After sending one of his clients a quote for custom save-the-date cards, Jove Meyer, a wedding planner and designer based in New York City, received an unexpected response from the bride.
"She was like, 'My friend made this digital save-the-date with AI in the car on the way to work,'" said Meyer, who has worked in the wedding industry since 2008.
Welcome to the Gen Z age of weddings. With their native digital fluency, pervasive connectivity via social media and comfort with artificial intelligence tools, members of this generation, born approximately between 1997 and 2012, are transforming the traditions, logistics and aesthetics of modern weddings.
"With previous generations, you got a planner, they presented the options and you picked," Meyer said. "With these kids-and Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok-visual inspiration and aspiration are everywhere. They're being smart with the resources they have and being creative with the technology and tools that are available, and it's shaking up the industry."
Last year, about one-third of newlyweds were Gen Z, according to the Knot, a wedding planning website.
Many Gen Z couples use social media as a core wedding-planning tool, scouring Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok and Reddit for ideas, advice and vendors. But these platforms are more than that: They're a space for comparison with peers. They are also the primary place where couples and their guests share photos and videos, and where newlyweds put themselves on display for the consumption of others.
"I'm Gen Z, and we all grew up wanting to be YouTubers," said Lauren Ladouceur, who started working as a wedding content creator after drawing online attention for live-posting photos and videos from her wedding in 2022. "Gen Z is media savvy, and they're also the most curated generation that I've ever met. My millennial clients are very much like, If this is cringey, I don't care. My Gen Z couples want it to look candid, but every piece of hair has been put in place perfectly."
Existing in a highly saturated attention economy means future brides and grooms are often searching for ways to stand out amid the noise.
Milana Ayvazova, a senior event designer at Revelry Event Designers in Los Angeles, said the company had worked on weddings where there were life-size topiaries in the shape of a bride and groom's dogs; 100 feet of French-style storefronts for a welcome party; and a station where guests could decorate rancher hats to take home as favors.
Another popular approach is customization-of everything. This may include gift bags, water bottles, hats, linens, cocktail napkins, bathroom hand towels, makeup wipes, and even emergency kits with tampons. With enough willpower and funding, all of these can be made to match a theme.
Where once there were simple monograms, there are now logos and even family crests, said Ceci Johnson, the owner of Ceci New York, a graphic design studio specialising in invitations and event branding.
Though the cost of weddings has gone up by about 18% in the past five years, members of Gen Z spend significantly less per wedding-$27,000 on average-than millennials, who clock in at $38,000, according to The Knot. Wedding planners have noticed that Gen Zers seem more particular about what they spend their money on and might have lower salaries because of their age.
"We used to be able to show two florists, and now I show 10 to 15 before they make a decision," said Fallon Carter, who owns a wedding planning company in New York City. "There's constant pushback on, Can we negotiate this lower? They go through every single expense line - how do we get it down from $15,000 to $12,000 for the flowers?"
Ayvazova noted one major downside to the endless information floating around online or being served up through AI chatbots.
"People come with these inspo images, 'I want this and this,' and it's not a real rendering," Ayvazova said. "It's not to scale, you can't get this height in your space, and where are you going to rig these panels from? We have to explain that it's not realistic sometimes."
"She was like, 'My friend made this digital save-the-date with AI in the car on the way to work,'" said Meyer, who has worked in the wedding industry since 2008.
Welcome to the Gen Z age of weddings. With their native digital fluency, pervasive connectivity via social media and comfort with artificial intelligence tools, members of this generation, born approximately between 1997 and 2012, are transforming the traditions, logistics and aesthetics of modern weddings.
"With previous generations, you got a planner, they presented the options and you picked," Meyer said. "With these kids-and Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok-visual inspiration and aspiration are everywhere. They're being smart with the resources they have and being creative with the technology and tools that are available, and it's shaking up the industry."
Last year, about one-third of newlyweds were Gen Z, according to the Knot, a wedding planning website.
Many Gen Z couples use social media as a core wedding-planning tool, scouring Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok and Reddit for ideas, advice and vendors. But these platforms are more than that: They're a space for comparison with peers. They are also the primary place where couples and their guests share photos and videos, and where newlyweds put themselves on display for the consumption of others.
"I'm Gen Z, and we all grew up wanting to be YouTubers," said Lauren Ladouceur, who started working as a wedding content creator after drawing online attention for live-posting photos and videos from her wedding in 2022. "Gen Z is media savvy, and they're also the most curated generation that I've ever met. My millennial clients are very much like, If this is cringey, I don't care. My Gen Z couples want it to look candid, but every piece of hair has been put in place perfectly."
Existing in a highly saturated attention economy means future brides and grooms are often searching for ways to stand out amid the noise.
Milana Ayvazova, a senior event designer at Revelry Event Designers in Los Angeles, said the company had worked on weddings where there were life-size topiaries in the shape of a bride and groom's dogs; 100 feet of French-style storefronts for a welcome party; and a station where guests could decorate rancher hats to take home as favors.
Another popular approach is customization-of everything. This may include gift bags, water bottles, hats, linens, cocktail napkins, bathroom hand towels, makeup wipes, and even emergency kits with tampons. With enough willpower and funding, all of these can be made to match a theme.
Where once there were simple monograms, there are now logos and even family crests, said Ceci Johnson, the owner of Ceci New York, a graphic design studio specialising in invitations and event branding.
Though the cost of weddings has gone up by about 18% in the past five years, members of Gen Z spend significantly less per wedding-$27,000 on average-than millennials, who clock in at $38,000, according to The Knot. Wedding planners have noticed that Gen Zers seem more particular about what they spend their money on and might have lower salaries because of their age.
"We used to be able to show two florists, and now I show 10 to 15 before they make a decision," said Fallon Carter, who owns a wedding planning company in New York City. "There's constant pushback on, Can we negotiate this lower? They go through every single expense line - how do we get it down from $15,000 to $12,000 for the flowers?"
Ayvazova noted one major downside to the endless information floating around online or being served up through AI chatbots.
"People come with these inspo images, 'I want this and this,' and it's not a real rendering," Ayvazova said. "It's not to scale, you can't get this height in your space, and where are you going to rig these panels from? We have to explain that it's not realistic sometimes."
