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Every year we like to predict what we think the hottest trends for weddings for the coming year will be. With all the Pinterest, Instagram and real wedding stalking that we do daily, we’re constantly spotting new ideas to bookmark and save.
With more and more couples are looking tell their own unique love story, in their way, 2024 sees lots of fresh trends coming through the entire wedding weekend experience. Featuring statement colour palettes, personalised details, bold bridal style, fun guest experiences and offbeat entertainment, our list of the biggest 2024 wedding trends is getting us so excited for the year ahead!
So, here are our top predictions for the hottest 2024 Wedding Trends inspired by stylish couples, the fashion industry, the bridal runways and trail-blazing wedding suppliers.
Pssst! Don’t worry if there isn’t something here that makes your heart sing! Feel free to blaze the trail with your own one-of-a-kind wedding details, and watch the world follow in your wedding footsteps.
The 25 Biggest 2024 Wedding Trends
1. Colourful Palettes & Maximalist Decor
Muted and pastel palettes have been very popular, so we’re delighted to say hello to eye-catching bright hues and bold colourful palettes! As well as this, there’s a renewed interest in maximalist aesthetics and this extends to strong statements made in the couples’ style, stationery, cake and flower choices and everything in between.
From warm, earthy tones, vibrant colour-block palettes, monochrome with striking flashes of bold colour, and eccentric, colour-clashing combinations, this one is among our favourite 2024 wedding trends!
Wondering where this trend will take us over the next 12 months? Well, colour trend forecasters Pantone predict the top colours for spring and summer 2024 will be bright Horizon Blue, exotic Spicy Mustard, vibrant Sun Orange, fresh Bistro Green, fiery Fiesta Red, and bold Strong Blue.
2. Chic Curves
From charming ‘save the date’ cards and fun signage to beautifully hand-penned menus and place cards, playful wedding stationery with curves is trending in wedding paper design right now.
Whether it’s soft curved edges on cardstock or hand-drawn elements such as playful squiggle illustrations in bold colours, this new modern and contemporary stationery style has a soft, fun and whimsical feel to it. For couples seeking something fresh and different for their stationery and signage, this is definitely a trend to consider.
3. The Wedding Weekend
Taking inspiration from the American trend of having a rehearsal dinner the night before, and a farewell breakfast the next day, couples this side of the globe are now looking to extend the wedding festivities (and the wedding fashion!) for longer, and looking for wedding venues that can host them for full wedding weekends to really make the most out of their celebration.
4. Monograms & Crests
Celebrating their new union, couples are getting creative with their own married monograms and custom heraldry. We’re seeing monograms and crests on everything from stationery and signage to wedding welcome boxes and cocktail napkins weaving extra personalisation into the couple’s day.
If you’re thinking of designing a new monogram or family crest for the big day, draw inspiration from what you hold dear – a beloved pet, a favourite flower, or a treasured place.
5. Wedding Newspapers
Looking for a unique and stylish way to share your wedding details with your guests? Custom wedding newspapers have been gaining serious momentum at weddings in the last year. Use as a save the date, as part of an invitation suite, popped into wedding welcome bags, as an update on the traditional ceremony program booklet, or, as a thank you card after the big day.
Get creative with your wedding day info, throw in a few games, and tell your love story in the most unique way possible, because a wedding newspaper makes for a truly memorable wedding keepsake.
6. Unique Live Entertainment Ideas
Couples are thinking beyond the band, and adding to their live wedding entertainment line up with less conventional acts like magicians, drag performers, mixologists, fire breathers, dancers, Celtic drummers live wedding artists, and more, as well as immersive experiences and interactive areas for guests. If you’re looking to really impress your guests (or looking for that viral wedding moment!), and have them talking about your wedding for years to come, then this is a trend for you.
Need some ideas? Check out our favourite unique wedding entertainment ideas that will truly add the wow factor to your celebration and impress your guests, right here.
7. Destination Weddings are BACK!
If there’s one thing that we can take away from the most talked about weddings of the year – including Sofia Richie and Elliot Grainge, Sophie Habboo and Jamie Laing, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Andre Gray, and Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker (and almost every Irish rugby star who got married abroad this summer!) – it’s that destination weddings are BACK!
From dreamy châteaus in France to sun-kissed beaches in Jamaica, couples and their guests are jetting off to say ‘I do’ more than ever before. Dreaming of your own destination ‘do? Check out our destination wedding inspiration here.
8. Wedding Photography & Videography Trends
Over the past couple of years, wedding photography and videography have evolved massively creating some truly visually stunning and emotionally captivating trends. Five hot wedding photography and videography trends that we are seeing more of and are set to be big in 2024 are:
- Black and white stills and video
- Blur motion photography
- Film photography
- 90s-style direct flash photography
- Candid photography and documentary-style videography
Black and white imagery is having quite a moment, as is blur motion photography, which plays with light , movement, film cameras and different sort of prisms. With its edgy celebrity vibes, 90s-style direct flash photography has also become increasingly popular with couples. Searches for film wedding photography has also increased in the last year, marking it too as a clear growing trend for 2024 weddings and beyond.
9. Audio Guestbooks
An alternative to the traditional pen and paper guest book, an audio wedding guest book is a retro-style, rotary telephone where guests can pick up the receiver, and hear a pre-recorded greeting from the couple, before leaving their own heartfelt (or funny!) voicemail message for the newlyweds after the beep to be cherished for years to come.
Creating both a memorable experience for guests to have fun with, and couples to look back on, we love this sweet new wedding guestbook trend. Intrigued and want to find out more? We’ve got a whole feature dedicated to the trend right here!
10. Scenting Your Wedding
Since Kate Middleton famously scented Westminster Abbey with her favourite scent, Orange Blossom by Jo Malone, scenting the wedding day (also known as wedding scentscaping) has become an increasingly popular trend.
Since then, there are more ways to incorporate scent into your wedding, including pairing your scent with your partner’s, bespoke wedding candles, wax melts, diffusers, soap favours and even scented paper for stationery, as well as scentscaping for different seasons. Scents can impact our emotions and link to memories so it’s no wonder this sweet trend is on the rise.
11. Black & White Palettes
For modern, chic and timeless style for your big day, a monochrome black and white palette is the minimalist wedding trend for you! Appearing in everything from stationery to flowers, minimal monochrome is the chicest modern wedding decor trend we’ve seen in a long time. While monochrome is often associated with a subdued, “less is more” aesthetic, bold graphic details and sharp styling take it to a new level for 2024.
12. Wedding Content Creators
If you’re all about getting the perfect image for the ‘gram or video for Tik Tok, then this brand-new wedding service that’s trending is one for you! As well as a great professional photographer and videographer, couples are now adding in a wedding content creator to their day for more casual ‘in the moment’ footage.
Unlike a photographer or a videographer, (which are two crucial wedding suppliers to include on your team of pros!), a wedding content creator is booked to show up on the wedding day and shoot behind the scenes images and videos on a phone, creating social-media worthy content to post in real-time and after, so you and your wedding party can relax and be present on the day, rather than spending time on phones posting footage and images from the wedding.
13. Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses
Mismatched bridesmaid dresses is a trend that we’ve seen in weddings over the last number of years and set to be even bigger in 2024 and beyond. It first began as dresses that were all the same colour, and just different styles. Since then we’ve seen a whole variety of shades, silhouettes, textures, patterns and hemlines make their way into the world of bridesmaid dresses.
This is a trend set to stick around for years to come, and which we think will continue to become incresingly more dramatic, featuring bolder colours and textures such as neons, metallic, fringes, and more intricate prints and patterns.
14. Ribbons & Bows
From large statement making bows on wedding dresses and oversized bows on cakes to more delicate or subtle ribbon forms such as on stationery and table settings, beautiful bows continue to be big 2024 wedding trend. From wedding dresses (see our favourite ideas here!), hair accessories and shoes, to tablescapes and cake tables, bows are perfect for couples looking to add a whimsical and romantic touch to their overall look.
15. Champagne Towers
A trend that took off in 2023, wedding Champagne towers set to be HUGE for 2024. A visual spectacle, and a great opportunity to capture epic photos, there’s something so glamourous about Champagne towers. It gives your wedding celebrations that truly decadent celebratory moment, with some couples even choosing a Champagne tower pour in lieu of cutting a cake.
Want to know how to build a Champagne tower at your wedding with thrills, no spills and maximum bubbles? We’ve got a dedicated feature for creating the perfect Champagne tower right here.
16. The Wedding Wardrobe
From engagement party and hen do dresses, to the wedding weekend and honeymoon, the wedding wardrobe is bigger than ever, so much so we’ve even created a brand new series for it on One Fab Day!
Created to help inspire your wedding wardrobe choices, in this new series entitled My Wedding Wardrobe, we ask stylish brides to share their sartorial secrets and take a peek into their wedding wardrobe; from what they wore, how they wore it and where they sourced it. Check out our most recent bride right here.
17. Disposable Cameras
Hello 90s wedding throwback! With the increase in 90s nostalgia and popular 90s trends being modernised and updated, it’s no wonder the humble disposable camera is trending!
Capture every hilarious, tearful, and joyous moment from the reception tables with disposable cameras. Guests snap away to their hearts’ content, and the couple, develops the photos afterwards and gets to see all the fun moments from the guests perspective. It’s like having a hundred extra photographers at your wedding!
18. The ‘Mum Do’
From relaxed dinners and afternoon tea, to spa days and art or cookery classes, many brides are now planning more parent-friendly hen party celebrations with mums, mother-in-laws, aunties, godmothers, and grannies.
Instead of the wild celebration with bridesmaids and friends, brides are planning these separate celebrations that are all the things that your hen do isn’t – relaxed, cosy, quiet and intimate and quality time spent with your female family members.
Flowers by Florésie | Cake by Made in Cake | Planning & Design by Jennifer Fox Weddings | Photo by Oliver Fly Photography
19. Wedding Cake Meadows
We adore a good wedding cake trend and one trend we’re seeing and loving right now are wedding cake meadows. The ‘living flower’ trend has been gaining momentum over the past few years for aisles and backdrops but has now extended to the cake table. This garden-inspired cake display idea places your cake amid a whimsical arrangement of the prettiest blooms and fresh foliage creating a dreamy planted or meadow-like effect.
A wedding cake meadow also allows you to reuse blooms that you may have displayed in your ceremony, and we love a clever wedding floral repurpose! This is certainly one wedding trend we hope to see more of. Want to learn more? Check out our report on the trend here.
20. Food & Drink Experiences
From fun food trucks and shared feasts, to tasty food stations and food cooked right in front of guests, couples are looking to switch up the traditional sit down dinner, and are turning to unique food and drink experiences to give their guests a unique and memorable immersive wedding dining experience. We are expecting this to be a big wedding trend in 2024 and beyond.
21. Family-Filled Celebrations
We are now seeing so many couples with their own sweet families getting married and who are looking for more and more ways of including them all throughout the day, and are even opting for family-moons.
From cute ceremony readings to confetti throwing superstars, if you’re looking for sweet ways to include your children in your day check out our feature right here. Or, if you’re looking for tips on how to keep the little ones entertained on the big day click here.
22. Fierce Guest Fashion
After a few years of relaxed at-home weddings and micro weddings, wedding guests are more ready than ever to get dressed up and bring their style A game. With lots of black tie and white tie wedding dress code invitations being sent in 2024, we cannot wait to see the epic style that guests will bring to the party!
23. Interactive Seating Charts
Another creative trend taking centre stage in wedding world and leaving guests in awe is interactive seating charts and table plans.
From flower or foliage walls filled with food or drink escort cards and or items that double up as favours, to the fun ‘Ring for Cocktails’ concept where guests ring a bell, and suddenly, a mysterious hand appears, offering them a cocktail or, glass of Champagne!
24. The Second Look
With more and more couples wanting to keep the party going longer, and the after-party bigger and bolder than ever; both brides and grooms are now adding a wardrobe change into a ‘Second Look’. Whether it’s to feel more comfortable for dancing the night away, or to create a wow moment on the dance floor, we’re loving this throwback to the ‘going away outfit’ your mom or dad may have worn!
25. Sustainability
While sustainability shouldn’t be a trend, it will feature heavily in 2024 wedding plans, with couples plumbing for more low-waste options. Whether it’s Irish-grown blooms, looking for more sustainable fashion ideas, or learning how to cut back on unnecessary flower and decor waste, searches for ethical and sustainable wedding options are continually on the rise.
We’re also seeing lots more couples choose to support Ireland’s incredible network of wedding suppliers, bridal boutiques and independent businesses and work with suppliers close to home. Looking to reduce the carbon footprint of your celebration? See our achievable ideas on how to have a sustainable wedding.
See more trend reports and unique ideas for your big day here.
