The latest taboo in wedding etiquette: sticking your smartphone out in the aisle during the bride’s entrance when a professional’s already snapping the moment. If you wait, there are plenty of other chances to capture memories of the big day.
Many couples set up backdrops at their receptions, with help from rental services, which can construct artificial floral, boxwood, eucalyptus, and hedge walls for the altar, a seating arrangement display, or the head table. Rental companies also offer such accessories as neon “Treat Yourself” signs, perfect for a dessert table. Many brides style the walls on their own, often featuring a new last name with the greenery. “It adds the element of fun to your wedding,” says Eye Candy Rentals owner Beth Milan, “but it’s also really beautiful.”
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Another display option for that foliage backdrop: a wedding’s hashtag (yes, the epitome of getting married in the age of social media). The cutesy phrase usually incorporates the married last name or both first names. Why have the hashtag? (1) It’s a creative way to share the occasion, and (2) a good strategy to track all those photos that guests are sharing. (If creating the perfect hashtag seems daunting, consider a song, movie title, or silly rhyme; if all else fails, a quick Google search provides a few hashtag generators.)
Couples are also getting creative with photo shoots and mementos. Embroidery studio Daily Disco, for instance, sells “Just Married” patches, custom bride chain stitch embroidery, and heart patches, onto which the shop can stitch wedding dates. Alicia Lantzy of On Three Designs has also hand-painted romantic phrases onto leather jackets. Many couples also call upon Lantzy for her custom mementos and stationery, a hallmark of many wedding albums. She’s illustrated signature cocktail menus (drinks personal to the bride or groom), done seating arrangements and table numbers in calligraphy, painted watercolor sketches of couples’ homes or wedding venues, too. Perhaps the best one, though, was when Lantzy decorated such items as the wedding’s cocktail napkins, Koozies, and gift bags with images of a couple’s beloved corgi, along with the couple’s names and wedding date.
“Couples are looking for a way to make their weddings unique,” says Lantzy. “They want to find ways to make their weddings stand out—ways to make guests smile.”
