A few weeks ago I posted a poll on my Instagram, pitting two styles and options for wedding and elopements against each other. Here are the Winners for wedding trends!

Summer and Fall Weddings

The busiest time of the year for photographers is affectionately our “wedding season” during the months of May – October. Appropriately, nearly 80% of those polled voted for summer and fall weddings. I have to say, I am with them! I appreciate all my winter brides who help me to stay inspired and creative in the off season. But I am definitely a sucker for warm summer evenings and vivid fall colors.

Sheer and Delicate Sleeves

I love seeing all of the different styles that brides choose for their dresses. The majority of my brides choose strapless dresses or dresses with strappy sleeves. If we had done this poll between sleeves or sleeveless dresses, I think it would be overwhelmingly be sleeveless. But between Sheer and Lined sleeves, 66% of voters said they prefer sheer sleeves. Here are some of our favorite sheer sleeve dresses!

Long and Romantic Veils

One of the benefits of a long veil is the ability to take really dreamy veil shots. The longer the veil, the better! Several of our Janelle and Co Brides this year wore long veils, sometimes called cathedral veils. Some brides choose to wear a veil for the entirety of their photos, and others wear it for only a portion. Veil shots can accomplished with shorter veils, but are much easier with long veils.  About 60% of voters chose a long veil over a short veil.

Waterfalls and other water features

Waterfalls over Sand won out with 74% of the votes! While I look a good sand dunes photoshoot, I love the look of rivers, lakes, and waterfalls. There is something so dreamy about the lake views! I love the contrast in the waterfalls with the dark rocks, still colorful water and the movement of white water.

Mountains

75% of voters chose Mountains over the Beach. It’s pretty hard to choose! But I would also lean towards the mountains for my elopement or wedding location over the beach. There is a lot of variety to be found in the mountains which looks incredible in photos. It’s easy to spend several hours exploring and taking photos!

Farm House Style

Farm House style to me is really more of an elegant cousin to the rustic vibe of cabins. My favorite thing about the farmhouse style is all of the white. I absolutely love how this allows light to bounce in the space. This was the closest of the voting with 54% choosing the farmhouse style over the cabin vibes. Because it was so close, I just had to include some of my favorite cabin venues too!

Styled Blue and Gold Elopement at The Avenues in Rexburg

Classy Wedding Reception at The Avenues in Rexburg

Labelle Lake

Intimate Weddings and Elopements

While I didn’t poll my Instagram audience on this question, it feels like it deserves to be part of the trends anyways! With Covid-19 still being a very present part of our every day, I foresee elopements continuing to rise in popularity. Elopements are my favorite anyways and I am certainly focusing keywords and more towards booking elopements. And the numbers do not lie! In 2019, approximately 25% of my wedding bookings were for elopements with less than 10 guests. In contrast, elopement bookings rose to be about 61% of my weddings for 2020. This upcoming year, bookings are currently at 70% elopements for all of my wedding bookings! I love this wedding trend and hope it continues for Janelle and Co Photography!

What are your predictions for wedding trends?