It’s no longer enough to throw on a big, poofy gown, grab a bouquet of roses and walk down the aisle if you want your big day to stand out in the crowd of wedding blogs and Instagram feeds.
“It’s all about putting a personalized spin on your wedding day — not just doing what your grandparents did because it’s a commonplace practice,” says Jamie Miles, managing editor at wedding website theknot.com. “It’s more about questioning tradition and doing your own thing.”
Some couples are taking that to the extreme, incorporating farm animals, robots and even drones into their nuptials.
“People are so overexposed to wedding photos and videos, couples want something people haven’t seen before,” Miles says.
Here are the most surprising wedding trends that are sure to flood your social-media feeds in the upcoming wedding season …
Four-legged guests!
Tabbethia Haubold-Magee and her husband, Christopher Magee, raise farm animals on Long Island, so when it came time for them to tie the knot in 2011 after a decade of dating, they knew they wanted their beloved llamas, Steeler and Pfeifen, to be a part of the party.
“They were at the door, and they were our docents as people were coming into the restaurant,” says Haubold-Magee, 42.
The crowd was wowed by the beasts, fully clad in wedding garb that the bride made herself.
“There’s definitely a viral element to animals in weddings,” says theknot’s Miles of their growing popularity. “That’s what the Internet is all about: cute animals! It’s very visual.”
In 2012, DC’s Chelsea and Grant Joiner were considering venues in Arizona, where they were living at the time, and Martha’s Vineyard, where Grant is from. But when they saw photos of a donkey passing out beer at Desert Foothills Barn, they were sold on Arizona.
“Everybody loved it!” says Chelsea, 28. “We had a lot of people who wanted to take photos with the donkey, and still have that as their profile pic.”
“The weddings are getting more and more popular for us all the time,” says Vanessa Rice, co-owner of Haul N Ass Productions, which supplied the animal. For about $450 to $550 (depending on location) for the cocktail hour, a donkey will serve guests beer, wine or soda — and pose for Instagram-worthy photos, of course.
See-through gowns!
It’s not just A-listers like Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez who are showing off their figures with dare-to-bare gowns.
Necklines for wedding dresses are getting lower, slits are getting higher and fabrics are getting more see-through. At New York Bridal Fashion Week last month, designer Vera Wang even sent a totally transparent dress down the runway.
“Red carpet and Hollywood have such an influence on bridal,” explains Terry Hall, fashion director at Manhattan’s Kleinfeld Bridal, who name-checks trends like beaded back details, plunging necklines and sheer panels that show off the legs. “Every bride has a different part of the body that she wants to show off.”
Lyndsey Babb, 26, flew to New York from Lubbock, Texas, to find the perfect dress to show off her figure.
“I like that daring, different look!” she says of the Pnina Tornai gown with a sexy, sheer bodice she wore to her August 2013 wedding.
Silent receptions!
Love your fiancé but hate his taste in music?
Avoid the issue by starting the marriage off with a silent disco wedding, where guests have to wear headphones to hear the jams — either from a live DJ, a curated playlist or a mix of both by tuning to a particular channel.
“We’ve really seen it take off recently for weddings,” says Ryan Dowd, owner and creator of Silent Events.
Dan Stamm first attended a silent disco at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in 2004, so when it came time to plan his wedding outside Philadelphia in June, he thought it would be a unique touch.
“I thought, ‘This will be something that people will definitely remember,’ ” says Stamm, 33, who had two DJs spinning different tunes. “I had on two sets of headphones at one point. Everyone had so much fun.”
The silent reception was also a solution for an 8 p.m. noise curfew at his venue, and made for easy socializing for guests who didn’t want to hit the dance floor.
“In this case,” says Stamm, “you could literally talk to somebody by taking off your headset.”
Drones!
“Drones used to be a gimmick; now they’re a needed tool,” says Parker Gyokeres, a former Air Force journalist who reports that business has been booming this spring for his Hudson Valley-based Propellerheads Aerial Photography — with double the requests for drones this season compared to last spring.
To get sweeping footage of the venue and crowd, drones fly no higher than 500 feet and stay within one to three miles of the operator.
But consider waiting until after the “I do’s” to bring in the drones.
“It does sound like a swarm of bees,” admits Todd Salansky, owner of Buffalo, NY’s Norris Clifton Aerial Photography. Salansky, who charges $1,000 for an hour of service, adds: “It’s not that noisy but people are going to look up.”
For Raisa and Kevin Mehltretter, a drone captured details a grounded photographer couldn’t have.
“We had a large wedding party — 22 people — and it was a little difficult to capture the whole group in a regular photo,” says Raisa, 28, who wed at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo in September. “With the drone, we got fabulous photos that really showed the whole group.”
Robots!
When Laura Cressman walked down the aisle at her 2012 wedding in Annapolis, Md., it was her ring bearer that stole the show — a small, unmanned military robot called “the Dragon Runner,” which rolled through the crowd dressed to the nines in a miniature tuxedo as the song “Mr. Roboto” played.
“There were a lot of oohs and aahs,” recalls Cressman, 28. “It helped break the ice and gave [guests] something to talk about during the cocktail hour.”
The high-tech member of the bridal party was a perfect fit — Cressman worked as a mechanical engineer at defense technology company QinetiQ and helped build the little guy. (She’s since started a new position at Laser Technique Company in Redmond, Wash.)
For Sam and Melia Vilain, a robot served a surprisingly personal purpose.
Sam’s friends in New Zealand who couldn’t make the expensive trip to California for the couple’s 2013 wedding could instead watch via a live feed transmitted through a robot that rolled around the reception.
“I could’ve helped people in New Zealand fly here, but getting the robot was actually cheaper,” explains Sam, 36, who says renting the machine from Anybot, as well as an operator, cost about $1,000 for the night.
Bridesmaid for hire!
Last July, Manhattan’s Jen Glantz looked back on her experience as a bridesmaid in a half-dozen weddings and realized she had the résumé to do it professionally.
“I posted an ad on Craigslist: ‘Bridesmaid for hire.’ It went viral; I got hundreds of responses from people who wanted to hire me and work for me,” Glantz, 27, tells The Post.
She launched a website, bridesmaidforhire.com, and now she offers packages ranging from $300 to $3,000 for everything from digital consultations to undercover speechwriting for the maid of honor to actually walking down the aisle, chiffon bridesmaid dress and all.
Glantz says that during wedding season, she’s often juggling between 30 and 40 weddings at a time, though some brides want to keep her paid-for status on the down-low.
Still, she’s walked down the aisle as a hired hand three times so far.
Glantz, who also works as a copywriter, explains: “I want this business to help support brides in a time of need. I want to help them feel confident and stress-free.”