Elevating Your Wedding: A Tailored Guide Beyond Trends

The upcoming calendar year is filled with fun and diverse trends that will influence every wedding aesthetic. Here is a curated list of the trends for 2024, packed with ideas, tips, and treats to bring to life your vision and create a tailored-to-you wedding celebration.

Trends can be the starting point for your aesthetic path, but the key is to only use what expresses your message. Leaning into trends works better than diving head-first into a full-on collective theme. I custom-design for each couple based on their unique story and what they want to convey as their timeless message, so trends come as a tool, a reference, a compass to point you to your final design destination.

Here is a list of what you will see for 2024 in the world of weddings and some tips on how you can take something away to create your unique look, stand out, and be timelessly trendy.

Ultra-luxury Micro Destination Wedding

Yes, one mouthful title for a less-is-more style. Quality over quantity is the premise. A smaller guest count with a high-end detail-oriented celebration at the top of the wedding hierarchy. This is luxury at its finest because the smaller number of guests allows a more intimate and personal celebration focused on the quality and the details that will make all the difference. Perhaps invite your top 30 favorite people and share the celebration on social media for the rest of the world, as one does. You will have your picture-perfect wedding with the people you love.

In the world of paper goods, there is a massive difference in making smaller amounts of suites with ultra-high quality. The wedding suite, including the invitation and destination package, is over the top. Hand-crafting is a must! Heavy-weight papers in bold colors and lots and lots of details that tie back to the couple’s story and vision. Each piece is an art piece in itself. It allows you to have hand-made artistic one-of-a-kind pieces to share with your guests: a vessel of your story, a memento for the exceptional experience. The same investment per capita as a luxury wedding, but the overall budget drops down dramatically. Do I have your attention already?

Classy Modest Luxury

On the topic of “less is more” the (new) fashion trend is “old money meets quiet luxury”. They combine to create a stylish look, with muted mono-tones and lots of texture. Mainly off-white and opaque gold, presented in a more modest way (or at least what looks like more modest) where there is less diversity of elements and more repetition. Looking back at a central event for 2023 for our American Royalty, Sophia Ritchie’s wedding held in June on the French Riviera (I talk a bit about it in a previous blog about the come-back of balloons) is a very good pre-face of what is going to come in term of colors and textures for higher guest-count weddings, where white will be the central color. Muted greens and crème for gorgeous floral arrangements, with manicured luxurious tables where nothing stands out, and everything flows in unison. "The secret is in the details," a phrase you will hear often here. In terms of the paper world, heavyweight off-white textured paper, with opaque gold details, engraved patterns, meticulous cut-outs, hand-painted monograms and crests, and unique ornamented wax seals. An exceptional classic chic style.

Professional Social Media Content Creators

Your curated social media feed will be purely aesthetic. My favorite trend, if you can call it that, is one that I would look into because I think it is here to stay. It is already out there with manicured IGs and TikTok wedding videos. It will undoubtedly become a request from couples, in addition to their photographer and videographer. Why? Because it tells a better story, the look will be fantastic on social media and bring immediate gratification. You have the content as you go. So, if I were to pick one to invest my money in, it would be hiring a pro-social media content creator to tell your story as you live it. It will give you something to celebrate and share while you wait for the full photo and video. The ties with paper goods? Pics of your beautiful invites will emphasize the details of your wedding day, giving details in the decoration a whole new meaning.

Low Key Luxury Wedding

The search interest for ‘casual wedding dresses’ is at a 10-year high according to several sources in the wedding business. There is also a high in search for nontraditional dresses. It looks like brides are changing their stilettos for Converse. Converse just launched this week the “Just Married” sneakers, which I don’t have a doubt are here to stay. From Dr. Martin combat boots to embroidered white sneakers, couples are choosing a more casual version when it comes to walking the aisle, in tune with their young ages. But don’t let the term “casual” fool you! The celebrations are still luxurious, they just look more casual. It’s like a social media profile perfectly manicured to look unintentional. A cool brand pair of sneakers comes at the same price as a nice pair of stilettos. It is the sense of a spontaneous choice that prevails, though the price tag attached is still attached.

Cores

From Fairy to Cottage and Barbie, the cores are one of the most researched keywords in wedding fashion right now, and they will have their moment next year as well. Back in the day, we called it a “theme”. It defines the whole aesthetic and, when done right, can work charms. But, as a gorgeous cashmere sweater, you should “handle with care”. Pick elements that resonate with you to define the core style and combine them with a classic chic look, to avoid falling into a rabbit hole of never-ending overwhelming details that add only to the budget. How do you filter what is important and what to pass? With a mood board. On one side place the “must have” list, and on the other side the “wish list” and add pictures of your faves. As you incorporate costs into each item, you will start to move things to the wishing column and depurate the look so that the elements that you want will pop from the rest. Moving to the world of paper: die cuts, textures that reflect the core, florals, wallpaper-like patterns, envelope liners, and on-theme tones.

Color & Pattern

If you want to be noticed and set apart from other couples getting married in 2024, the pros say to add color to make a statement and stand out. Make a bolder choice. It can range from a wedding gown in a pastel or bright color to even black for the brides. For the grooms, bright colored suites for daytime weddings, and textures and combinations of matte and silky shine for the evening. There is no limit! I’ve been seeing lots of black on the wedding gown catwalks recently. It is a bold decision, but if it represents who you are, then yes, please! If you don’t want to be that forward, you can incorporate black in the design, starting with elegant and modern stationery that will set the tone for a bolder theme without compromise, black velvet linens, black details, and modern décor throughout. Paper goods can be bold and show a range of bright choices that can hint at the pops of color in décor throughout the celebration, even with black. The idea is that your invitation will foretell what the ceremony will be like without any spoilers. “Remember the blue pattern in the envelope liner of the invitation? It is the same as the wallpaper on the backdrop of the cake! Wait… and the linens? Wow!”

Seasonal décor

A classic that keeps moving forward with the calendar. There is a reason why you decided on a specific date for your wedding, a particular season. Maybe it is because you met during Winter, or love the beach in the Summer. Leaning into the season décor will add a layer of purposefulness with texture, light, and colors (and might even help your expenses stay in check.) Bringing in the seasonal elements to your ceremony and reception will help take the experience of why you chose that day to say “I do!” to another level. Not saying here that you are not going to include Christmas trees in your December wedding, or will you? Let’s say that you are having a Winter wedding and the invites for your guests will arrive in the Fall, you can resort to white, greens, and muted gold, and stay away from warmer Fall tones, generating a Wintery mood since your invitation will be a prologue to the main event.

Color: peachy orange and blush pink

This has been a constant in trends for 2024: peachy orange and blush pink. Not pink-pink or burnt Fall orange. Warm enough to bend and play with seasons and combine beautifully with other colors: dusty blue in the Summer, yellow in the Fall, greens in the Winter, or lavender in the Spring. The possibilities are endless and the combinations of florals and paper goods can be as unique as your design. It is not as expected as pink and has the coloration of the warm undertone of candlelight which reflects light charmingly. We had our 2023 Editorial with a stunning blush pink Fairycore puffy tulle dress that takes your breath away. The purpose was to show the importance of the journey from the “Yes, I want to marry you!” to the “I do!” as a means to the destination. We chose to relay the message with an unconventional yet beautiful blush pink wedding gown that gave the sense of harmony that we envisioned for that journey. The dress itself is a work of art, the bride a beauty, the team of vendors was out of this world, and the styled shoot greatly surpassed the storyboard idea. You can see part of the production on the project’s page here. The choice of paper goods was simple, with a focus on the “to-do list” since the editorial represents the steps of the journey giving a sense of a general theme. The paper choice, colors, and textures were used as a forecast of what the invitation could look like.

Fur babies

How can we not include our fur babies on the most important day for us? Mine has been keeping us company for almost a decade since she was a tiny puppy, and she is still the glue that keeps us collected. Delilah should have her own Frequent Flyer Status! When she can’t tag along, we make sure to bring her somehow and make her a part of our journey. So, imagine how cool would it be to have your furry baby present at your wedding, if not “in person”, represented in some fashion. There are many ways to bring along your faithful companions without taking them literally with you. For example, with sketches, monograms, little details with their pic, or an element that they love, that is incorporated in your wedding suite and at your celebration, and that will honor their place in your and your significant other’s life.

The grooms

Fashion is in for men! They are not just Kens. There are two predominant and very opposite styles, that have to do with the flair of the wedding, and they incorporate elements of design such as color and textures. Men’s formal wear remains steady, with black and blue for formal nighttime celebrations, but some are switching the bowtie for silk scarves. Yes! Neutral and earth-toned colors remain for daytime weddings but, interestingly, suit colors are shifting to a more fun experience, and they incorporate bolder choices such as pink (yes, I said pink!), sage, light gray, and dusty blue. Grooms are looking into fashion, and I adore that. For stationery, both gowns are incorporated into the paper goods. Grooms are surprising with fashion choices in a more egalitarian world.

By now we have established that you will be seeing a lot of fun and diverse trends in the upcoming year, and also that collective trends come and go. What is super hype today, may be outdated in a few months. As professionals in our fields of expertise, we are trained to look beyond fashion, to project, and to filter, to guide. I guess that the best advice would be to pick what you like from a trend that you identify with and see if or how it works for you and if it fits your style. Sometimes, looking into your own home and your closet will give you a lead to what cores to look into. Leave the wow factor to your Wedding Designers. We will work with the details to make it, not only a magic day but a magic journey from the “Yes!” to the “I do!”

Let’s work together to create something extraordinary for your special day!

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