As wedding season approaches, engaged women everywhere are gearing up for their
big day. And while the planning process traditionally has been all about the
bride, wedding expert Jamie Miles says bridezillas are on the way out, and
crowdsourcing is on the way in.
"Planning a wedding has really become more of a collaborative process," said
Miles, editor for TheKnot.com. "There's a trend happening where it's not only
about the bride or the groom and what they want. Weddings are collaborative by
nature and planning the wedding is almost as fun as the wedding itself."
Miles said one of the reasons for the trend is that family members and friends
are more likely to chip in to help with the wedding costs. Combining this with
social media creates a "community feel" to planning a wedding, she said.
Here are some other wedding trends for 2013, according to Miles:
_Bright wedding dresses.
"Vera Wang's last wedding collection featured a red wedding gown, which is
really fun," Miles said. "We featured some black dresses too. It depends on your
personality. Brides are getting more playful. Metallic lace is also showing its
face...metallic is definitely in."
_Polling the bridesmaids.
"More and more brides are getting input from the bridesmaids before choosing the
bridesmaid's dress," Miles said. "Often brides will tell their wedding party
what color palette they're working from rather than tell them they have to get
one particular dress. That means they can be flexible on the styles."
_Rent-a-dress.
"There's a company called littleborroweddress.com that lets you rent a
(bridesmaid's) dress," she said. "They'll send you swatches to look at and you
can rent (a dress) for about a third (of) the cost ... to buy the dress. And
they send you two different sizes in case you get one that doesn't fit."
_Mixing up the vows.
"More people are incorporating their own vows within the standard set of
traditional vows," she said. "This caters to the grandparents who want that
traditional feel, as well as to the modern crowd."
_Smartphone videos.
Anyone with a smartphone can record a movie these days, but Miles said to be
careful not to let a friend replace the videographer.
"The angles that you're going to get with a professional and the reactions that
they're going to capture will be that much better," she said. "They'll catch
that first look and your friend with the cellphone might not be able to."
Livestreaming.
"We are seeing more couples are livestreaming their wedding for guests who can't
make (it)," Miles said. "There's an app called hangwith.com that allows you to
stream video to multiple devices and it's free, but the limitation is you can
only stream for three minutes at a time.
"Then there are professional services such as idostream.com or webcastmywedding.net who will allow you to rent equipment and set you up with a professional. You can also set up Skype on your computer if it's for one other person _ but ... check out your Internet connection beforehand. If you're banking on this working and you're in an unfamiliar environment or your ceremony is in a barn somewhere, you're not going to be able to get the connection that you need."
