As far as trends, Designer Kimma Wreh of TeKay Designs sees a surge of color coming into gowns. “Color is definitely in bloom and many of my clients want to color coordinate their wedding attire with the wedding color scheme.” Bride and groom outfits made of ivory, butter, and white are frequently contrasted with embroidered colors of bronze, gold, silver, green, red, purple, or shades of blue for a stunning effect.

Veils and head pieces are a must for most brides, spanning from simple to elaborate. Some brides prefer to incorporate beads or hand painted cowrie shells into their head piece and veil. Another trend is to match the bridal gown with coordinated ethnic inspired floral arrangements and jewelry set. “Several TeKay Designs’ gowns have gorgeous color coordinated head pieces, jewelry set (necklace, earrings and bracelet), bouquet and matching boutonnière.”

TeKay Designs also outfits entire wedding parties. “Brides love the one stop shopping experience that we offer because we can custom make and color coordinate clothing for the entire bridal party including maid of honor and bridesmaids, best man and grooms men, flowergirls and ring bearers, mother and father of the bride and groom, and ushers.”

Bridal parties are also starting to include kente vests, kente shoulder wraps and hats to match with the kente on the bride and groom’s outfit. “We custom design kente to match the wedding colors with option to include Egyptian hieroglyphic or Adinkra embroidered symbols.” Ankh (key of life), Sankofa (Going back to your roots), Gye Nyame (Omnipotence of God), Odo Nnyew Fie Kwan (power of love), and Nyame Dua (tree of God – alter) are popular symbols.