Six Wedding Trends for 2009

Oh yes … we are six months in 2009 and some brides are already planning weddings for well into 2010 or even 2011. But if you are one of the Jeanie-come-lately brides-to-be, then don’t fret. There is still time for you to jump into the trends and have a wedding that looks like you’ve been planning it for months and months.

Here are six of the biggest wedding trends for 2009.1. Outdoor Weddings
For 2009, chic brides are headin’ outdoors and putting a stylish spin on an old-fashioned backyard wedding. If you’re wondering if a backyard wedding is right for you, then you are in luck … we’ve already discussed it.

To keep with current trends, be sure to include vintage centerpieces and vases, fresh garden-style flowers and plenty of outside lighting. Wood signs are big this year and brides are showing up in casual dresses and wearing their hair in long flowing layers.


2. Two-Tiered Cakes
According to TheKnot dot Com, cupcakes and dessert bars are soooo 2008. Trendy brides in 2009 are bringing back the cake, but leaving out the layers. Experts say two layers are tops and even suggest using one-layered cakes as table centerpieces. (This is an idea I *love*, as I almost went with this idea for my 2007 wedding.)


3. Rewearable Bridesmaid Dresses
The cookie-cutter bridesmaid look has-thankfully!-been fading over the last few years, but 2009 brides know that the key to your bridesmaid’s hearts-and wallets-is to choose something they actually can wear again. I was in a wedding last weekend where the blushing bride asked us to choose a knee-length black dress that we liked. We could use something from our own collection-if we had it, or buy a new dress that we’d want to wear again. To keep things fun, she wore bright red heels and asked each of us to choose another bright colored sandal of our choice.


4. Vintage
I said it before with the backyard wedding trend, but vintage is everywhere in 2009. Look for brides to choose something from their mothers’ or grandmothers’ jewelry box to add to her bouquet, to choose a birdcage veil or even to add a few 1920s inspired feathers to flowers or centerpieces.


5. Bright Colors
Have your heart set on being pretty in pink? No problem. Just kick it up a notch-or four. Pastel colors and muted tones are falling to the wayside in lieu of bright jewel tone shades and bold colors. Remember those colors we talked about a few months ago? They are still big. So choose a few bright shades of pink, orange or turquoise and get ready to strut your stuff with bold colors.


6. Food Stations and Signature Drinks
Sit-down dinners are the epitome of class at any wedding reception, but in 2009, brides are infusing their receptions with a bit of funky flavor and style. Food stations are growing in popularity, as are signature drink stations. When I got married, I had an Italian Bellini drink station, complete with hand-dipped white-chocolate tips and strawberries. It was the hit of party!

What special touches are you adding to your wedding this year?

Photos courtesy of shutupyourface, chaserpaul, erin m, pearlbamboo, smcgee and specialkrb

More Wedding Trends in a Tough Economy

More wedding trends happening in this economic slowdown, according to “ The Wedding Report:”

Outdoor weddings are very popular.

Holding your wedding outdoors (weather permitting of course) is a good way to economize. (Here is a good site to help you organize this.) Having it in a large backyard, a park or even the grounds of a museum are often less costly than a paying for a traditional church and secondary location, such as a hotel, country club or banquet hall. This means that you have a shorter reception, usually in off-peak hours. Since you are having ceremony and wedding reception at the same location, you can also take advantage of the all-inclusive wedding packages that many caterers and vendors offer.

Wedding couples prefer buffet reception dinners to sit‐down meals

Sit down dinners are extremely expensive. These usually cost more than $35 per person whereas a buffet can equal out to about $7-$15 per person. You also seem to have more choices as to the kinds of foods served and the side dishes.

There are other options, such as food stations, appetizers, and desserts-only. I went to a wedding recently where the wedding couple’s family had provided an entire table of desserts and pastries for a crowd of 250 people, along with a small wedding cake. (Here is a site that will help you set your wedding budget so you can determine what you are going to pay for food)

Amateurs (friends or family members) more often do the photography.

With the rise of digital cameras wedding couples have the option to request that several members of their family (or friends) take all their photos. Sites like PhotoWorks can provide elegant wedding photo books and prints so that wedding couples having family/friends take the pictures can still have professional-looking results. Plus you get photo books that are put together with their favorite pictures from a number of different sources. Those who are hiring professionals are settling on smaller packages and supplementing their pictures with table disposable digital cameras and fewer set portraits.

Brides are spending less on wedding gowns.

One of the most expensive items a bride can purchase is her wedding gown. Unless she has unlimited funds available, many brides are also seeking vintage or second-hand wedding gowns. (A good article on how to find these types of wedding dresses is located at this site.)

Hugely decorated ball gown styles are being replaced in many cases with simpler color accented informal gowns that provide a narrower silhouette. Brides are buying wedding and bridesmaids' dresses online, from discounted wedding gown sites, and even from overseas. (This has precipitated a rise in alterations to make the wedding gowns fit better, but someone had to benefit from this trend.)

Also many brides, instead of hermetically sealing the wedding gown away are reselling their wedding gowns on places like eBay. (There is even a site dedicated to this located here!) In some cases, brides are purchasing their wedding gowns and bridesmaids gowns as a package so that there is a price break.

Destination weddings are becoming more popular.

While these all-inclusive destination wedding packages at different resorts have been popular for quite some time, wedding couples are seeking destinations closer to where they live as their option for wedding and honeymoon packages. Fewer people are being asked to accompany the couple and since they will be paying their own way to the wedding, including travel and accommodations, the actual cost of the wedding will be decreased accordingly.

As more trends develop over the next several months, the Wedding Report (and I) will be here to let you know about them as you plan your wedding in these bleak economic times.

Wedding Trends in a Slow Economy

There are several trends in weddings these days that are reflective of the economic unrest that has gripped the United States and the world. Weddings are expensive and time-consuming, but they are also the fulfillment of many a young woman's dreams, so in order to accommodate both the shrinking dollar and the dream, many wedding couples are making sacrifices.

According to "The Wedding Report" there several trends that wedding couples are following in this era of high prices and shrinking funds. Here are the first four (the rest next time!):

Holding weddings on off-peak days, times and months is more common.

Holding a wedding ceremony and wedding reception on a Thursday or Friday evening, a Sunday brunch wedding reception, or an early afternoon wedding ceremony and short afternoon wedding reception are becoming more popular - and cost effective. By choosing to have the wedding on less common days, many wedding couples are getting discounted rates. Off season weddings, such as winter weddings are also growing in popularity since vendors need to fill their own calendars to break even.

Wedding budgets are shrinking and couples are looking for bargains.

Wedding couples are seeking more bargains, comparing vendor prices and generally seeking discounts or extras for their hard earned dollars. Smaller guest lists equal less money for food, wedding favors, and other accouterments of a wedding reception. Even small wedding cakes with one or two layers for the ceremonial cake-cutting are a growing trend, with sheet cakes for dessert being used behind the scenes as the wedding dessert.

All-inclusive wedding packages are also currently popular, which save couples money, as well as time on wedding planning.

The average wedding costs $27,000. Think what you could do with that kind of money if you cut costs and planned accordingly!

Do-it-yourself projects are replacing wedding products and services.

Couple can save oodles of money by using printable wedding invitations and printable wedding programs and other stationery. This does not mean that the invitations are printed on notebook paper, but with good card stock or handmade papers, they can give an impression of elegance without breaking the wedding budget. Wedding evites and save-the-date cards are also becoming popular to save on postage and paper.

Couples are choosing to tackle weddings projects themselves, such as creating their own wedding reception decorations, wedding flower arrangements,wedding favors, and desserts.

Using iPods and mp3 players for music is trendy.

With a little bit of creativity and a sense of fun, wedding couples can create their own wedding play lists and save money by using iPods, other mp3 players, and laptops to play music during their wedding reception instead of hiring a traditional band or DJ.

My uncle used to MC for family weddings and arranged the play list for the band or DJ. He knew the family names and any ethnic music needed for wedding dances etc. If he could do it in the pre-iPod days, there has to be someone in the family who can do it now! In today's technology driven world, ask someone who is good with electronics and play lists to take over this task for the wedding itself.

These and the remainder of the wedding trends are all on a course to save the wedding couple money. It’s not how much you spend, but where you spend it that defines the simple and elegant style of your wedding. Keep that in mind.

Ethnic Wedding Touches

Today, many American couples are choosing to incorporate wedding ceremony and reception traditions derived from their own ethnic roots or heritage in homage to where they have come from. It's a really neat way of incorporating the past (something old) into the passage of a new shared life together.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue

These American practices are meant to ensure a happy and lasting marriage after the actual wedding. Carrying something old and something new symbolizes a sense of continuity while the bride is making her transition to a new life. The color blue has long been associated with purity and modesty. By borrowing something from a happily married woman, it was believed her good fortune would rub off on the bride. Oh, and don't forget the penny in the shoe! It symbolizes good fortune and protection against want.

African-American Traditions

During the days of slavery when marriage was forbidden, a man and woman declared their marriage vows by jumping over a broom. This broom symbolized a threshold and the beginning of a new married life. To honor this way that African Americans consecrated their unions in the evil days of slavery, many couples are choosing to adopt the "jump the boom" tradition into their ceremonies.

Another tradition that has been revived hearkens back to the bride's African heritage. That tradition calls for the bride to wear her hair in intricate braids decorated with cowrie shells or pieces of silver, and for the couple to wear African robes in Kente or Aso-oke in colorful geometric patterns.

A third tradition in some African-American weddings today features the traditional rite of winding, plaited grass around the couples wrists to symbolize their union.

Asian-American Traditions

In Chinese traditions, the wedding color scheme includes a warm color to signify happiness. Since red is considered the color of love and joy in this tradition, the bride may wear a red wedding dress.

In Japanese traditions, the bride and her parents visit the groom's house on the wedding day. She wears a traditional ceremonial wedding kimono as her gown and may change out of it for the wedding banquet. Nine sips of sake are drunk by the bride and groom during the wedding ceremony, but they are considered married after that first sip.

Italian-American Traditions

A white silk or satin purse called a "busta," usually decorated with lace, is carried by the bride at the wedding reception to store wedding cards, wedding money holders, and envelopes bearing gifts of money. While some cultures find giving money as a wedding gift tacky or inappropriate, in the Italian tradition, monetary gifts are considered a thoughtful way to help the wedding couple be financially established.

Next time we will discuss more customs that have been adopted. Stay tuned!

Creative Wedding Trends

Getting away from money and travel for a bit, I thought we could talk about some of the more interesting trends that seem to be popping up for weddings these days. Couples are more creative in planning weddings and deviating from the “cookie cutter” norm of past years.

One of the most interesting trends is to create and print your own wedding invitations. This entails putting more of your personality into invitations, with the help of software programs and websites that offer ways to modify a design and add your own messaging. E-vites are also becoming a popular way to invite guests to the rehearsal dinner, engagement party, bridal shower or even to the wedding itself.

Another trend taking place these days is that more couples are choosing a midweek wedding. Thursday evening, Friday night or Sunday afternoon are becoming popular alternatives to the traditional Saturday wedding – and they cost way less too. I am going to a Friday wedding in a couple of days – I’ll let you know how that works out next week!

A wedding food trend increasingly popular at receptions are food stations. Instead of long buffet lines, guests can nibble their way through the party. Some brides are opting for all-dessert receptions or all-appetizer stations.

I was at a wedding last summer where there was a tent for cocktail hour, and there were tons of appetizers from which to choose, along with an open bar. Then there was a sit-down dinner, and for the rest of the evening, (the reception lasted from about 6 p.m. to 1 a.m.) there were food stations with desserts, chocolate fountains, a cappuccino and Greek coffee (a.k.a. espresso) station and, of course, the wedding cake. If you were a little peckish and didn’t want sweets, a station for additional savory appetizers was also available. This same family is having another wedding reception this summer and I can’t wait to see what they do this time!

Some couples opt for surprise wedding ceremonies. This is a particularly effective way to “pull off” a wedding without having anyone purchase gifts, or have all the other accoutrements a traditional wedding entails – bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, bridesmaids, etc. This is a great way for someone on a second (or more) marriage to have a wedding with everyone in attendance but without all the fuss. Many celebrities like Matt Damon choose this sort of wedding as it eliminates being stalked by unwanted paparazzi.

Trends may come and go, but the important things is that you put your own stamp on your special day. Weddings are for friends and family, but mostly, they are for you, so be prepared – do it your way!