Wedding trends for 2027, and a mood board of your own

The forecasts for 2027 point one way: weddings that feel more personal and look richer in colour. Few of them were written with a lawn above the sea in mind, so take what suits and leave the rest.

Four directions in colour

• One palette runs warm: butter yellow, still climbing, alongside terracotta and a deep cherry red.
• A second runs deep: merlot, plum, powder blue, and moss green.
• Chocolate brown, a favourite since 2025, runs from latte to dark cocoa and sits easily beside powder blue, blush, or ivory.
• Sage green, everywhere for three years, has joined the classics: ivory, navy, dusty blue, blush, and champagne.
• A fresher pair is rising too: a pale lemon yellow, and chartreuse, sharper and greener, often paired with crimson.

Bridesmaids need not match: each colour can be worn in shades, from its palest tint to its full depth.

Colour, from noon to candlelight

• Around midday the light is close to neutral, so colours read most truly, though strong sun can bleach the palest shades.
• From late afternoon the light warms towards sunset, flattering butter yellow, terracotta, champagne, and chocolate brown, and turning cool blues greyer.
• As dusk falls, the eye itself shifts: reds such as merlot and deep cherry darken first, while blues and greens hold their brightness a little longer.
• By candlelight, warm tones glow and darker colours absorb the light, so a merlot or navy table needs more candles than a pale one.

Flowers that look as though they grew there

• Single-flower installations, with a whole room in hydrangea, moss, or wisteria.
• Meadow-style arrangements, loose and airy, of flowers grown close to home.

Ask your florist what is at its best locally in the month you marry, and build from there.

The hour after the vows

• The Italian aperitivo: spritzes and negronis, olives and good bread.
• A considered non-alcoholic drink, now expected and never an afterthought.
• Food as theatre, with caviar served on the move and martinis brought to the guest.

On this coast, that might mean Knysna oysters opened at the bar. While the photographs are taken, many couples now prefer non-alcoholic drinks and cocktails, with food stations close at hand and the wine opened on their return.

A smaller cake, and more to share

• The towering cake is giving way to one or two tiers, made to be admired up close.
• Beside it, a dessert table, so the cake is cut for the photograph and the sweet course is shared.
• Some couples skip the cake altogether for a tower of choux pastry, cannoli, or macarons.
• Finishes are more crafted, with buttercream worked by palette knife, painted detail, and pressed or sugar flowers.

For a summer wedding outdoors, ask the cake supplier which icing will hold in the heat. Bring whatever you have in mind, a photograph or a flavour you remember from childhood; on a fully planned wedding, finding the supplier to make it is Carón's work.

A second look for the reception

• Gowns are cleverly designed to change, with an overskirt, sleeves, or a cape that come away to reveal a different look.
• Other brides change into a complete new look for the reception.
• The long veil holds its place, as it always has, with the micro veil and the revived Juliet cap as lighter alternatives.

Plan for the wind. In a south-easterly, a long veil needs a sheltered spot and a steady hand for the photographs, and whichever form the second look takes, it should be made for dancing.

The groom, in softer tailoring

• Tailoring is relaxing, with softer shoulders and straighter trousers, and the very slim suit is fading from favour.
• Colour has reached the groom, from plum and olive to the pastels of the summer collections.
• The details are personal: initials embroidered inside the jacket, a bespoke lining, an heirloom tie pin.

In the heat of a February afternoon, linen earns its place, and a well-cut jacket sits easily in a garden.

Fewer phones, and a scent for the day

• Phone-free ceremonies, and guest lists built on trust.
• Fragrance as part of the design: a signature scent for the couple, a scented candle on each table.

If the ceremony is to be unplugged, say so on the invitation, and ask the marriage officer to repeat it before the vows. A stem of rosemary laid across every napkin will scent the tables as well as any candle.

Gathering it on one board

Trends are a starting point, and the mood board is where they become yours. When Carón leads the design, the board is built with the couple: the colours, the style of flowers, the linen, the stationery, and the cake, set side by side so that every choice can be judged against the others.

Photographs of the venue go on it too, taken at the hour of the ceremony, because the forest around Knysna and the vines of the Overberg bring colours of their own. A swatch of butter yellow looks quite different pinned beside the lawn at four o'clock.