We’re not big fans of the wedding hype!

Published by Claire Gould on June 6, 2022June 6, 2022

I wanted to hug Lisa and Duncan when I read their interview for our blog. They told us, “We’re not big fans of the wedding hype!... Love and fun are all that matter! There is such unnecessary pressure on couples to have the ‘perfect day’.”

All images in this blog post are by Kent wedding photographer Benjamin Toms

The wedding media is HUGE, but printed magazines had a rough couple of years in 2021 and 2022. When weddings stopped and guest numbers were restricted, many major wedding magazines disappeared from our shops. The ‘wedding hype’ faded, just a little… and perhaps that’s no bad thing.

Of course, blogs and wedding websites kept going. Love My Dress spearheaded the What About Weddings campaign, and became an essential support for couples postponing their celebrations. In some ways, there was more need than ever for the wedding media to stay strong.

But the focus of the wedding media moved away from the standard ‘wedding hype’ we were all used to, and became something that felt more relatable. Suddenly we could read about the beauty of human connection and bringing together families. Weddings were no longer ‘all about the pretty’ (if they ever were) and happily, the bulk of the wedding media stepped away from consumerism and towards love and family, to just being together and having simpler, authentic celebrations. For brides like Candice, being married was far more important than the wedding itself – and we love that.

Against the backdrop of the pandemic, there was a new focus on weddings and mental health, which is a huge topic we’re looking to explore more on English Wedding. There’s always been an expectation that wedding planning is stressful – but this feeling is widely accepted, and it shouldn’t be.

The phrase ‘micro wedding‘ could have been invented in 2020… this was the biggest ‘trend’ of the time. For all the wrong reasons, couples were forced to cull their guest lists and have tiny ceremonies with only their closest family and one or two friends. But the intimate weddings our couples shared with us were all the more wonderful for their cosy size. We hope, with all our hearts, that micro weddings (perhaps we’ll rename them) are here to stay, because we love to see them.

As the wedding magazines land back on supermarket shelves and branches of the media herald the return of big weddings, we’re here to remind you not to believe the hype. Take a closer look at the wedding magazines and you’ll see they’re ALL about selling you stuff.

The publisher is a business: their objective is purely profit. Their advertisers – the vast majority being global wedding dress brands and venues – are in there to sell to brides. Almost every page encourages you to spend.

But as a responsible wedding website, we want to tell you it’s ok to do things your way. Scale back. Ignore the hype. Be kind to yourselves and do whatever feels right to you. If you’re hiring suppliers, always find the independent little businesses who pour their hearts and souls into every wedding. Choose a wedding or an elopement, a huge ‘do’ or a tiny moment of togetherness, so long as it’s perfect for you both.

Because like Lisa and Duncan, we’re not fans of the wedding hype either. We just love happy people, joy and celebration, whatever that means for you. Go and be YOU, and do this your way!