Si­mone Sant-Ghu­ran

Even though to­day's col­umn is chock full of my favourite ideas for 2010, truth is, I've been plan­ning this col­umn for most of 2009–through ob­serv­ing and read­ing about in­ter­na­tion­al bridal trends, by go­ing to wed­dings, at­tend­ing bridal shows and of course, by lis­ten­ing to what brides and grooms have to say on our Web site: www.trinidad­wed­dings.com. So, as we her­ald in 2010, a brand new decade beck­ons us to say "hel­lo" to a few re­fresh­ing changes in wed­ding plan­ning and to some unique ap­proach­es. Hold on to your New Year's Eve top hats and tiaras, be­cause here we go:

1. Un­usu­al "trio" colour com­bos–2009 was all about blues, greens, pinks, turquoise, teal, yel­low, or­ange and fuch­sia, with laven­der and grey as the neu­trals. The trend of black and white, made pop­u­lar in 2008, al­so con­tin­ued in­to 2009. In 2010, we can look for­ward to pur­ple, ru­by red and turquoise?be­ing the all-out favourites and to ul­tra dar­ing colour trios such as:

a. Fuch­sia, black and turquoise;

b. Plum, choco­late brown and yel­low;

c. Aqua, teal and yel­low;

d. Coral, ki­wi-green and ivory.

2. Be gone bor­ing bou­quets!–Apart from flow­ers, brides' bou­quets can now in­cor­po­rate some sur­pris­es such as feath­ers or crys­tals thread­ed through thin wires that min­gle amongst the blooms. An­oth­er trend is the ad­di­tion of a pho­to charm or a lock­et in­to your bou­quet, which is a touch­ing and per­son­al way to re­mem­ber a rel­a­tive who has passed away. You can even have each brides­maid car­ry a dif­fer­ent type of bou­quet.?

3. Cute car­ry-alls–Your flower girl doesn't have to car­ry a bas­ket filled with petals, how about a large seashell brim­ming with petals in­stead, now wouldn't that be es­pe­cial­ly love­ly for a beach-in­spired wed­ding? The ring bear­er doesn't nec­es­sar­i­ly need a ring pil­low ei­ther, how about a beau­ti­ful jew­el box in silk, moth­er of pearl, crys­tal or porce­lain?

4. Pet Love!–When my cousin got mar­ried in the US re­cent­ly, her dog and her fi­anc�'s dog played in­te­gral parts in the cer­e­mo­ny. If you're a pet lover, try in­cor­po­rat­ing your beloved pooch, cat or birds in­to your re­cep­tion; if the venue will al­low it! If they can't be there phys­i­cal­ly, have their im­ages re­pro­duced on your save the date cards, es­cort cards or on your pro­grammes.

5. Eco-friend­ly wed­ding favours–More than ever, to­day's brides and grooms are more aware of the en­vi­ron­men­tal im­pact of their wed­ding and some are wise to choose wed­ding favours that have been re­cy­cled, re-pur­posed or those that are biodegrad­able or use min­i­mal pack­ag­ing. Cou­ples can even give guests ed­i­ble favours, which won't go to waste!

6. Brides­maids just wan­na have fun!–That means they don't all have to match! That's right, you can opt to have your maid of ho­n­our wear a print­ed dress and then have the brides­maids wear sol­id colours to co-or­di­nate with her print or vice ver­sa.

Next week, I'll take you through some of the bridal fash­ion trends for 2010!