If you’re in the midst of planning your wedding, you’ll probably have noticed things look a little different now. Firstly, your ideal wedding date is probably booked for the next three years in a row.
The pandemic has impacted the wedding industry and engaged couples in a variety of manners. These impacts are spurring on what we think will be the top wedding trends for the 2022 season. Chief among these? Say goodbye to Saturday weddings—there simply aren’t enough Saturdays in the year to go around!
Here’s our rundown of the top 2022 wedding season trends.
Weeknight Weddings
During the pandemic, thousands of couples had to postpone their weddings. As venues, vendors, and the world reopens for business, all of those couples are scrambling to get their wedding on the books in 2022.
Unfortunately, we anticipate this surge of demand in the wedding industry could carry right through 2023. So what does this mean for the classic Saturday wedding? They’re about to become rare gems, indeed.
Expect prices for Saturday venues, vendors, and travel to increase, and expect it to be nearly impossible to book a Saturday wedding at any urban venue for the foreseeable future.
Don’t get discouraged, though: there are six other days in the week to choose from. Yes, weeknight and Sunday weddings are about to become a lot more popular.
One of our favourite options is a Sunday brunch wedding, where the couple is married earlier in the day and the party can carry on all afternoon and well into the evening. A close second is a Friday morning or afternoon wedding, because celebrations can last through the entire weekend with the honeymoon departure on Monday morning (a much nicer activity than heading into the office!).
It’s important to remember that having a midweek wedding may make it more difficult for some guests to attend due to work, childcare responsibilities, or other commitments. These are still challenging times so, when booking your wedding in 2022, give your guests lots of notice and regard their responses with empathy. Understand that they still may not be able to attend in person.
Big Wedding Bashes
We’ve all been cooped up for over a year. Long live the huge, over-the-top, event-of-the-century wedding bash.
In 2022, as travel becomes possible and couples are finally able to marry after waiting months or even years, expect parties to grow bigger and better. Expect theatrics, decadent food, and lots of fireworks (literally, fireworks!).
Before the pandemic, there was a notable shift toward micro-weddings (naturally during the pandemic, these became the only option). Couples were refocusing on what mattered most: their relationship and their marriage.
Now? Couples want to show their marriage off to 300 of their closest friends. This all but guarantees a year of fantastical decor, highly choreographed first dances, and multi-day receptions—and we are here for it.
Eco-Friendly Nuptials
More than ever before, couples are also looking to decrease the environmental impact of their wedding events. In 2022, expect to see more couples requiring environmentally friendly practices and credentials from their vendors, from florist to caterer and beyond.
The wedding industry can contribute a lot to waste streams if we’re not careful—this is only natural, as so many weddings require food, beverages, and florals, which are all perishable goods that require energy to produce.
But don’t despair: eco-friendly options are becoming increasingly common, and this trend is only set to continue. Couples can lessen their impact by choosing eco-friendly dress and suiting options, and locally grown florals, to name a few.
Need ideas for your eco-friendly wedding? Check out our other post here.
Hybrid Wedding Attendance
Zoom is here to stay, and will play an increasingly important role in wedding events. Why? Because it enables us to include people that aren’t able to be present at a wedding in person.
We don’t know how quickly travel will fully recover over the next few years. Will self-isolation be required? Will vaccines be required for all travel? Will an errant surge of cases lock down specific regions? We don’t know. What we do know: Zoom is here for us.
So whether we’re still dealing with the latent effects of the pandemic, or we’re simply worried about asking Grandma and Grandpa to travel from another province, we’ve got options. Teleconferencing tech has come so far in the last year—you can either set up a simple Zoom call or hire a videographer to capture and broadcast your day.
This is called hybrid attendance—where some guests are there in person and others attend virtually. It might seem a bit weird now, but this tech will enable couples to have all of their nearby guests present without excluding those that live farther away.
Just think of how your guest list could grow!
Wedding Celebrations, Hold the Ceremony
Micro-weddings took the world by storm over the last year and a half. Tired of waiting and uncertain about the end of the pandemic, couples booked an officiant and had backyard weddings with limited attendance (socially distanced, of course).
But now? Those happily married couples still want the party they couldn’t have during lockdown. We’re calling it … 2022 will be the year of the wedding reception.
With the ceremony said and done, the couple can focus on throwing a great party and having a great time. Think second wedding dresses (good for dancing!), nontraditional tuxedos, open bars, and again, fireworks.
For many couples, having the ceremony and the reception in one day is a tall order. It’s costly to begin with but is also a long, tiring, and emotional day.
By having a private ceremony, couples capitalize on the magical intimacy of finally being married. Then, they’re also able to save a little extra money, take a little extra time for planning, and throw the biggest, best reception that may have been otherwise impossible.
The only question: do you send gifts twice, then? We’ll let you know.
2022 is going to be a fantastic year for weddings and we are so happy for all of the couples finally able to marry after a long, turbulent year. The theme of these trends is clear: bringing together everyone you hold dear for a joyous celebration. We’re very much on board with that.