Celebrity wedding planner Mindy Weiss has organized events for A-list stars including Khloe Kardashian’s baby shower, Kris Jenner’s birthday party and Ellen DeGeneres’ wedding.
After opening up her event-planning business in 1992 at the urging of her friends, Mindy garnered an immense amount of knowledge on all the top trends for organizing a wedding fit for a celebrity.
The Beverly Hills-based event planner spoke with Dailymail.com about the wedding trends she is seeing this season – including gift lounges and balloon walls – and how people can incorporate them into their own event.
Party planner extraordinaire! Mindy Weiss, who is based out of Beverly Hills and New York City, is a celebrated event planner for A-List stars including the Kardashians
On trend: The famed event planner organized Khloe’s baby shower most recently, which incorporated a new fad of using balloons to decorate the walls and ceiling of the venue
Goodies: Another trend Mindy has noticed this wedding season is gift lounges. This allows the guest to choose some items for their gift bag
One of the most notable trends Mindy mentioned for the 2018 wedding season is gift lounges, which offer guests the opportunity to pick out the goodies they bring home.
‘Gift lounges are popular for luxury destination weddings, but there’s definitely ways to incorporate the idea with a more budget-friendly twist,’ she said.
‘Have a small, styled area at your reception with a variety of small gifts or snacks.
‘Items like delicious cookies, mini bottles of wine or lemonade, small succulent plants and the like will allow guests to have the gift lounge experience without breaking the bank.’
Mindy also recommends offering the guests either a canvas tote or a gift bag so they have something to help carry their new items home.
In terms of popular gift items, the famed event planner said snack-sized treats are big right now. She recommends gifting customized cookies or small bags of popcorn.
Extravagant: While gift lounges are typically for more luxurious weddings, Mindy said there are ways to make them inexpensive. She recommends cookies, mini bottles and succulents
Beautiful: People can incorporate balloons for their wedding like Khloe did for her baby shower. Mindy recommends white balloons with metallic accents for a wedding
Two decorating fads Mindy has incorporated this wedding season are low centerpieces and balloon walls.
Low centerpieces offer guests the option to have conversations with others across the table without having to lean around a tall flower piece.
For balloons, Mindy said elegant walls and ceilings filled with them are becoming more popular for decor.
‘White balloons mixed with metallics keeps things chic but fun,’ she said.
The wedding planner incorporated this trend into Khloe Kardashian’s baby shower by having a wall of pink balloons in one area of the venue as well as others scattered along the floor.
Stunning: Another trend Mindy noticed this season is lower centerpieces. This allows guests to have conversations across the table without have to move around a tall centerpiece
Simple: Succulents are on trend this year and can make for beautiful centerpieces at any table
The use of phones and social media at weddings has grown over the years with many couple’s using a hashtag to incorporate their names.
While Mindy says that trend is here to stay, she did mention that some couple’s are turning to a phone-free reception.
‘It’s often difficult for guests to grasp a phone-free reception but after an hour or so, they end up loving how in-the-moment they’re able to be,’ she said.
‘Of course, try not to be too strict about a no-phone policy.
‘Parents, for example, may need to be reachable by babysitters in case of an emergency, so I wouldn’t go as far as actually confiscating phones.’
The no-phone policy offers Mindy’s top clients – including Sofia Vigara and Ciara – the opportunity to have events without the fear of someone posting about it on social media.