Si­mone Sant-Ghu­ran

I wasn't sur­prised Os­car de la Renta show­cased a few mi­ni-skirt­ed wed­ding dress­es for Spring 2009. It just goes to show how far bridal fash­ion has evolved (and some­times even comes full cir­cle!). My own par­ents were mar­ried smack in the hey­day of 1970s fash­ion, so my mom wore a gor­geous, white chif­fon floor-length gown with guipure lace ap­pliqu�s adorn­ing her six-foot veil and the cuffs of her long, po­et-sleeved dress. My dad sport­ed a spiffy, choco­late brown as­cot-tie with an ivory shirt jac suit! Keep­ing some thoughts of the past in mind, but my eye on the fu­ture, I've come up with my hot-list for 2009.

Bridal fash­ion

This year bridal fash­ion harkens back to yester-year with an up­dat­ed twist fea­tur­ing more tex­tured and op­u­lent fab­rics. Gowns in­spired by the flap­per era of the 1920s and by old Hol­ly­wood glam­our will be pop­u­lar choic­es. This year will al­so see a re­turn to the short­er veil from the 1950s and to the 1960s-styled maxi dress­es. There will be a re­turn to short­er dress­es with full taffe­ta and tulle skirts, cold shoul­der (one shoul­der) dress­es and more em­pire-waist­ed and god­dess gowns. Huge ruf­fles, tiers, bows and flowy fab­rics, which were fash­ion­able in 2008, will con­tin­ue their reign in 2009.

Hot wed­ding colours

This year it's all about blues and greens, turquoise, aqua­ma­rine, teal, yel­low, vi­brant or­ange, crim­son and fuch­sia. Laven­der and grey are go­ing to be the new neu­trals. Pinks will still con­tin­ue to be a favourite choice for 2009 and the trend of black and white, made pop­u­lar in 2008, will con­tin­ue in­to 2009.

Eco-friend­ly wed­dings

In 2009, we will see cou­ples more in­ter­est­ed in "re­duc­ing, reusing and re­cy­cling." There will be more em­pha­sis on us­ing or­gan­ic ma­te­ri­als in their d�cor such as cot­tons, linens and burlap. One easy sug­ges­tion is to use linen cock­tail nap­kins in­stead of print­ed pa­per ones. This can save quite a lot of pa­per and wastage, since the av­er­age guest us­es be­tween five to sev­en pa­per cock­tail nap­kins!

An­oth­er way to re­duce pa­per is to use post­card RSVP cards in­stead of the tra­di­tion­al card and stamped en­ve­lope. Oth­er eco-con­scious ideas are to burn soy or hon­ey­comb can­dles, which are all-nat­ur­al and burn longer; use pot­ted plants as cen­tre­pieces; print in­vi­ta­tions or place-cards on re­cy­cled or plantable-seed pa­per and give guests ed­i­ble favours, which won't waste!

Cakes

Dur­ing 2009, the cup­cake tow­er will con­tin­ue its reign as a pop­u­lar cake choice. How­ev­er, look out for a change in the wed­ding cake's shape; you will see more square or hexag­o­nal cake lay­ers and more cakes fea­tur­ing hand-paint­ed de­signs.

Jew­el­ry

In 2009, bridal jew­el­ry will be chunki­er and more dra­mat­ic, with a fo­cus on ac­cen­tu­at­ing the bride's back. Sil­ver-hued ac­ces­sories are go­ing to be all the rage for 2009 so look out for sil­ver, white-gold, pewters and plat­inums ac­cen­tu­at­ed with di­a­monds and crys­tals.

Trends in en­gage­ment rings

This year the three stone rings, eter­ni­ty bands, and en­gage­ment rings with coloured gem­stones such as: topaz, ru­by, sap­phire, and emer­ald will be hot choic­es.