This summer, we reached out to more than 5,000 Arkansas brides to ask about their weddings. Our team posed questions about everything from budgets and bridesmaids to registries and rentals — the responses were fascinating. It was cool to see how clearly things have changed since our survey in 2015.

We’ve known for 20-plus years that Arkansas brides are special, so it came as no surprise that y'all still seek new and different — the best of the best — and are continually setting trends.

  2015 2017
# of dresses tried on before buying 5 10
Favorite wedding month May June
Importance of flowers "Sort of important" "Most important of all"
Wish they'd hired a videographer 24% 41%
Suits or tuxedoes for groomsmen Tuxedoes Suits
Used rentals for decor 26% 49%
Favorite honeymoon destination Dominican Republic Mexico

Some Things Never Change...
Still the most popular wedding color:
WHITE/IVORY


Still the hardest planning decision:
CHOOSING A VENUE


Still the most-worth-it splurge:
PHOTOGRAPHY


Still the fave way to serve food:
BUFFET

Wedding budgets are up since 2015, with 33 percent of brides saying they spent more than $20,000 (compared to 26 percent in 2015).

More people are helping foot the bill – 20 percent of brides said both sets of parents chipped in (compared to 15 percent in 2015).

We just love crunching the numbers to make sure we do the best job serving you, dear readers.

Our wedding vendor partners agree. It’s our collective mission to help you plan the dream day you’ve always wanted.

Arkansas Bride is here to point you in the direction of wonderful and reputable professionals and to always put the most inspiring ideas on display in every issue, Instagram story, Facebook post, blog article and beyond.