From cigarette trays to live illustrators, couples are competing for their weddings to be memorable. PR
Weddings
Cigarette platters at weddings are becoming A Thing.
ARE CIGARETTES COOL again?
It’s a question that’s been popping up recently as numerous pop stars and Hollywood actors have been photographed with cigarettes hanging from their mouths. For years considered a social taboo, cigarettes seem to be making a comeback and becoming more socially acceptable.
Emer McLysaght noted in a recent column the trendiness of a cigarette, writing: “Despite the blatant dangers of smoking, it’s everywhere. It’s in the zeitgeist.
“Young celebrities are puffing away like a cigarette is the new Loewe bag. Kylie Jenner, Charlie XCX, Connor Storrie, Hudson Williams, they’re all routinely photographed smoke in hand or mouth. They probably feel the invincibility of relative youth.”
McLysaght also noted that while attending a friend’s wedding in the UK during the summer, platters of cigarettes were on offer. The ‘cigarette platter’ appears to be a more modern rendition of cigars at weddings.
Everyone is aware of the dangers associated with smoking, so why is it ‘trendy’ again – and how are cigarette platters slowly becoming more commonplace at weddings?
The high prices attached to cigarettes, no more than cocaine, have perhaps given them an unwarranted and unintended luxury appeal. Smoking seems to be considered by some to be a bit edgy, and just the tiniest bit rebellious. For social smokers, it’s a bit of fun – a prop to wave around and an accompaniment to a large glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.
They also appear less juvenile than brightly coloured plastic vapes, which could be a factor.
Unholy matrimony
Molly, who got married last winter at the historic Cabra Castle, had a stand with menthol Vogue cigarettes her brother had brought back from Abu Dhabi. She bought second-hand fur coats for people to wear when making the trip outside.
“Weddings are meant to be fun, so I just thought, for a bit of a celebration. People usually have a cigar on celebration, so I thought the girls and the women can have a cigarette too,” she told The Journal.
The setup was a big hit.
“We spent most of our night outside, unintentionally,” she laughed.
Molly got the idea online, and thought given the grandeur of their wedding venue, it would add a fun twist with the Vogues and the fur coats.
“I’ve never been to a wedding in a castle, so I was like, feck it, let’s go all in.”
Irish weddings typically follow the same formula: a church ceremony, a drink reception, a four-course meal that features a choice of beef or fish for mains.
But this is changing, say wedding planners.
The Irish wedding is no longer about a simple act of matrimony; it’s about experiences. It’s about your wedding being the one people remember out of the slew of Fridays and Saturdays they begrudgingly donned a new set of glad rags for throughout the temperamental summer.
From cigarette trays to live illustrators, couples are competing for their weddings to be memorable.
Sandra Scharlach of Infusion Weddings, a premium Irish wedding planner, told The Journal that she sees couples opting to abandon wholly traditional cookie-cutter style weddings to incorporate their own personalities and interests into the event.
Social media plays a part, both in terms of inspiration and sharing the experience online.
“I think Irish people have been to so many weddings,” Scharlach said.
“They want to have more and more of an experience, and just want to make sure their wedding is different from everybody else. That can be through the look, through the feel, through the experience. This is very much depending on the couple.”
There are many small changes across the industry that have taken hold, she explained, like the abandonment of the long top table that overlooks guests in favour of a central table, or reallocating money that may have been used for wedding favours for something like fireworks.
Cigarette trays are definitely something she’s been seeing more of.
“It was a little bit more for Americans because it’s actually more bold – I think cigarettes are quite out, as I heard in the United States. So it’s definitely very naughty having cigarettes out in Mount Juliet.”
These types of weddings can deviate in other areas to make it a bit more of a party.
“Instead of having that boring wedding DJ who plays Sweet Caroline or whatever, maybe to really get a house DJ and do a little bit of a party vibe two hours after, because that is what the couple like to do.”
The so-called celebrity ‘cool girls’ – think Alexa Chung, Charli XCX, Anya Taylor-Joy, Mary-Kate Olsen – are often seen puffing on cigarettes, and having the ‘cool’ weddings. Olsen is credited with kicking off the cigarette wedding, having dished out bowls of cigarettes for guests to her 2015 wedding to banker Olivier Sarkozy.
Is this something people are taking inspiration from?
“100%,” Scharlach said. “We all want our wedding to be really special and to be really different, and not doing certain things which they have done before.”
It’s this note, and the move towards a more relaxed, party feel that has seen more couples incorporate cigarettes into their nuptial celebrations.
Molly noted that at her wedding, most people ended up outside at some stage of the night, having abandoned the dance floor for a breather, a smoke, or a catch-up, and it felt right to lean into this.
“When you don’t have the weather, I feel like you have to distract people in other ways.”