New Wedding Site's Data Reveals Surprising Trends

Parsing data can uncover a lot more than where we use our gadgets of choice. Data from Lover.ly, a new wedding planning site for women, shows what defines romance for a bride-to-be.

 

Kellee Khalil, Lover.ly's founder, is a numbers gal. "We analyze what our members click on to determine emerging trends in weddings," Khalil told TechNewsDaily.

 

At first glance, the site looks like Pinterest. One big difference, though, is that users can't add their own pictures. Photos are provided by popular wedding blogs and retail partners such as Nordstrom. Brides-to-be can easily track down most items on the site and, in some cases, buy an item from a link.

 

Last quarter, style took a major turn, said Khalil. While vintage, rustic and shabby-chic topped the charts at the beginning of 2012, they were replaced with romantic, elegant and classic styles. She said that glamorous weddings are on the rise.

 

Khalil also found that women want horses, a trend she calls "off the wall." She can't tell yet whether the animals will serve as a pastoral backdrop for the festivities or be hitched to a carriage for a grand entrance.

 

And there's good news for bridesmaids: they may not have to endure matching dresses. Khalil said she has seen a surge in mix-and-match bridesmaids dresses over the one dress/six girls scheme of the past. But the top color is purple, which could be a challenge for the bridal party as well as for the mother-of-the-bride. Luckily, blush pink and blue are in the No. 2 and No. 3 slots in Lover.ly's top 10 colors. Khalil said she's also seeing gray catch on — a color once thought too somber for a wedding.

 

A top food trend seems a bit out of sync with a more glamorous theme. "Pie pops, cake pops — treats on a stick, are trending big," Khalil said.

 

But these aren't the kind of pops moms bring to kids' classes. They are made by professional bakers, swirled with silver or dipped in sparkling sugar.