Top 10 Wedding Trends For 2021
If this were any other year, we’d be in the midst of wedding season. The air too thick with this year’s confetti to even see 2021’s approach. But 2020 is doing its own thing.
Although weddings have resumed after a long hiatus, a lot of what we associate with them hasn’t. Big crowds, congo lines, photoshoots and drunken debauchery…a lot of people want these on the guestlist.
73,000 couples have cancelled or postponed a wedding or civil partnership this year. If this is you, or if you did marry but are waiting for the big party, you may be wondering how to celebrate in 2021.
We’ve looked ahead to 2021 wedding trends for your inspiration. Take it in, mull it over, and pick and choose according to your every whim. Who knows, looking at other people’s style may make yours more evident. We don’t get many wedding days, so it’s worth pinching the best bits from other peoples’.
Blurry-eyed, yawn-stifling, furtively reaching for the coffee…no, it isn’t Sunday morning, it’s an average Tuesday afternoon in June 2021. With weddings booked on every day of the week, workplaces will host more hangovers than ever this next year.
The good news is that the hellish experience of the office hangover might be normalised by repetition. Maybe we’ll even learn to let our hair down and then pull themselves up by 8.30 the day after?
Couples can make light of this new reality by creating hangover kits as wedding favours, which does solve the headache of what to give 100 people pretty nicely.
Second and third marriages are already popular, but 2021 will be the year of the second wedding for couples who sorted the legalities out this year, but postponed the party.
They might be legally married, but matrimony is just as much about belting out Come On Eileen on a slightly sticky dance floor as it is the vows.
Expect second weddings to be all about the experience. They’ve had a year as spouses, but the wedding day is time to let their love shine.
On this note, couples who have waited to get married will likely want to set no limit on who they celebrate with. Everyone’s invited. Even your slightly annoying relatives.
Next year’s weddings will be the perfect opportunity for a couple to reconnect with everyone they love. We’re picturing a lawn full of people laughing and drinking, children running loose with flowers in their hair, and absolutely no social distancing on the dance floor.
One silver lining of Covid-19 is that we will all be far more appreciative of all weathers. Yes, few people dream of rainy wedding days, but being able to share a wedding day with family and friends is a joy no one will take for granted next year. The same goes for the guests, who will likely be more excited than ever to don their finery.
Another upshot to enforced social exclusion is that people who have nothing in common except their relationship to you will have something besides the weather to discuss in the queue for the loo or the champers. Covid-19, a real icebreaker.
It looks like 2021 might be the year when we make peace with the British weather and have a blast come rain or shine.
Lockdown has forced us to rediscover what’s on our doorstep. Those in rural areas stumbled upon overgrown footpaths, while urbanites explored ghost town streets and headed to our coastline, moors and fields for staycations.
It looks like we’ve fallen back in love with our little isle. So it’s goodbye to Bali blessings, hello to the great British wedding. It’s pragmatic, it’s eco-friendly, and it’s absolutely charming.
Think cottage garden bouquets, soft colour schemes of sage and blush, semi-naked tiered cakes decorated with foliage or elderflower, and vintage pieces. End on a cider fuelled barn dance/ceilidh for a true country wedding.
While giants like Amazon will weather the storm, lockdown has hit small independents hard. Households who have also been affected will be more aware than ever of where they are spending their money next year, and will try to support local businesses.
Face to face consultations will be a welcome luxury after conducting so much of life online, so salons, local suppliers and wedding fairs should all be well attended by couples looking for a more personal approach.
Many will turn to independent shops on Etsy and local designers, as well as upcycling and sourcing second hand.
While plantbased menus have been growing in popularity and this is only set to continue, local food will be the star of the show.
Think locally reared meats, freshly landed fish, foraged goods from the hedgerows and shores and the best seasonal field produce.
This extends to the drinks, and luckily microbreweries, distilleries and even vineyards are popping up in regions across the UK.
After being cooped up all summer, people will want to get some real living done in the summer of ’21.
Wedding entertainment could become bigger, with country venues creating maize mazes or receptions having specialist cocktail bars. Next year may also be the return of live acts—yes the wedding band, but also storytellers, comedians and performers.
If you’re keeping it simple, we like the understated drama of a collective candle lighting. You give matches to one person on each table and they all light their centre piece at the same time, illuminating the marquee or room in one moment.
Most people toe the line somewhere between raving extravert and closeted introvert. Lockdown was very ‘intro’— with a screen between social encounters and the weekly NHS clap the big date in the diary. So in true yin/yang fashion, 2021 will be extra. We’ll all have a party animal longing for a few nights of revelry, even if it’s just a party mouse.
Extravert weddings will be loud and joyous, with unapologetic floor fillers playing and speeches made gushier or more savagely funny by the time we’ve spent apart.
The wedding industry is responsible for huge carbon emissions, but more and more couples are showing it needn’t be. Gone are the excessive days of forking out for new paraphernalia. Foam in the flowers, plastic in the confetti.
These days, glitter is biodegradable and paper stationary can become wildflower seeds.
The eco wedding trend affects everything from the venue (no airmiles, please) to the menu (cut back on the meat and dairy, unless it’s local). Other nice, simple ideas include giving spring bulbs to your guests as a wedding favour, asking for trees as wedding presents, or asking for donations to conservation charities.
Still looking for your wedding venue? Take a look at Court Colman Manor in South Wales. Helping weddings come to life is what we do best.