I’ve been involved in the wedding industry for a few years now and love watching trends make their way through the bridal communities. It’s fun to see a design element (monograms) or a color combination catch the imagination of brides for a couple of years (pink and brown, anyone?) until the Next Big Thing comes along.  As stationers, I imagine you get sick of trends long before the bridal population does.

I’m starting to see some new trends and am curious if you’re seeing what I am.

What I’m Seeing:

* Embossing – I’m seeing some beautiful stationery coming out that’s embossed in addition to having an inked letterpress design. What’s really exciting me is the embossing is stylish and fun. I’m seeing embossed designs on cakes, too, so I think this’ll continue to be a growing trend for a while.

White-on-white – This goes along with embossing, really, but I’ve seen a lot of white-on-white recently. White ribbon or white lace wraps on white cardstock.

* Orange – For a few years I was seeing a lot orange but only in pink & orange or lime green & orange combinations (or Fall orange + brown). While the citrus colors are still popular, I’ve noticed orange is becoming more of a stand-alone color. I love it! I’m also seeing a lot of blue & orange combinations in non-wedding stationery and suspect it’ll be making its way to weddings in full-force soon.

* Smaller weddings – Have you noticed this? On the cake side, I’m seeing a definite trend towards smaller weddings, under 100 guests.

* Purple – Hooray for purple! Lots of rich, dark purples paired with brown, with silver, and with teals and blues (think peacocks).

* Embellishments – It’s all about glam: Swarovski crystals, glitter, velvet ribbon, lace wraps.

What’s the scoop on your end, designers? What’s hot and happening for 2007?