As I reflect on weddings from 2018 and research what might be in store for this coming year, I’m starting to see how a lot of trends of 2019 as reported by many wedding outlets can be a real possibility starting in 2019. Some of these trends are ones that I saw with my own weddings or I’m seeing a lot of with some of my friend photographers. The first one, which I don’t know if I’d necessarily call it a trend, but rather an evolution is that more and more couples are ultimately doing whatever they want to do. They are ditching the traditions their parents or grandparents did. In other words, they are making the wedding their own, and not modeling the wedding day from weddings before. I love this! Natasha and I just celebrated 10 years of marriage and I remember a lot of our wedding day was based on other weddings prior or traditions. Granted, we were young and didn’t know exactly what to do, but we also didn’t have resources like Pinterest, DIY blogs and vlogs, or really any other resource other than maybe wedding magazines. It’s crazy how much has changed in just 10 years!
Making It Your Own
This “trend” is one thing I try to encourage our couples to keep in mind. It’s your day, make it 100% your day by doing whatever you want to do. I hear a lot from couples “we are going to do ____ because our parents want us to.” They usually follow that line by saying it’s not something they want to do, but their parents did it and their grandparents did it. Make no mistake, if you have a tradition you want to do, then do it. Just make sure it’s something you want to do. A wedding day goes by in a blink of an eye, and the day is too short to not make it your own. Speaking of traditions, have you ever spent time researching where some of these traditions originated? Not seeing each other before the wedding is one of my favorites. This tradition started in the times when a wedding was really a “business” exchange between families. The couple was not allowed to see each other prior to the wedding because the father of the bride feared if the groom saw the bride and thought she wasn’t attractive, he’d call of the wedding thus forfeiting the deal between the families. Pretty romantic, right?
Destination Elopement
One trend that’s become more and more popular is eloping in a unique location as opposed to the large traditional wedding. This is one I’ve not personally had yet (but REALLY hoping for!), but I know a number of wedding photographers that do primarily elopement photography. I think part of this trend has become popular for a couple reasons, number one being how much we love to show what we are doing or where we are on social media. Getting married on a mountain top, visually, looks a lot better than an old church or venue with stained carpet. More so, I believe we are in an era where experience is prioritized higher than material things. I’m all about this! The average wedding in central Illinois costs around $15-20,000. It’s very easy to spend more than that too. For that kind of money, you could pay to fly you two plus 20 guests to Seattle, get married on a mountain, stay for another week for your honeymoon, and have plenty of money left over to come home and have a small reception with friends and family. I think for this reason, this trend seems to be on the rise. While I’ve not had a destination elopement, I have traveled for weddings and especially engagement sessions.
More Memories Less Poses
This is something I saw a lot of last year. I think we only had a few weddings where we spent a good amount of time outside with the wedding party. Rewind five years, I was spending an hour plus outside with wedding parties. This past year, maybe 20 minutes average. It’s just not something that’s highly requested anymore and a big part of me is okay with this. One thing I learned about myself is that I’m a storytelling photographer and spending an hour working on poses outside isn’t really telling a story, but rather forcing moments. Not that there is anything wrong with posing pictures, I’ve noticed it’s becoming less of a priority for couples. I follow a lot of wedding pages on instagram and this type of moment photography has become a lot more prevalent. Additionally, the details of a wedding have become more popular as well, this is my next and final point.
Details
This is something I’d probably call more of an evolution as well, rather than a trend. Details have always been a part of wedding days. From the flowers to the cake and the small details of the wedding dress. The big difference today compared to years prior is that couples have become more creative with details. While they still have flowers, details on the dress, unique cakes, they are more unique and all about adding a little bit of their own personality in them. Sometimes this includes doing the details themselves, sometimes it’s doing something totally unique. Ultimately, its all about doing something creative with them. This doesn’t necessarily mean that details are spilling out the windows of a venue. Sometimes it’s a very minimalist design, but still very unique. I’m all for this trend too because I love detail photography. I love telling the story of the wedding through details as well because they are just as much a part of your story as the groom seeing the bride for the first time.
There are many more trends happening in 2019 that will be happening I’m sure, and I almost hate calling the four items above “trends” because a trend is something that comes and goes each year or so. I do not believe the four items above will go away anytime soon. In fact, I believe the four above will stick around for quite a while and even become more prominent in the wedding world.