Wedding Trends
FOR 2017
KEVIN WALKER | JE FEATURE
Top: SEASTOCK/iStock/Thinkstock.com
Like all big events, weddings move from one trend to another.

What was hot in 2014 is stone cold in 2017.

For this year, you can expect new trends to emerge and a few
from last year to keep going. The good news is that whatever
theme you pick for your big day, the Philadelphia area has a
diverse number of options from which to choose.

Everyone has their own idea about the best way to tie the knot.

However, some trends emerged in interviews with Philadelphia
wedding planners and designers.

They include:
• Art deco is in.

• Glam — art deco-style and otherwise — also is in.

• Country barn weddings remain popular with many.

• Many couples now focus on guest experience and appealing
to all five senses.

• Nontraditional has become the new traditional for many,
with couples looking to become trendsetters.

• That said, traditional is always in with some. That’s one
reason for the continued popularity of landmark buildings in
Philadelphia for weddings, including the National Museum
of American Jewish History.

• Also, donut walls. Your guests will thank you.

WHY WAIT?
If you’re thinking about getting married, that’s just an old tradition
that is fading fast in the modern world, right? Actually, no. Marriage
rates have stabilized in the last decade, according to statistics kept by
(of all departments) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The federal agency reports that since 2009, about 6.8 percent of
the population got married. That’s more than 2 million people a
year. In 2014, the last year for which numbers are currently avail-
able, it jumped to 6.9 percent, or 2.1 million people.

So if you are planning a wedding, you have a lot of company.

Wedding planners in the Philadelphia area said they receive a
steady stream of requests for planning, catering and designing
weddings. JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
“People have money to spend,” said Marlee Wilson with DFW
Event Design in Philadelphia. She noted that some of the recent
weddings have been larger than usual. An upcoming wedding in
Jersey City features 300 guests and is taking up most of the space
at the Hyatt Regency.

Couples are also moving fast.

Jennifer Supper, director of sales and special events for
Kaleidoscope Weddings in Wayne, said, “Short engagements are
in. I am hearing from people who want to get married in less than
six months.”
Another trend is appealing to all five senses, said Caitlin
Boshnack, wedding sales manager for the Garces Group in
Philadelphia. For example, she said, herbs might be included in floral
arrangements so “people can smell how beautiful it is as well as see it.”
HOMEMADE WEDDING TRENDS
One of the big trends emerging in Jewish weddings is the idea of
going homemade.

For example, Supper said for a recent wedding, the bride made
a homemade version of the chuppah covering into which she had
woven her grandmother’s scarves.

“In another one, the bride made a hand-sewn tallit out of yarn,
large enough to be a quilt on her and her husband’s bed after the
wedding,” Supper said.

There also have been changes in the ketubah, which tradition-
ally is done before the ceremony by two appointed witnesses. More
and more couples are choosing to have the ketubah signing during
the ceremony “so everyone can witness as opposed to before the
ceremony with a select few family members,” Supper said.

THE ROARING ’20S
Katie Robinson with DFW Event Design said while trends come
and go, one big one has emerged so far in 2017, a kind of “Great
Gatsby” feel for weddings.

SIMCHAS See Trends, Page 30
MARCH 23, 2017
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