These 5 Wedding Trends Are About To Be Everywhere, According To A Wedding Content Creator

“If I knew I was going to be successful at my job, I would have called myself something catchier than a ‘wedding content creator,’” says Lauren “Laur” Ladouceur. One of the most sought-after wedding vendors in her field, the New York City-based social media savant first launched her company, Plan With Laur, in 2020; three years later, she still fields plenty of questions about her unique line of work. Which, quite frankly, begs the question: What, exactly, does a wedding content creator do?

The answer is…a lot. From capturing behind-the-scenes content to creating cinematic recaps, Ladouceur serves as a full-on wedding content creation machine. She and her team — which includes her husband and two assistants — work as far as a year out with couples looking to create viral social media moments on their big day. (This year alone, six of Ladouceur’s videos have garnered millions of views; each one grew the bride’s platform by over 100,000 people.) And she delivers all of the footage within a 24-hour timeframe. “We live in a world of instant gratification, so people want to show off their weddings right away,” she says. “That’s where my team and I come in to shoot candid photos and videos that really reflect a couple’s love story. My job is to show a bride that her dad dropped into a split on the dance floor when she wasn’t around — and now she gets to feel like she’s part of a great moment that she initially missed.”

As one of the first vendors of her kind, Ladouceur first discovered the gap in the wedding market while planning for her own wedding. “As I was booking vendors, I realized that I just really wanted to have every moment of my own wedding day captured — and that I was going to want to relive them all instantly,” she explains. “There just wasn’t anything like that being offered in the wedding industry, which hasn’t changed much in the past 30 years. Once I realized that there was a need for this kind of content creation role, I decided to focus on it for my own career, leaving behind my job in event planning.”

And the demand is real. She’ll have 30 weddings under her belt this year alone, and she predicts that the scope of her work will only continue to grow. Spending the majority of her weekends working the floor and capturing the most minute details of her clients’ big days (she describes herself as “your type-A bridal bestie"), this also puts her on the pulse of the latest wedding trends, many of which she shares with her growing community along with her very best event-planning tips. Ahead, she shares five of the biggest trends she’s spotted — and shot — at client weddings this year that she expects will continue to rise in 2024.

“Nontraditional engagement rings have been trending for a while, but I’ve seen a much bigger emphasis on the integration of color as of late. Traditional white diamonds will always have their place, of course, but there are plenty of brides who’d prefer something a little more unconventional, like sapphire or other colored gemstones. And we’re not just seeing this trend with center stones — color is being incorporated through smaller details, like accent stones and hidden halos, too,” says Ladouceur, who recently shot a wedding in which the couple met and got engaged during September, so they chose a ring with the month’s birthstone, which is blue sapphire. “I’ve also noticed that there tends to be a lot of sentiment behind the color; the type of gemstone chosen is based on something very specific to the couple, whether it represents a special memory, time, or place.” Thus, more and more couples are opting to shop where they can truly personalize their ring — such as Shane Co., where customers can choose between colorful center stones and colorful settings to create a one-of-a-kind piece.

“This year, I’ve seen a return to classic elements of wedding decor and accessories, which has been apparent in my client’s floral choices. For example, the last few years saw baby’s breath and pampas grass reign supreme for both bouquets and arrangements, but there’s been a definite shift away from these in exchange for more traditional options like white roses,” she says. “However, this return to traditional still provides some element of surprise or flair, like pops of color and whimsical elements like cascading flowers, that keep it feeling modern and fresh.”

“The pandemic put such a strain on our ability to gather together and see our loved ones, so now, couples are just really grateful to their guests for being a part of their big day. Personalized keepsakes have been a popular way to show their appreciation. Rather than typical seating place cards, I’ve seen handwritten thank you cards or etched glassware and embroidered napkins featuring the guest’s name used instead,” Ladouceur says. “I just worked a wedding with an embroidery station at the reception where guests could embroider bows to take home with them. I think this element of personalization can transform these regular items into really special pieces that the guest will keep forever."

“When I started planning my own wedding in 2020, people kept telling me that the wedding cake was dead — but let me tell you, it’s not. People love wedding cakes, but we’ve moved from the elaborate, 10-tier cakes of the past to smaller, less intricate styles,” she says. “Also, many couples now opt for full dessert bars — even ice cream trucks — at their reception, so it’s no longer just about the cake. With this shift toward simpler cakes comes less traditional cutting ceremonies, with couples gravitating toward ‘silent cake cuttings,’ where the cake is cut privately or just with immediate family, and other guests continue to dance without having to stop and watch.”

“A lot of my clients request that I capture specific content so that they can recreate whatever video trends are viral at the moment, especially for brides,” says Ladouceu, naming different iterations of  ‘GRWM’ transformation videos for brides and groomsmen game day entrances for grooms as examples. “But it’s so important for me to capture these fun, planned social moments before the actual wedding begins because I want them to really live their day. I think the best ‘content’ comes from just living your life. So many elements of a wedding are a big production and super structured, so I make sure that during the ceremony and reception, I’m capturing those intimate, candid moments that really showcase the essence of the day and all of the love and emotion present. Those end up being the things my clients post the most.”