Planning a wedding for 2025? Congratulations! Hold on to that “YES” moment, and don’t get into any stress about trends and details. You be you, and talk to us. As a preferred, top-ranked, Louisville, KY wedding planner, always researching local and national wedding-planning trends, The Kelly Way can’t wait to hear about your vision of the perfect day. Let's get started.
Overall Focus on Authenticity Makes Top Trends in 2025 Wedding Planning Not So ‘Trendy’
The underlying theme among all current trends in national and Louisville wedding planning is … personal and authentic. You (the betrothed couple) have shared passions you can share interactively with guests, often through immersive, engaging experiences and activities. Sustainability, inclusion and diversity are at the forefront of expressive themes, driving the resulting trends you’ll see in this blog, such as minimalism, vintage, rustic, reclaimed-industrial, recyclable, pre-owned and high-tech.
Begin with your shared passions plus your initial thoughts of location, size and budget, so the details (from vows, to colors, venue, catering, music and gifts) will creatively follow. Your guests (who know and love you for who you are), won’t see ‘trendy’, but will only see the celebration of you. Are you animal lovers, naturalists, hikers, bookworms, wine or Bourbon connoisseurs, musicians? We may soon be focused on décor, catering and music that transform a forest, library or distillery into an unforgettable ceremony with all other details following the theme. See how this will go? Let’s start, plan and then finish joyously with … you!
1. Wedding Size and Venue Have Gone from Large to Small, to Either
Post-Covid/Quarantine weddings took venues and headcounts from traditional church settings, as large as you could afford, down to “micro weddings” and elopement receptions in backyards and courtyards, bars or travel destinations. Naturally, the intimacy and privacy of the ceremony and celebration were emphasized with more personal vows, friends as ministers, attire more casual, and receptions more creatively engaging.
We saw a big shift in 2024 back to larger venues and headcounts! However, micro-weddings and elopements continued, often with a large reception. In both cases, personal and “alternative” continued to become the new norm, and to continuously expand beyond conventions. While some larger ceremonies went back to churches and traditional vows, some went increasingly to barns, industrial spaces or entertainment venues. Receptions continued the trend of creative, non-traditional, expressive and interactive. Meanwhile, the tech boom of VR, AI and drones, has meant that ceremonies and receptions of largest sizes could be more interactive, engaging and intimate.
2. The Top Theme in Wedding and Reception Décor is Low-Impact and Sustainability
Environmental sustainability is a central theme among young couples, which can accommodate a broad range of tastes, from reclaiming industrial space to naturalism with a grand barn reception. The personal statements of re-use and recycle from the bride and groom are often initiated with the wedding announcements and invitations in artistically recycled/recyclable paper or digital media. The use of digital media can open endless opportunities for creative expression, from use of social media for announcements, to SMS messaging of reminders and reception activities.
The statement of conservation can be stylishly continued through every experience, from the ceremony to the reception, especially with décor featuring creative, ‘home-like’, re-use of draperies and rugs and furniture, which can be bought or rented from, and returned to, local consignment stores.
One of the most powerful uses of low-impact décor today is … shadow and light. By combining drapery with effective placements of light, and clear-topped tents to reveal the starry sky, the reception is instantly and naturally magical. Less can definitely be more!
3. Wedding Colors, Gowns, Hair and Makeup Are Minimalistic and Natural with Pops of Jewel Tones
The theme of elegant simplicity continues into the top trending “Luxe Minimal” styling of dresses, hair styles and makeup for the bride and bridal parties. Pre-owned and inherited bridal wear can be the most sentimental expression of elegance with natural, organic fabrics, or using combinations of old-and-new fabrics, pearls, hair combs, broaches, etc. It can take so little to make a bold statement of preserving legacy as well as the environment.
Similarly, hairstyles and makeup can be stunningly minimalistic with smooth blow dries, slick-backed buns, polished ponytails and delicate accents of natural, bright jewel tones.
In general, most color trends support the range of sustainable venue selections, from industrial metallic to natural, with underlying earth tones and peach fuzz with pops of bright jewel tones and ultraviolet purple.
4. Wedding Reception Entertainment, Music and Interactive Features
Guest engagement can be the most creative, natural and memorable element of your wedding reception. Again, this is where we begin with the priorities and passions of the bride and groom, and with the selection of venue, whether traditional or unique. Top trends are “organic”, live music combined with low-impact, high-tech devices for interactive entertainment, from VR photo booths and the use of drone video to make your guests and wedding party the feature video on a large screen or wall.
The central trend of authenticity is again the spark behind your unique use of interactive entertainment, so the use of both natural and high-tech features are focused on the people … guests and wedding party alike. This is where your Day-of-Wedding-Coordinator is critical! You can ensure the most enjoyment and least stress by arranging for the experienced Planner/Coordinator to take care of these details and ensure that all of those moments of engagement are joyful memories for all.
5. Wedding Catering, Dessert and Cake-Cutting
This is where tradition is most noticeably and quickly being converted to creative, practical, and … personal. Especially in Louisville, KY, where ‘foodie-ism’ is second only to ‘bourbon-ism’, we are making statements of conservation as personality when we say, “you are what you eat”, and we have nearly endless diversity of choices in cuisine. It’s not surprising that food trucks are among the top-trending (national, and especially local) catering options, which is as much of a fun feature activity as it is a delicious choice of menu.
Likewise, the catering element of the reception today doesn’t have to structurally defined as much of the ‘agenda’ as traditionally has … where the wedding party eats, then the guests, and the bride and groom make their rounds, and then … etc. The traditional elements of the evening can remain as traditional as you like, or not!
The same goes with the choice of cake and the tradition of cake-cutting. Artistic/creative and dome cakes are becoming more preferred, and cake-cutting (as the traditional beginning of serving the cake) may be replaced altogether by some activity expressing the couple's shared loves for sweets, such as surprise bags of Twizzlers or Snickers! Again, instead of the guests cheering that they did the expected, they instead will have authentic joy seeing the bride and groom being their unique selves.
In Louisville or anywhere among the surrounding, beautifully rustic and rolling hills and fields of the Bluegrass state, we have natural resources, stunning settings and historic sites for the most memorable and engaging of personal weddings and receptions. There’s the week-long, Bourbon-emersion experience, the caravan of food trucks, the quaint B&B elopement, and the barn-style blowout. Endless possibilities!
What makes it all happen dependably, is just you and us … the couple in love, and the experienced wedding planner whose professional passion is all about celebrating personal passion. We can’t wait to get started! Contact The Kelly Way, LLC. for a free consult and quote, and then the most reliable and memorable weddings in Louisville and Kentuckiana.
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