Considering Rust, Blush and Blue to make your bridesmaids happy on your wedding day

Making any plans over the past year was harder than ever and so organising a wedding was no exception.

With travel restrictions and social distancing guidelines constantly changing, the 2019-20 wedding season was extra chaotic. For many, this meant either postponing their big day by a year or two or going ahead with a ceremony smaller than planned. 

Luckily, normality seems to be returning and more and more weddings are beginning to take place. But, due to a backlog from the past few years, the wedding peak is expected to last a little longer than usual this year, potentially going far into autumn and winter. 

An important detail that no bride wants to slip, is ensuring that bridesmaids look and feel amazing in their dresses on the special day. Next looked into the most common colours for bridesmaids dresses combining both Google search data and Instagram hashtag data.

Next looked at close to 100 colour variations on both Google and Instagram analysing the number of posts for each #colourbridesmaidsdresses and #colourbridesmaids on Instagram and the number of searches on Google. These were then combined to create an index which reveals the most common colours. 

Top 10 most popular bridesmaids dress colours overall

Blush, a light dusky pink, is the most popular colour overall in the study with 7,460 hashtags on Instagram and 8,400 annual searches on Google. The neutral and feminine colour is both timeless and elegant and so it’s no wonder it tops the list as the most popular. 

Blue takes the second place overall in the ranking boasting 5,480 hashtags on Instagram and 12,000 monthly Google searches. The cooler colour is vastly popular for bridesmaids but as a colour group, there are of course a wide range of blue tones - from sky blue to a deep navy - that fit in this category.

With Autumn season around the corner, it is not surprising that rust (a deep orange colour) takes the third spot with 32,400 annual searches between 2020-21. But when it comes to Instagram hashtags, rust dresses have just 107 Instagram hashtags showing the colour may be very up-and-coming as we go into the autumn-winter season. 

Burgundy with 1,560 hashtags and 24,000 annual searches, and Champagne with 27,000 annual searches and 505 instagram hashtags also made their way into the top five. 

Top 10 most Instagrammed bridal colours

Whether you like it or not, Instagram has a big influence when it comes to inspiration for your big day.

Blush takes the top spot once again with a total of 7,460 hashtags, that’s nearly five times the number of hashtags than the still-popular burgundy bridesmaid dresses have. In the second spot once again is blue with 5,458 hashtags.

More unique colours like the spring colour of yellow just made it into the top ten most Instagrammed with just under 1,000 hashtags. Bolder choices like gold (1,169 hashtags) and sequin (2,253) also make it into the top 10 showing that brides are allowing their bridesmaids time to shine on their special day too. 

Top 10 most searched for online

When it comes to online searches, autumn colour schemes are hugely popular with rust bridesmaid dresses taking the first position with 32,400 global searches over the last 12 months. As we’re still in Summer, this trend is expected to grow as we move into autumn/ winter weddings. Champagne colour dresses (a beige/ gold tone) take the second spot with 27,600 global searches annually. 

Another autumn colour takes the podium- burgundy bridesmaid dress had 24,000 global searches over the last 12 months. 

Next also spoke with the bridal expert Naomi Murphy who owns bridal store Charlotte Alexander in South Wales about the trends she’s seen so far this season and what she expects to see going forward.

“I’ve had a few weddings go ahead with the minimum numbers and restrictions (as the brides just want to get married) but the majority want the day they’ve planned for and so they’ve decided to wait until they can have everything they’ve imagined. Based on this, the usual wedding season seems to be going on for longer this year. There have been lockdown engagements but also lots of wedding postponements too and so venues/ suppliers are booking up fast and couples are either planning for 2022-23 or changing to the autumn/ winter season of 2021.”  

Colour trends so far this year – The three most popular colour trends I’ve seen this year are sage green, dusky pink/ blush and grey  

Colour trends for autumn/winter – I believe sage green and blush will continue to be popular but I also believe Champagne/Gold will become a popular choice.”