Ten top wedding trends for 2022

With the flurry of post-pandemic planning and ceremonies taking place, Your Wedding Live looks to the future with the latest wedding trends and things you might want to consider for your big day

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1 Outsized bouquet

Go big or go home, they say… Gone are the days where a small neat bouquet with matching flowers will cut it – 2022’s brides are going to be going all out with blooms to fill an Instagram grid and to make their photographs pop! Peaches, corals, golds and the palest of pinks. It’s time to go girly on the flower front.

2 Puff love

Wedding fashion is fill of nostalgia – from the babydoll dresses of the 60s to 70’s-style boho chic and full-on princess ballgowns of the 90s, but it’s a feature of the 80s that is make a play for centre stage at next year’s weddings… that is, the puff sleeve. Balloon cuffs, puffed-up shoulders and billowing silk-taffeta above-elbow designs will be a feature we see more and more for wedding trends in 2022. Think Princess Diana, with an uber modern twist.

3 Green dresses

Bridal manufacturers and designers are definitely more conscious than most of the waste that their industry generates, of the importance of stock control and how using discontinued stock fabrics, offcuts and embellishment in new designs and lines all helps towards making the wedding industry clean up its act. We love designers Kate Halfpenny and Raffi, who focus on cutting back over-production and so reducing waste. Raffi even uses ‘peace silk’ which is grown organically here in the UK.

4 In the navy

Going back to the rise in popularity of gold, along comes navy, to compliment it perfectly! The bridal party, including the mums, as well as wedding guests and the bridesmaids, of course, will all be rocking this rich, deep colour though next winter’s weddings and beyond. Structured suits and flouncy dresses both ace it in navy blue.

5 Going for gold

All that glitters IS gold. Maybe we got a taste for it at the Tokyo Olympics, but gold is definitely back! And the good news is, it’s everywhere – in jewellery, stationery and even integral to the décor of some of the finest venues in the UK. So, go for gold to bring a deeply luxurious edge to your big day, starting with your hair accessories and finishing with your feet!

6 Cakeover

There are plenty of couples who feel that cake just isn’t their thing. And alternatives such as doughnuts and cupcakes have been showing up on dessert tables to offer something a little different. But if you really don’t want anything sweet, you’ll love the new trend for cheesecake wedding cakes.

While a traditional cheesecake comes to mind, the new take is tiered cheesecakes made from rounds of cheese. The perfect way to create the traditional stacked cake look, while offering something different and delicious.

7 First nights

One age-old tradition we are welcoming back with open arms is that of the first night… Wedding celebrations would end with the newlyweds driving off into blissful wedding life together, streamers and tin cans trailing in their wake. Now we get the couple still on the dancefloor at midnight, propping up the bar as the last guests leave. We love the romance of a change of outfit for the bride and a final appearance before heading off to spend their first night together as a married couple.

8 The main event

When a wedding is not just one day… We’ve taken a leaf from the Stateside celebration book, where weddings are often more like a week-long event. Whether you’re having a destination wedding, where your guests have travelled some distance and might like to stay more than a couple of nights, or you have decided to stage a five-night celebration culminating in the wedding itself, there are plenty of opportunities to make the most of the time all together. Throw in hen and stag dos, a rehearsal dinner, a post-wedding barbecue and you have yourself much more than a wedding – quality time spent with your most loved ones.

9 Sun seekers

The options for travel are gradually returning to ‘normality’ and destination weddings and honeymoons are becoming a reality. Victoria Morris of Sophisticated Weddings says,“With intimacy, romance and settings so beautiful the reality is even more exquisite than Pinterest. Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast have so many charms. Each winding street oozes character, the air fills with an atmospheric buzz and the sun sparkles on the surface of the azure sea…” How can you resist?

10 Hair flair

We asked multi award-winning wedding hair stylist, Tracy Pallari for her predictions for bridal hair trends for 2022: “I feel 2022 will see two distinct looks becoming equally popular; full on glamour hair with variations on the Hollywood wave, and the complete opposite in very natural, unstructured boho styles. Either way, accessories are going to play a more prominent part in wedding hairstyles. We will be styling hair around beautifully designed headpieces, rather than just placing the accessory in a finished style.”

For bridal accessory ideas visit perfect finishing touches.