These are the trends & traditions that brides think are outdated

Look. Let me start by saying, there’s no right or wrong way to get married and have your wedding. Your day is unique and special to you and your partner and your meticulous planning made it the perfect day for you two. What might be one person’s perfect dress or cake might not be another person’s cup of tea.

But as with fashion, interiors, food and all of life, things go in and out of style. Even traditions!

From wedding favours to wedding ‘doughnut cakes’, trends and fads have come and go in the wedding industry, some of which we’ve loved and others…not so much. But trends and traditions have their time and place, and these ones – according to the brides and wedding planners of the internet – are no longer, as the kids say, ‘hot’.

They’ve had their day, they’ve been overdone, or they were just cute in a certain moment in time. Either way, today’s brides are casting off these rituals and ideas to embrace the next trends that will sweep the wedding industry!

Wedding favours

Deemed ‘a huge waste’ by many the modern bride, wedding favours have been a tradition at weddings for centuries. What originally started as symbols of good luck to bless the marriage and were often sugar cubes (something only afforded by the rich), favours have become increasingly useless and even tacky in some cases over the years.

After a huge meal and dancing and drinking, it’s rare that guests even remember to pick up their favours to bring home! The carefully wrapped and even personalised favours are left scattered over tables or clogging up the gifts table by the end of the night and all the money wasted on them are sure to annoy the bride and groom! Cutting them out of your wedding is increasingly becoming the norm – and no one will comment on their absence really!

Skipping the wedding cake

The wedding cake has seen many transformations over the years, more recently becoming wedding cupcake tiers or even ‘false’ cakes, where a large structure is made that looks like a wedding cake, but secretly only the top tier is cake for the bride and groom to cut. A sheet cake is often brought out later for guests.

The dessert table is actually coming forward as a new trend to replace the wedding cake itself. Instead of a large, expensive and decorative cake that only gets half-eaten, couples are instead opting for a wide variety of desserts that people can help themselves to instead of the formal, sit-down dessert.

Physical save the dates

The invitation is a dying communication form, with the frilly, white and sparkly wedding invite taking on an e-format. Brides and grooms are turning to sites like Canva to create their own digital designs to send out to guests with invitations, direction and dress codes.

If you’re not totally onboard with the e-vite, what some couples will do is only send physical a crafted physical copy to their wedding party, in order to have a keepsake for themselves and their wedding album, while also saving on costs.

Huge wedding parties

The days of 5+ bridesmaids and groomsmen are over! Katherine Heigl in ‘27 dresses’ would be in trouble if she was planning a wedding in today’s economy! It’s cheaper, more manageable and looks cleaner to keep your bridal party numbers small and intimate.

Having hoards of people walking down the aisle means paying for hoards of bridesmaids dresses, a complicated hen and a lot of complex friendships and family connections to navigate. How do you tell one cousin they’re a bridesmaid and exclude the other? It’s simpler to keep it small and to you nearest and dearest.

Obligatory invites

Your mother’s friend who you met once when you were a toddler? Nope. Your cousin’s new boyfriend? Nope. Your old college friend that you haven’t talked to in years and has never reached out? Absolutely no.

The only people who should be at your wedding are people you love, who make you feel comfortable and who you really want there. Modern brides and groom are saying goodbye to the old school obligatory invites – those people you apparently ‘should’ invite, but secretly hope will decline and just send a gift.

The white wedding dress

Because this look is a classic, we would never say it’s been done to death – it’s a beautiful tradition, even though it does have questionable roots. But with so many options and incredible designers out there, there’s no need to stick to white any more if you don’t feel like wearing it on your big day!

Brides today are going for more adventurous colours and designs to showcase their personalities and to feel comfortable and beautiful on their big day. No more limiting yourself to just the one colour!