Pop Up Chapel Canada

Forget blush versus burgundy or roses versus ranunculus—these days, much bigger considerations are shaping modern wedding trends. Fuelled by millennials, conversations around social responsibility, inclusivity and sustainability are turning the wedding industry on its head.

“People are getting married later in life, so they’re not as bound by tradition,” explains bridal expert Jessica Mulroney. “Often these couples are paying for [the wedding] themselves, and they want to put their own stamp on it instead of being restricted by how their parents think a wedding should be planned.”

Here are the three most exciting emerging wedding trends Mulroney believes are poised to become marital movements.

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The pop-up wedding

Think of pop-up weddings as nuptial all-in-one kits pre-packaged to perfection. They offer the full bridal experience in a condensed amount of time for a fraction of the price.

Lynzie Kent founded Pop Up Chapel Canada in 2017 when she noticed a gap in the wedding industry between increasingly popular city hall ceremonies and traditional banquet centre celebrations.

“Millennials and Gen Z couples are showing a different set of values when it comes to life planning,” says Kent, who also runs Love by Lynzie Events + Design.

When couples sign up to participate in Kent’s chapels, they agree to split an impeccably decorated venue, and their wedding day, with a number of other couples that they’ll never see. A $2,500 fee covers private use of the venue for an hour, personal flowers, live music, an officiant, a photographer and a celebratory toast for up to 20 guests with $300 going to charity. Along with the location, decor themes and vendors, the charities change with each pop-up.

Kent says she has five sold-out chapels for the rest of 2019 and 10 more planned for 2020. She cites ease and affordability as central to the pop-up appeal. “There’s no planning involved—couples literally show up and get married. It’s also inexpensive: A ton of our couples are saving for travel, mortgages or babies.”

That’s a trend that Mulroney is familiar with. “Couples choose to spend less on a wedding, and as a result need to be creative with what they spend.” Kent prides herself on the conceptualization that goes into planning each pop-up, ensuring the spaces are outfitted with all the trimmings of a party that’s typically at least 10 times the price.

The zero-waste wedding

This might be the year confetti sales slump as more couples realize the “best day of their life” could also potentially be the most wasteful.

With the zero-waste movement going mainstream, eco-conscious celebrations are becoming increasingly popular. Pinterest reports a 181 per cent surge in searches for sustainable wedding ideas since 2018.

It should come as no surprise that in a time when many people are toting their own straws and coffee cups to the office that they may question spending thousands of dollars on single-use garments and flowers that will go in the garbage at the end of the night.

“People still want pretty flowers at weddings and events, but hopefully the single-use-straight-to-landfill days are over,” says Kalynn Crump, founder of Calgary- and Toronto-based ReBloom. ReBloom repurposes event flowers—picking them up and redesigning them into smaller, bedside table arrangements and delivering them to a seniors’ home, hospice, cancer treatment centre, mental health facility or shelter of the couple’s choosing. Once the flowers have been enjoyed, ReBloom returns to collect them for composting. (Gwyneth Paltrow used a similar floral recycler for her recent low-key wedding to Brad Falchuk.)

Crump’s ReBloom service comes at a cost (fees start at $800 and are based on the size and scale of the event’s floral plan), but Crump says beyond the environmental payoff, most couples see the value in being able to spread the joy of their wedding day. As she puts it, “To give flowers to someone who truly feels forgotten…their smile, their gratitude, it gets you right in your heart and that feeling will never leave you.”

The progressive wedding

The backstories to some of the wedding world’s most time-honoured traditions are actually pretty cringe-worthy. The garter toss? That was originally to offer proof of consummation to the drunken horde of wedding guests outside the honeymoon suite. The best man? He was the guy grooms turned to when they wanted to steal a woman from a neighbouring community. Add to this the “giving away” of the bride and vows that reference a lifetime of servitude, and you begin to see why couples are re-examining established traditions.

“We see millennials questioning if their parents lives are what they truly want, from buying property to staying with the same employer for decades, so it’s no surprise that they are re-envisioning weddings as well,” says Maggie Barton Baird, owner and lead planner of Edmonton-based MB&Company.

Barton Baird says gendered wedding parties, cake cutting and traditional vows are among the outdated conventions couples are most eager to overhaul. Vows are particularly contentious: “I’ve had couples ask me to go through the script and suggest alternative language that doesn’t create any power dynamic or hierarchy between them.” Millennials, she says, are generally willing to leave out anything that doesn’t add substance to the celebration. “Couples are actively thinking about the way their day will feel for both themselves and the guests,” says Barton Baird. “It isn’t about checking off the boxes in a wedding planning guide; it’s about creating an experience.” Mulroney agrees and credits social media with helping to turn tradition on its head. “Seeing that others are choosing to plan more unique weddings gives couples encouragement to find ways to express themselves—and their celebration—in their own way.”

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