My Big Fat Purple Wedding

• The 2013 Wed­ding Report released by lead­ing wed­ding web­site www.confetti.co.uk lifts the veil on what the per­fect wed­ding day looks like for the nation’s brides.
• Death of the tra­di­tional white church wed­ding as real­ity TV and the color pur­ple leads bridal trends.
• Rise of the ‘super groom-ed’ – as a stag­ger­ing num­ber of men undergo pre-nuptial cos­metic improvements.

If you’re attend­ing a wed­ding this year, chances are the bride and groom will be wear­ing pur­ple and 2013’s fairy­tale wed­ding WON’T be in a church. What’s more, sta­tis­tics sug­gest it will be the GROOM who will have a wed­ding makeover, as pre-nuptial cos­metic improve­ments for men increase in popularity.

As wed­ding sea­son approaches, lead­ing bridal web­site confetti.co.uk has unveiled its annual national wed­ding report, which has sur­veyed over 2,000 brides in the UK to show exactly what today’s blush­ing bride is look­ing for in her big day.

Com­mis­sioned to iden­tify cur­rent trends in wed­dings, the report has revealed that the tra­di­tional white wed­ding is no more. In fact, the wed­ding you attend could be a big fat, gypsy one with the major­ity of brides (25%) stat­ing that real­ity TV is their biggest inspi­ra­tion when it comes to their big day. That’s right, don’t expect the Kate Mid­dle­ton effect to have any impact on 2013’s bride with just 1.4% opt­ing for a big white wed­ding. You’re more likely to be see­ing pur­ple, with the color being adopted by one in five of today’s brides.

The themes that the mod­ern bride is opt­ing for have also seem to have been influ­enced by the nations’ telly habits. The likes of Down­ton Abbey and Kirstie’s Vin­tage Home appear to be inspir­ing women, as one in seven brides to be are opt­ing for a vin­tage theme for their big day although bright, Eng­lish Fete and even Car­ni­val made the top five choices.

And although there are some 300,000 cou­ples set to tie the knot this year, results have found that vic­ars needn’t get hot under the dog col­lar. It seems that church wed­dings are out of favour, with 60% of brides opt­ing for a civil cer­e­mony else­where. The rise in church prices could be attrib­uted to the decline in church wed­dings, with close to one in ten brides con­sid­er­ing that the tra­di­tional choice of venue is too expensive.

What’s more, in a fur­ther break from tra­di­tion, all eyes will be on the GROOM rather than the bride, with more men than women under­go­ing beauty and cos­metic pro­ce­dures to improve their wed­ding day look. In fact, results sug­gest that while the wed­ding might not be white, the groom’s teeth def­i­nitely will be — with a whop­ping 90% choos­ing teeth whiten­ing treat­ments or veneers to improve their pearly whites. A huge 50% will also ditch the beer and burg­ers, going on a diet in the run up to the big day. And it doesn’t just stop at the groom, 25% of best men will con­sider opt­ing for botox treatments.

Kate Thomp­son, wed­ding expert and agony aunt at confetti.co.uk, said: “While some trends will never change, it seems the tra­di­tional white church wed­ding has made way for a new type of nup­tials for 2013’s brides. Dita Von Teese got mar­ried in pur­ple and it would appear that she is not alone in her break from convention!

“With purse strings a lit­tle tighter than they may have been in the past I think peo­ple are get­ting more inven­tive with their wed­ding plans, hence the trend towards vin­tage and the DIY look. And the rise in pop­u­lar­ity of cou­ples ask­ing for con­tri­bu­tions to the hon­ey­moon sim­ply allows more money to be spent on the big day itself, which per­son­ally, I think is a great idea!”

“It’s also inter­est­ing to see that the groom is tak­ing the prepa­ra­tions for his big day just as seri­ously as the bride! With all eyes on every aspect of the big day, includ­ing the groom, met­ro­sex­ual males can now make the most of the grow­ing beauty treat­ments avail­able to them with a wed­ding makeover.”

The confetti.co.uk Wed­ding Report looks at all areas of plan­ning and organ­i­sa­tion includ­ing time of year, hon­ey­moons, cer­e­mony, wed­ding favours and sta­tionery and gifts. As a result, confetti.co.uk has com­piled this pic­ture of the per­fect 2013 wed­ding day, accord­ing to brides surveyed.

• Time — the major­ity of brides will get mar­ried on a Sat­ur­day (a whop­ping 60%) and the most pop­u­lar day to tie the knot will be 3rd August.
• Plan­ning and cost — on aver­age, the wed­ding will take one year and four months to plan and cost between £5,000 — £10,000 — half the aver­age cost pre-recession in 2008.
• Wed­ding party — we may have 319 Face­book friends, but the aver­age wed­ding guest num­ber is just 75.
• Age and rela­tion­ship length – the major­ity of happy cou­ples, will both be aged 28 and will have been together for 3.5 years.
• While the aver­age bride is near­ing her thir­ties, it seems she isn’t in a rush to realize her per­fect day, only 15% feel­ing any sort of pres­sure to get married.
• Future plans — the urgency to have babies cer­tainly isn’t one rea­son to tie the knot, as one in four brides will already have their very own lit­tle brides­maid or page boy to walk down the aisle with them.
• With pri­or­i­ties chang­ing and house prices ris­ing year on year, the num­ber of cou­ples get­ting mar­ried over the age of thirty has risen 13% since 2012.
• Unusual themes — the major­ity of brides may be influ­enced by real­ity TV, but pop­u­lar film still gets a look in, with a blood-thirsty 5% of brides opt­ing for a Twi­light themed wed­ding! Other pop­u­lar and more unusual venues include zoos, barns and a coun­cil house.
• Gifts – the aver­age bride expects her guests to spend just £30 on a wed­ding gift! Plus, although most brides will opt for the tra­di­tional wed­ding gift list, 1 in 4 cou­ples will be request­ing cold hard cash.
• Celebrity Wed­ding Plan­ner – with DIY details and vin­tage chic in high demand, craft queen Kirstie All­sopp tops the chart of celebs that brides would most like to plan their wed­ding, beat­ing the likes of Pippa Mid­dle­ton to top spot.
• Hon­ey­moon – Most cou­ples will be jet­ting off to Europe, as the con­ti­nent remains the favorite choice for 1 out of 5 new­ly­weds, with the aver­age bride spend­ing £1,000 — £2,000 on the trip.
• Hen Party plans – Over one third of brides will enjoy a UK trip or spa break. How­ever, a new trend for a more low key event is emerg­ing as close to one third (31%) of brides will opt for a nice meal at a restau­rant with friends.
• Gift list — One in five brides will have a tra­di­tional gift list, but a more pop­u­lar choice seems to be ask­ing for cash or a con­tri­bu­tion towards hon­ey­moons sav­ings. What’s more, the aver­age bride only expects each of her guests to spend between £10 and £30 on her.
• Wed­ding Party Gifts – 26 % of brides will buy their wed­ding party an item of jew­ellery to say thank you, with a fur­ther 26% opt­ing for per­son­alised thank you gifts.
• Pic­ture per­fect – After the venue and the dress, pho­tog­ra­phy is the most impor­tant aspect of the big day to today’s aver­age bride.

The Confetti.co.uk Wed­ding Report is avail­able to view in full at www.confetti.co.uk/wedding-report.