Friday, December 2, 2011

Ten List Thursday-Wedding Trends

OK, so I forgot to "publish" this post yesterday, so let's pretend it's still Thursday for just a second.

It's getting towards peak engagement season again, people love to get engaged over the holidays, which is awesome. So for your enjoyment or not, here's Ten Wedding Trends that I am totally over.

*disclaimer, that I'm very sad that I have to put here, but people get their knickers in a twist about everything now-a-days. I have seen (most) of these things done really well, and I am not personally attacking anyone who uses them. They just seem to be overdone at this point.*

As usual, in no particular order.

1. Mustaches on a stick. I totally get Movember and all that stuff, and vintage is (usually) really cool but this is a trend that, the first time I saw it, I really didn't get why they were doing it, but it seemed cool and really matched the vintage old timey wedding this couple did. I liked it but filed it away under, quirky and fun, but totally not me. Then about 18 million weddings later, and it's not longer quirky and fun to me.

2. The weird coloration of wedding pictures. I don't know the technical term for this, it's not oversaturated, or sepia, or black and white, it's just weird to me. Brides spend forever picking colors for their wedding and then have all the pictures put into this weird filter. I don't get it. Melissa, do you know what this is called? You know the look I mean, like: the top picture here: http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/wedding-photography-shot-list/
I like it for a couple of poses, but when all of your pictures are like that, it ruins them for me. In 20 years you're gonna want to remember the way you actually looked.

3. Cupcake wedding cakes. Do NOT get me wrong here, I love pre-portioned foods, I love cupcakes. I don't even really mind the cup cake wedding cake, I hate the pretension that some people have that they are the first person who ever thought of it. I LOVED the idea at first, and now I'm over it :)

4. The jump shot. All of your bridal party jumping with joy in the air. I have seen this done well TWICE. That's it. It's hard to pull off and I am so over it.

5. Flip flops under your gown for the ceremony. OK, this is partially biased because I totally HATE flip flops, but anyway. Wear whatever you're comfortable with for the reception and dancing, but if you're wearing a formal full on wedding gown/ballgown style...for the love of Pete, wear nice shoes that match the formality. (and get your dressed hemmed correctly). Nothing ruins the formal portrait for me than the bride in flip flops (if you're getting married in a casual little fun dress on a beach, ignore the above, but get a freaking pedi!)

6. Wearing a fascinator/birdcage veil that doesn't go with the style of dress you choose. I am a costumer, I LOVE fascinators, I love birdcage veils, but only with the right dress. It drives me crazy to see it with the wrong one.

7. Mixing and Matching traditions that mean nothing to you/that you don't understand what they mean. I have seen some beautiful mixed culture weddings, and I've seen wedding where the couple just incorporates whatever they think is cool without understanding the culture(s) they are taking from. Then they look like jerks. Plain and simple.

8. Butterfly releases. To be honest, I considered them myself, then I did the research and found out how irresponsible it is to do it, not to mention the fact that it can end up being really gross and kinda sad. Again, I have seen some gorgeous pictures of it done, but do your homework on this one. Poor little things.

9. Incorporating every freaking hobby and interest that you/your intended/your dogs/etc are into in your wedding. If I see one more freaking Tardis card box I will scream out loud from my desk. I am ALL for making your wedding truly you, I am all for subtle homages to your very favorite things in a wedding. Examples of it done right: Friend Patti using pictures of their pets as table markers. Friend Erin, who got married on the Ides of March, giving volumes of Shakespeare as favors. Friend Beth having a light saber decorated and made as a centerpiece for her sweetheart table. Friend Lisa having "The beatings will continue until morale improves" printed above her seating chart, Pat and I giving our groomsmen polyhedral dice as gifts. Those are lovely nice hints, kinda like the hidden Mickeys at Disney parks. Most people (hopefully) who are at your wedding already know you, they know what your interests and hobbies are. They'd love to play warcraft with you later, but now they don't want to look at your avatars on your WoW cake. Don't hit them over the heads with it.

10. Doing anything JUST to be Offbeat and OMGsooriginal. Be yourselves, have the wedding you want. If those offbeat things are you? Then do it, but don't force it in the name of having a memorable wedding.

7 comments:

  1. 1. I HATE the mustache on a stick thing too. And it's not just limited to weddings - it's a whole trend on pinterest for making mustaches and using them as props for kids pictures too. I hate it!

    2. I'm not very good at photoshop, so I'm guessing here but it looks like that top picture has been processed with some sort of vintage action set plus some over-saturation/color boost. So there's high color but it's a faded high color. I like one or two of them here and there - I would NOT want my entire wedding album to be that color. It's like black and whites. I like having them, but I don't want my whole wedding album black and white.

    3. I like to eat cupcakes but in my head I just prefer weddings with a traditional wedding cake. That's TRADITIONAL - no little army men or weird characters on top of it either. Pretty fondant with flowers or ribbons or some sort of "pretty" decoration. But that's because I like traditional weddings. A little bit of theme or quirky is cool but in general, when you look at the pictures, it should look fairly traditional.

    4. I don't mind the jump shots, but it is trendy and I don't like that people do it because it's trendy. I think the photos look pretty cute though.

    5. If it's not a beach wedding, then NO FLIP FLOPS until the reception/dancing! I was super thankful at Ali's wedding at the reception they gave the women flip flops. (Like a huge bucket). Suuuuper thankful. But before that, no!

    6. Agreed

    7. Sooooo agreed

    8. Yep, yep, yep!

    9. Yes! Kinda goes with my "subtle theme is ok" comment above. We had some Vegas themed place cards and favors at our wedding. Did we get married by Elvis and decorate with money and glitz and everything? No. Did I have a slot machine cake? No.

    10. Offbeat weddings = crunchy mamas to me. One in the same. "Omg look at our wedding, it was SO offbeat, right down to Pedobear." "look at me, I babywear 24/7, I'm the best mom EVAR."

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  2. Butterfly releases? That sounds like a really cool idea. But I bet it gets complicated, with the holding of them and the viability of them after release.

    Also, if I ever get married, you're so gonna have to help me out, 'cause you have way more of a sense of style than I do. :)

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  3. @Mindy, here are some articles on why it's bad to release butterflies:

    http://www.naba.org/releases.html
    http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/xerces-butterfly-release-policy.pdf

    Plus, the anecdotal evidence of the poor things being half dead or dead upon opening and goo coming out instead. It's really too bad.

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  4. Wow, I've never even HEARD of "mustaches on a stick" but it certainly sounds like a dumb idea for a wedding :-P

    I was never a fan of cupcake wedding cakes either even though I LOOOOOVE cupcakes.

    I too hate flip-flops and still cannot understand how anyone can possibly find them comfortable. I can't stand anything between my Big Toe and my biggest little toe.

    Any suggestion for what I should do for my headpiece? You are a style Queen and great at wedding stuff. I don't want a veil this time around so...I was thinking some kind of bridey headband.

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  5. I forever love you for this post. They're all so freakin' true!! Especially these:

    Flip flops - I'm a Florida girl. Sometimes I wear flip flops in the dead of winter because my toes want the hell out of shoes. I wore them to my last job (don't hate -- our office was REALLY casual). And even *I* think flip flops for a wedding are just plain wrong. If you're having a beach wedding, that's one thing (and for the love of GOD, don't wear a super-formal dress on the beach... the hell are these people thinking?!), but for any other wedding, save the flip flops for the reception. ARGH.

    INCORPORATE ALL THE INTERESTS - Motherfucking a, if I see another wedding with anything Dr. Who- or Star Trek- or Sex and the City-related (okay, I was stretching with the last one...), I'm going to stab someone in the eye. I like to think Matt and I did it tastefully when we incorporated our love of Halloween (and, uh, getting married that day) in our wedding, but I see others going SO OVERBOARD that it kind of kills the whole feel, you know? Stick to ONE thing or a FEW things, make them HIDDEN, and for the love of god, don't think you're being zOMG SO CREATIVE when you do it. 'Cause you're not.

    Again, I love you for this post. ;)

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  6. @Mel, I figured you'd agree with me on this one hahaha!

    @Lippy, I really can't give you ideas on headwear unless I see the dress. All I know is that you said it was blue. I need more to go one than that!

    @Mindy, you know I love wedding planning, anything you need help with I'm on.

    @Steph love you too!

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  7. I'll try and take a picture while Peter's not home with my webcam so all my girls can sEE ;)

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