Things Are A Bit different

Things are a bit different

(November 2018) We’re beginning to put the wraps on the current wedding season, which in our locale along the banks of the Mississippi River in the upper Midwest usually is considered from mid-April to the end of October. We still have weddings this month and next but the busiest part of our 2018 schedule is behind us.

As we approached the end of another season—the 27th

one for me personally—I had a conversation with one of our local banquet managers, who have been in the wedding business at least a dozen years herself, and we discussed some of the subtle changes that we have seen in 2018. Have you noticed any of these in your locale?

●Receptions in our area have gotten longer. Whereas maybe just five years ago receptions—in our area at least—were typically five-hour, maybe six-hour affairs. About a dozen this past year have been seven hours or more. Although more than half of those worked out fine, there were still a handful that from my perspective fizzled out. Our standard packages allow up to six hours of continuous music and entertainment, so toward the end of the season we started advising our couples, when the banquet hall allowed, to stick with the six-hour package. I informed these couples that if, during the event, it appeared that no one was ready to go home when we approached the last half hour or so of the evening, we could add onto the night after that. At least two couples came to me at the end of their day and thanked me for that offer, after realizing that a six-hour celebration was plenty. Some others never pressed for the extended time. “A party should end when it shouldn't end, not when it should,” says Michigan DJ Dan Nichols in his video 17 Tips That Make A Difference. “Ending a party before it dies down leaves everyone with the impression the floor was packed all night. It just feels better when people are left wanting more versus being completely burned out.”

Recurrent music now apparently consists of primarily songs from the 2000s,

●I was surprised to see so many classics still on our music list. Tunes like “Sweet Caroline,” “Brown Eyed Girl,” and “Fishin’ in the Dark” have popped up on our lists much more than I would have anticipated, considering most of our couples can now be considered “millennials.” I find that somewhat amusing, considering that if the bride and groom are somewhere around 25 some of those songs are twice as old as they are. We did have some couples who filled their request lists with their favorite current hits of today, but I felt that, after we played some of those early in the night to very little fanfare, then segued into some of the guests’ requests that brought many more people to the dance floor, the picture was painted for the couple and they were much happier seeing that a fun time was being had by all rather than insisting all of the songs on their list were played.

●Recurrent music now apparently consists of primarily songs from the 2000s, which seems about right. If you consider the average age of today’s couple is 25 to 30, during the mid-2000s they would have been between 12 and 17, the coming of age period when people seem to become most attached to “their music.” Although some ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys, and Spice Girls songs from the 1990s still resonate well, we found that those chart toppers from the 2000s,[C2]  such as “Party in the USA,” “Hey Ya,” and “Stacy’s Mom” have found an eager audience.

●The garter toss is joining the Chicken Dance and the five-tiered wedding cake with a waterfall as a thing of the past. I would venture to guess that at fewer than half of our 80+ weddings this year the groom tossed his wife’s garter. There were some weddings where the bride still tossed the bouquet, but the garter was nixed. We had a few couples come up with creative alternatives, though. In a couple instances, the groom placed a garter on a football and tossed it to the guys. One groom, an avid hunter, purchased a kid’s bow & arrow set and placed a garter on the arrow and shot it out to his group of hungry wedding souvenir collecting men. Then there was the couple who told me that they met at work and discovered they both were avid fishers. So, after several months of telling fishing stories to one another the groom-to-be finally got brave enough to ask her if she’d like to go fishing with him on his boat that weekend, and you can guess how the rest of the story turned out. It was only fitting then that a garter was placed on a fishing pole (with a clothespin, not a hook) and it was cast out to the eager fellas. That suggests the garter toss is fading away, and maybe it’s time for a new tradition—or at least a different spin on an old one.

●More and more of our couples are telling us they initially met online. I still have to chuckle a bit to myself when those couples kind of hem and haw before sheepishly telling me that is how they found each other, but then I assure them that this is the way we socialize in the 21st century and that many of our couples tell us the same thing. What I never hear anymore are the couples who tell me they met at a bar. If the drinking and driving laws weren’t enough to kill the bar business, sites like match.com are probably adding the final touches.

●Strapless dresses are becoming less and less common, which to me is a good thing. What’s the saying: “If I had a dollar for every time I saw a bride or bridesmaid have to pull up her dress . . . .”

●First there was the wedding cake, then we had the dessert bar, then we had the candy bar, and increasing in popularity this year was the doughnut bar. I’m still trying to figure out how doughnuts fit in at a wedding.

What trends or traditions have you noted in the past year?

Until next time,

~ Michael ~

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