The world of wedding style always leads the fashion pack with bridal wear designers working a year ahead of their ready-to-wear contemporaries. The spring 2025 wedding collections have just dropped and there’s a marked return to romance and drama for the year ahead.

The quiet minimalism we’ve seen for the past few seasons, which was influenced by the pandemic years of scaled-down micro weddings, has given way to a new opulence. Silhouettes are grand. Fabrics are luxe. Details are rich and intricate. Designers are looking to the past and bygone eras for inspiration and delivering impactful wedding styles that feel fresh and new.

Here are 10 trends we love from the latest bridal wear collections seen at New York Bridal Fashion Week—you must at least wear one, if not two or three!

Drop waists & basque waistlines

Dress, Nadia Majarrez, nadiamanjarrez.com

The waistline was one of the biggest details designers played with for 2025 with dramatic drop waists starring in almost every collection we saw. Designer Nadia Majarrez included many dramatic drop waists in her wedding dress lineup including the Michelle ball gown made from Italian tulle and decorated with bows. The Basque waistline, a quintessentially French design detail, was also on display across many collections, and it’s another nod to the Victorian influence we’re seeing so much of in wedding style. New York designer Danielle Frankel, who’s always an innovator in the wedding style space, featured this waistline in many of her latest designs like the Maeve gown, a strapless silk metallic, bubble-hemmed dress detailed with the beautiful hand-painted flowers.

Dress, Danielle Frankel, daniellefrankel.com

Metallic moments

When you don’t want to wear white, and crave a soft hit of subtle colour, warm metallics are the way to do it. Rose gold, silver and sparkling sage green are inspired choices with incredible iridescence when the light hits just right. The Primrose wedding dress by Soucy is a striking halter-style gown crafted from exquisite jacquard taffeta that looks like a modern piece of fashion art.

Rosettes & floral patterns

Dress, Galia Lahav Couture, galialahav.com

Lush floral details cascaded down dresses, veils and trains to create looks that were a literal garden of delight. At Galia Lahav Couture, hand-crafted floral details are always on the menu, but for spring 2025 they were seen in excess—more is always more when it comes to florals in our opinion. The Finesse gown features a mermaid silhouette and corset bodice topped with an otherworldly floral overskirt that kicked the glam factor into high gear. At Nardos, florals took centre stage also with many dresses featuring colourful handcrafted motifs. This strapless lace gown embroidered with details from a whimsical butterfly garden is the most stunning.

Blinged out

After seasons of dresses completely void of glittering details, dazzle is back in a big way, and it’s giving pure red-carpet vibes. Designers indulged their love for crystals, beadwork and pearls and many presented styles that took these elements completely OTT. One of the best glitzy wedding gowns we spotted was the Aphrodite at Ines Di Santo, an incredible sheath dress crafted from thousands of tiny crystals and hand-painted blossoms.

Boudoir chic

One of the buzziest collections at New York Bridal Fashion week was from L.A.-based brand Cinq. Designer Mayce Wysner’s Collection IV was all about theatrical moments and drawing theatrical style inspiration from the great storytellers like Shakespeare and Hitchcock. All the looks from Cinq were soft and ethereal, and we especially loved this dreamy two-piece look (because wedding separates are the best!) starring The Cornelia duster and its glorious leg-of-mutton sleeves paired with a slim bias-cut skirt.

Bubble details

The bubble skirt and bubble sleeves play a major starring role in bridal style for 2025. And the wedding mini dress gets a fresh spin with the quintessentially ’80s bubble hem creating a fun look perfect for dancing or a destination wedding. This sweet style, the Kennedy by Australian brand KYHA Studios is a particular standout—the dropped waist and cloud-like bubble are the essence of modern bridal chic. London designer Kate Halfpenny is always playing with volume and proportion in her collections and for her latest release, Speak, she has indulged her love of sleeves to create some beautiful voluminous styles that take us right back to the glory days of Princess Diana’s royal wedding in 1981—totally iconic!

Dress, Halfpenny London, halfpennylondon.com

Black magic

Dress, Claire Pettibone, clairepettibone.com

The black wedding dress continues to trend, and we love to see it reinvented with a romantic vintage twist. Claire Pettibone’s Lunaria black silk gown is a gorgeous embodiment of this vibe featuring a fit-and-flare silhouette, handcrafted 3-D floral embellishments in shades of champagne, mauve and teal, and draped pearls. The dark romance trend will continue to boom well into next year, so choosing a black gown for one of your looks is a fashion-forward move.

Modern vintage ball gowns

Dress, Katherine Tash, katherinetash.com

With a return to old-world bridal glamour, so too comes a renewed love for the classic wedding dress silhouette the wedding ball gown. The ball gown is back and better than ever, shown in so many stunning variations. The love of the pointed corset bodice—worn so notably by Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and The City: The Movie in 2008—continues into 2025, and designer Katherine Tash’s alluring satin Pearl wedding ball gown is one of the best we saw for spring 2025. Another amazing ’80s retro influence incorporated into the wedding ball gown is a pretty peplum. Designer Reem Acra presented a collection that was rich in texture and striking ball gown silhouettes, like this high-neckline Alencon lace dress trimmed with bows and a soft peplum.

Bows, bows, bows!

Bow veil and dress, Lihi Hod, lihihod.com

All things bow-trimmed continues to be a fashion obsession, particularly in the wedding space, but there were some fresh perspectives presented by designers. A colossal oversize bow veil is an amazing way to bring drama to a simple wedding dress style, as seen at Lihi Hod. Mark Ingram’s wildly romantic collection featured striking ribbon bows on many designs, most notably on this two-piece look pairing a strapless Alencon lace, corset ball gown with a black velvet bow-tied bolero.

Dress and bolero, Mark Ingram, markingram.com

Luxe laces

Dresses, Mira Zwillinger, mirazwillinger.com

This traditional bridal fabric is back in a massive way, and designers are playing with it in new and inspired ways, with lace patterning becoming more detailed and deluxe. Designer Mira Zwillinger loves to play with floral motifs in her laces and her Reflections collection was brimming with the texture and detail, as seen in these two gowns, the Alakya and Myka. Monique Lhuillier always embraces a luxe and whimsical lace game, and it’s on full display in her spring 2025 collection. The Marceau catsuit is an absolute showstopper that showcases so many of the season’s best trends in one otherworldly design.

Catsuit, Monique Lhuiller, moniquelhuiller.com

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