Your wedding offers a chance to proclaim your love for your partner in front of all the people who matter to you. While the event is meant to carry emotional significance, it’s also easy to forget this when stressing over the details. If you find yourself overwhelmed by planning, you might benefit from adding a bit of focus to the endeavor. For many couples, researching current trends is a perfect way to narrow a search and discover some fun ideas. Consider these popular same-sex wedding trends and find a great fit.

Understated Rainbow Incorporation

The rainbow has long been a symbol associated with same-sex couples and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. Unfortunately, it’s also very difficult to easily include something as colorful as a rainbow flag in most wedding aesthetics. Still, you might want to show your pride in some capacity. To achieve this, plenty of couples are opting to incorporate the rainbow in understated ways. A layered cake featuring muted rainbow shades, for example, allows you to add the symbol in an effective way that doesn’t come across as a loud blast of in-your-face color.

Candid Photos

Wedding photos tend to follow a formula. More often than not, the photographer will ask the couple and the party to step aside during the reception to take a handful of posed pictures. While these can be nice to frame or look at in an album, recent trends are pushing against this tradition. Now, it is more common for the photographer to take candid shots. Capturing intimate moments between the couple, friends, family members, and other guests can create a much more powerful collection of photographs.

Opting for candids doesn’t mean you need to ditch posed photos entirely. In fact, plenty of couples like a mix of both. Look through your photographer’s portfolio to get a better idea of how your big day will look in photos. 

Small Accents

For same-sex couples, there is the unique wedding challenge of trying to avoid wearing the same outfit. Though there is nothing wrong with two men wearing matching tuxedos or two women in dresses that look very similar, most couples want to look good separately as well. One way that people are achieving this is by including small accents on the outfit. Two men wearing accessories in complementary shades can create a sense of uniformity while allowing both individuals to retain their own unique styles. 

Naturally, you might also want to ditch the idea of the traditional wedding attire entirely. If tuxes and gowns are not your style, feel free to try something completely different. There is no need to put yourself in uncomfortable formalwear on your special day when you’d be much happier in something more relaxed. 

Playing With Convention

Though not a trend, a number of LGBTQ+ couples use their weddings as a chance to play around with convention. Since most marriage traditions are based around antiquated gender roles, the typical routine doesn’t really fit the arrangement of a same-sex couple. For example, the bride traditionally carries the bouquet when walking down the aisle. If there is no bride, then you can either have one or both grooms carry the floral arrangements. Get creative and you’ll easily be able to flip some old customs on their heads.

While the love a same-sex couple shares is the same as the love of a heterosexual couple, the way this love is expressed is often very different. When the time comes to plan your same-sex wedding, be sure to look at trends popular within your community to best get your own wheels turning.