight up and it will hit a ceiling or a chandelier then go straight down.”
Photo: YouTube caption
Jamie’s quite sure that her bouquet-catching skills are unparalleled. She’s only had to fight for it twice – both times with her twin sister Melissa, also single. “It was a battle she won both times,” Jamie admitted. “But at the end of the day, she has two bouquets. And I have 46.”
The current Guinness record holder, Stephanie Monyak from Pennsylvania, has caught only 15. “I got it touch with her and she says she’s now going to more funerals than weddings,” Jamie said. “So I figure I have this thing in the bag.”
Lots of people have compared her story to the movie 27 Dresses, but Jamie isn’t thinking about a movie just now. “I still have some more to catch,” she said. “I’m hoping to make it an even 50.”
