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Welcome to The New Rules of I Do, a special project from Yahoo that explores young people's evolving attitudes toward weddings in all their delicious contradictions. Through months of reporting and interviews with more than a dozen 20-somethings planning their own weddings, here's some of what we learned: Gen Z loves tradition except for when they loathe it. They want to respect their elders except when those elders become intractable. They love to be bougie, even as they're well aware that their tastes are shaped by both the algorithm and the all-powerful wedding-industrial complex.
Want to know what's in, what's out, what's considered cringe and what signals impeccable taste? Start with the 34 new rules of Gen Z weddings, as explained to us by an expert council of 11 young adult brides who are planning their own celebrations and weren't shy about dishing out their spiciest takes. Then watch two of those brides — Brooke Miccio and Sheree Denáe — spar with their mom and dad, respectively, about the trends, traditions and etiquette questions dividing the generations.
As if surmounting the logistical and financial hurdles of hosting a TikTok-worthy wedding weren't enough, nearly every Gen Z bride we spoke with told us they wanted one more thing for their big day: "glowing," perfect skin that looks ethereal even without makeup. Writer Stephanie McNeal delved deep into the dizzying, high-stakes world of bridal beauty, where a meticulous game plan, months of procedures, countless needles and lasers and thousands of dollars spent on treatments have become the new normal.
Is your head spinning from all this change? Don't worry: at least one thing about weddings has remained the same. They breed endless drama. Gen Z brides and their loved ones wrote to us about their stickiest dilemmas, from a couple dealing with a ghosting officiant to an overworked bridesmaid wondering if she's become an unpaid intern. We convened a multigenerational panel of advice-givers — television's Mister Manners, millennial TV writer Alanna Bennett and digital creator Anna Sitar — to weigh in. They did not hold back.
