Word from the fashion industry’s most illustrious wedding planners is that we can expect a break from tradition in 2023. Couples are divorcing from convention and saying “I do” to personal details, from bows and buttonholes to single stems and dresses with couture details.
“Weddings were starting to feel quite cookie cutter in many ways,” says Katie Smyth, co-founder of East London floral design studio, Worm. “Couples are taking a side step from what they feel they should do, [and concentrating on] the ritual of getting married”.
“It’s an exciting time to be working in weddings, as they are more creative, more unique and more personal than ever before,” adds Liz Linkleter, the woman who helped Daisy Hoppen plan her elegant winter affair in London’s hidden 19th-century gem, 2 Temple Place. “Traditional formats feel like a thing of the past. I love how free couples now feel to express themselves – there are truly no rules.” My Beautiful City, the creative agency behind Tish Weinstock and Tom Guinness’s high-drama Halloween reception, couldn’t agree more: “It’s become more accepted to have the day just how the couple want, rather than the pressure and expectation of how it should be.”
Here, the key bridal trends to look out for in 2023.
Big ideas
While themed weddings – from raves to colour-coded balls and era-specific banquets – add a fun spin to the day and let guests get creative, there’s one key mood igniting couples’ imaginations. Gothic nuptials, according to Linkleter, are “the absolute reversal of a traditional white wedding”, all wild florals and dripping candles that invite extravagance. Weinstock’s three-day bacchanal at Belvoir Castle will be brilliant inspiration as brides and grooms zero in on experiential touches (the newlyweds had the castle cannons popping off after dinner) to delight guests and make the job of photographers like Ben Wheeler, who shot Lucy Williams’s impossibly picturesque Andros wedding, more editorial. “There seems to be a big emphasis on entertainment and live music with various aspects running through the day to keep guests dancing, which is great for energy in the pictures,” says the in-demand lensman, who was also behind the photos of Savannah Miller’s recent fairytale Christmas wedding at Petersham Nurseries.
The “buddymoon”
A new term sure to delight those who buy into “bride tribes”, “stens” etc, as duos adopt a party-first, wedding-second mindset. “Our clients are looking for venues they can take over for a week and have an extended ‘buddymoon’ with all of their closest friends,” shares Linkleter. “After-parties are huge and complete events in their own right – often in separate locations with a completely different look and feel.” She cites Camille Charrière’s “roaring 2020s” wedding at art nouveau hotspot Maxim’s in France as the precursor for the nightclubs-as-venues trend, and the raucous memories set to be made.
Bespoke invitations
“The pressure is ever-increasing to make sure your wedding is totally unique and feels completely you,” notes Linkleter, while Peckham-based Sage Flowers’s Romy St Clair says that the boom in personal touches is only making bridal parties more ambitious with their bespoke requests. Blooms – single stems significant to the bride are now out-pacing homogeneous bouquets and displays – must be as personal as the dresses women wear, while fellow florists at Worm are finding ways to work around early morning ceremonies and late-night parties, as couples “break free from traditions which don’t necessarily align with them and their values”, and say their vows whenever the heck they want their confetti thrown.
