S/O What was trendy when you got married?

[litskispeciality]

I should let the wedding thing go, but these threads are bringing back memories. Were there any trends that you did, or didn't do, during your wedding (even the year) you got married? Say for example when I got married in 2010 candy bars were all the rage. We didn't have one, but I saw a lot of people on The Knot having them, and some brides going to each other's weddings to help set them up. More recently there was the mason jars with burlap and babies breath centerpieces, and the lights with the bride and grooms first names A & B.

Also any songs that you heard over and over? Same first or last dance, same cake cutting etc.? 

[litskispeciality]

Like I said candy bars were really popular in 2010. Not sure if this is trendy, but I saw a lot of weddings where you had special bride & groom champagne toast glasses, and/or a customized/engraved cake cutter. My mom was kind enough to buy both of these, but looking back I think we could have bought flutes from the Dollar Store and tied a ribbon around the glass. I'm not sure if we still have the cake cutter (woops). Wedding parties jumping in the photos was popular in my area too, but my photographer sucked and talked me out of it. I think he was actually body shaming some of my bigger brides maids, but alas here we are.

I don't know if this was always a thing, but choosing a non-traditional song to walk down the aisle and back became a thing too. DH and I played a symphonic (no lyrics) version of a Coldplay song to walk out and it was kind of fun.

DH and I's first dance song was unique, special to us, and not a radio hit. I had the DJ play "God Blessed the Broken Road" as the last dance song because EVERYONE had that song somewhere in their wedding, but looking back I wish I did another unique song to a band DH and I love. "Grow Old With Me" was also big, and a lot of people played it as the cake cutting song...so we did too. After all that I don't think DH listened to any of the music other than our first dance song, lol.

[rosiebear]

Candy bars were trendy, as were individual cakes at each table instead of one big wedding cake. I THINK the wedding barn venue/esthetic was just kicking off in my area. Dresses with tons of pickups were getting popular, too. 2010; Midwest.

Edit: we did none of these things. We did do one thing that might have been trendy, but I don’t really remember: we had the ceremony and the reception in the same room.

[mrsukyankee]

Cupcakes. And I regretfully had cupcakes instead of a cake.

[bex1973]

2010 for us. The logo of the 2 joined hearts was popular and we used it too. It was on our invites, unity candle, cake topper, cake cutting set and napkins and maybe other places? I don't hate it now but it is a little cheesy.

[rosiebear]

Oct 5, 2023 9:17:37 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

Cupcakes. And I regretfully had cupcakes instead of a cake.

Oh yes! Cupcakes and donuts were trendy for awhile. (I’m sorry you regret yours.)

[litskispeciality]

Oh I forgot about the cupcake dresses. I think those were going out of style when I got married. Very big with David's Bridal. Not sure if this is still a thing, but the sweetheart just bride and groom table was a big thing too. Some of my BM's were PISSED that they didn't get to be up on stage at the head table, but given our numbers and recommendation of our wedding coordinator we just had DH and I, MOH and Best man, who ended up away from the table half the night anyway.

ETA: I really liked the letter/initial cake topper, but I didn't change my last name so I didn't even think to do my first last initial and DH's. I think he would have been annoying about that. Ribbon on cakes was big too. We had that, but more because the cake was part of our package and the baker didn't want to do anything extra unless we paid more. I said here's a roll of ribbon in the color of the BM's dresses. Thankfully it looked amazing and got lots of compliments (on the overall cake.)

Oh and getting announced was a big thing on The Knot. Again I didn't change my last name so I told the DJ just to say 'here's my first and DH's first name". He did, but I don't think he was super happy. I remember on The Knot boards a couple of "I'm getting introduced as Mr. & Mrs. to make someone at the wedding happy, but I'm not changing my name"...which I thought was so stupid.


And invitations saying "Bride and Groom (together with their parents) invite you..." if you were paying for (most of) your wedding. My mom talked me in to expensive invitations from an invitation place (BIG regret for a lot of reasons including their service). They actually gave me a hard time about that wording, and saying Adult Only Reception. I know that's unpopular, but for gawd sakes Karen I'm paying you $300 frigging dollars, write what I want and let me get flammed.

[cattledogkisses]

In 2008, dress styles were pretty much strapless or... strapless. Good luck if you wanted something else.

Unity candles were fairly popular then (we had one), and I don't see those anymore.

That time frame was sort of on the tail end of putting disposable cameras on the tables at the reception. That seems super dated now, lol.

[joy]

Strapless dresses (had one).

First Looks (hate them, didn’t do it)

[Susie]

Wedding dresses with pickups and/or color accents, either the waist ribbon, or part of the train, or part of the corset back.  e.g.:

[bex1973]

Oct 5, 2023 9:20:32 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

ETA: I really liked the letter/initial cake topper, but I didn't change my last name so I didn't even think to do my first last initial and DH's. I think he would have been annoying about that. Ribbon on cakes was big too. We had that, but more because the cake was part of our package and the baker didn't want to do anything extra unless we paid more. I said here's a roll of ribbon in the color of the BM's dresses. Thankfully it looked amazing and got lots of compliments (on the overall cake.)

Oh we had ribbon on our cake too! Matched the color of bridesmaid dresses almost exactly. I actually loved it! 

[litskispeciality]

Yes disposable cameras! We had them and boy do I have regertz. My husband's Army buddies are notorious for taking bad and inappropriate pictures with those, and gosh did they deliever. A couple of those just came up on my FB memories, and my friend who offered to pay for half of said cameras as a gift commented on how bad the lighting was in an otherwise nice picture of us.

Susie, dress example is what I call cupcake, or (sorry if that was your style dress) a little bit like a bed comforter, but hey brides thought it was Disney Princess.

[Susie]

Oct 5, 2023 9:29:39 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

Susie , dress example is what I call cupcake, or (sorry if that was your style dress) a little bit like a bed comforter, but hey brides thought it was Disney Princess.

not me or my dress, no worries!

and yes, exactly like this.

[CurlyQ284]

My xSIL picked red cupcake dresses for the bridesmaid dresses, hair half up/half down which is a look I hate on myself. I untagged myself in all the pictures she posted on Facebook, I hated how I looked so much for their wedding (2009, 6 weeks after my wedding).


For my wedding, strapless dress for sure. We did have a modified sweetheart table, it was us and my stepdaughters. I had us announced as The (Last name) Family instead of Mr. And Mrs. We did a lot of things to include the girls. We walked in to "I Gotta Feeling" by Black Eyed Peas, as did everyone that year 🤣

[loira]

I had a brilliant blue sash on my dress, but it wasn't cupcake style. No regrets because it made my eyes stand out in pictures.

I don't think we followed any other trends, but I am recognizing a lot of what is mentioned by those who got married in 2008-2010. Candy bars etc.

[msmerymac]

Oct 5, 2023 9:17:37 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

Cupcakes. And I regretfully had cupcakes instead of a cake.

My in-laws had cupcakes in 1969. Ahead of the trend!

[wildrice]

My dress was pickup/cupcake style! I don't think it was quite as dramatic as the one Susie posted, but I also thought it was really pretty. Out of style but I think it was perfect for 2009.

My XH and I did a sand ceremony, which wasn't quite as popular as the unity candle but was an alternative for outdoor weddings. Not sure if that is still a thing. We also did the disposable cameras, though IIRC nobody used them!

I haven't been to many weddings in recent years so I'm not sure what else has gone out of style. My H and I got married 2017 and I have no clue what was popular then since I didn't really do wedding planning.

[msmerymac]

Trends we did not do in 2010:

Manzanita branches
Cupcakes
Dresses with color accents
birdcage veils
Photos with everyone jumping (we did that at my brother's wedding in 2014 though)


My dress and the BM dresses had pickups, though! And strapless.

[mcsangel2]

Strapless dresses have been the fashion for 25 years now. This is why I paid to have my dress made, because I couldn't buy what I wanted (long sleeves, off the shoulder, solid matte satin/no lace). Normally fashions change much faster but I think this has happened because no sleeves/no neck or shoulder area means the dresses are much cheaper to make and easier to alter.

Our first dance was to a song that was a somewhat popular first dance at the time (2003), At Last by Etta James. Still love it.

[litskispeciality]

I remember all of these things, but not what bills I need to pay this week, lol.

We had unity sand because the venue didn't allow candles. That was nice and my parents got sand from the beach where we got engaged. The officiant had our moms add sand first to blend our families. Only bummer was we kept a little of the bride and groom sand in the individual jars per the officiant because it represents being a person in a marriage, but helpful cousin emptied it out in an effort to clean up after the reception. We still have the combined sand on our mantle.

Fancy chair covers. Thankfully the wedding coordinator was like "yeah I'll give you names of companies, but they're like $3 a chair, and really not worth it". My BM's joked when we got ready "oh my bum will be so sore without that chair cover!"

I forgot that bride(zillas) made BM's wear their hair a certain way. My BM's were kind of annoying "how am I doing my hair, what shoes do I have to wear?" I said do what you want, just wear Old Navy flip flops (which I bought) at the reception so your feet don't hurt. I hate when you have to wear hair or shoes a certain way.

Tiara's were big and I had one. Still no regertz. I think catherdral veils were popular too, but I didn't have hundreds of dollars for something I'd wear for 2 hours.

A separate throw bouquet so you could keep yours. I ended up making a fake flower one but signals got crossed so my MOH had to use hers. I think she actually wanted to keep it. Anyway my mom had my bouquet flowers pressed and put in a frame with a wedding photo. I should dig that out as the frame later broke.

Fake flowers were becoming more socially acceptable. I bought a bunch for center pieces, but changed my mind and we ended up with a ton of them for years to come. The DJ also didn't give away the center pieces, so we came home with 12 vases *sigh*

A fancy box for cards. We found a relatively inexpensive one, but I now wish we had some kind of online buying and selling modern brides have to save or get back your money.

Not sure if the dollar dance is still a thing. We didn't do it as it's not something in either of our families, but a lot of folks had that at their receptions.

I kind of wish first looks were a thing because I was a diva and so in to my "Walk to Remember" (sorry I hate Nicholas Sparks now) that I didn't pay attention to my husband's reaction to me in my dress. I should dig out the DVD sometime.

Oh and we played "I Gotta Feeling" as the first song in the reception. The DJ stunk, but he really liked that idea.

[scm1011]

Oct 5, 2023 9:56:23 GMT -5 mcsangel2 said:

Our first dance was to a song that was a somewhat popular first dance at the time (2003), At Last by Etta James. Still love it.

This was my sister's first dance in 2001 and it still makes me LOL because she was all of 23 when she got married.

[meanie]

It was 2008....I remember damask print everything on The Knot, I didn't do it but so many weddings used black and white damask print with a bright accent color.

We did the flip flop bin, which I would still do today because a lot of our reception was outside on grass.

Welcome bags at the hotel rooms, baskets of toiletries in the bathroom, just lots of extra stuff and little DIY notes on things - we did some of this.

Most of the trendy stuff I skipped, we were already in a very old setting with lots of cool stuff to look at so I kept the wedding colors and decor simple. We had a big band that just played some of their own songs, I can't even remember what our first dance was.

I remember my stupid DH trying to pull the whole forced mingling thing with less seating - no thanks!

[sadlebred]

2005. The cupcake dresses/pick ups and colored ribbons or part of the dress colored (like red or blue) were popular. My dress pic is in the dress thread, and it was not a cupcake dress.

Grooms cakes were popular. We did a simple one with chocolate cake and chocolate frosting from the same grocery store as our custom wedding cake.

The burlap/rustic look was really popular.

Our budget was so tight I didn't get to really follow any trends.

Edit: Everyone's posts from around the time I got married reminded me. I had a strapless dress, and we did disposable cameras and encouraged our friends to take pics with their "fancy" digital cameras. I still have photos from both.

[bex1973]

Oct 5, 2023 9:33:55 GMT -5 CurlyQ284 said:

 We walked in to "I Gotta Feeling" by Black Eyed Peas, as did everyone that year 🤣

Same LOL

[zaneyzoo]

2005 Midwest
Cupcake/pick up dresses were just becoming popular here. My dress is one of my biggest regrets.

We did the candy bar and had limes as accents in our cake and centerpieces

We had a tight budget and did a heavy appetizers for the meal, which actually was a huge hit

Our DJ did a decent job.

[HRH Queen Dick I, Orphan]

This thread is giving me hives.

[mel]

2008 - I definitely had a pick-up corset back dress, but I loved it. Groom's cakes were a thing, don't know if they still are. Wedding websites were super popular, probably in part because of the Knot.

[gardengal]

A lot of the trends when I got married have been mentioned.

I did do cupcakes with no regrets. I have been shafted one too many times with wedding cake & I wanted a foolproof way for everyone to get a decent sized piece! We had enough for everyone to have 2+ and they were filled! (like, spice cake filled with apple or chocolate filled with ganache)

I also had a strapless dress

I don't really have any regrets on our choices.

[ellipses84]

I got married in late August of ‘08 but the wedding date 08-08-08 fell on a Friday and was so popular! I feel like that era weddings expectations were still pretty traditional and we were seeing a lot of over the top $$$ weddings in the media. Digital was winning over film photography but it was still a debate. After that you started seeing a lot more non-traditional weddings and our covid world made eloping much more accepted.

It probably peaked in popularity a little later but flash mobs and surprise wedding dances were all the rage. There was a show about it and our reception space and DJ were on it a few years after we got married. Bridesmaids started wearing non-identical dresses.

Pickup dresses, cupcakes and damask (black white with pop of color / monograms) like others have said. Simpler wedding cakes than previous frou frou frosting eras.

[fernweh]

2008-

Chocolate Fountains were a big thing at the time
Strapless dresses as others mentioned but also “hints of color” for dresses (colored sashes and embroidery)