The 2027 wedding trends are all about personality, experience and creating a celebration that genuinely feels like you. Whether you’re planning your wedding right here in South Africa or travelling from overseas for a destination wedding in Cape Town or the Cape Winelands, 2027 is shaping up to be an exciting year for weddings.
Couples are becoming braver.
We’re seeing less of “this is what a wedding is supposed to look like” and much more of “this is us.” Think meaningful guest experiences, editorial-meets-documentary photography, cinematic wedding films, wedding content creation, statement bridal fashion and celebrations that aren’t afraid to break a few traditional rules.
At Ruth & Co Photography & Film, we’ve spent more than two decades documenting weddings and have watched trends arrive, disappear and occasionally return wearing a slightly different dress. We’ve photographed everything from intimate celebrations to extravagant productions, multicultural weddings and destination couples who have travelled across the world to marry in South Africa.
So, whether home is Cape Town, Johannesburg, London, Amsterdam, Sydney, New York or somewhere entirely different, let’s look at the 2027 wedding trends we’re most excited about—and how you can make them your own.
Destination Weddings in South Africa Are Having a Moment
We may be slightly biased, but South Africa is rather difficult to beat as a wedding destination.
For international couples, particularly those travelling from the United Kingdom, United States, Europe and Australia, Cape Town offers the opportunity to combine a wedding with an extraordinary holiday.
Imagine your guests flying into Cape Town and spending a few days exploring the city before heading into the Cape Winelands.
A welcome dinner overlooking vineyards.
Wine tasting in Stellenbosch or Franschhoek.
Your wedding beneath the mountains.
A relaxed brunch the following morning.
A few days along the coast.
And perhaps a safari before everyone reluctantly flies home.
Suddenly your wedding isn’t simply a wedding.
It’s the trip everyone talks about for years.
We’ve photographed many couples and guests who have travelled from overseas to celebrate in South Africa, and destination weddings have become a part of Ruth & Co that we absolutely love.
There’s something special about walking into a wedding and hearing accents from five different countries around the dinner table.
Getting Married in Cape Town – Complete Guide for International Couples
https://ruthandco.co.za/2026/08/21/getting-married-in-cape-town-a-complete-guide-for-international-couples/
Why Cape Town Works So Beautifully for Destination Weddings
One of Cape Town’s greatest advantages is variety.
You could exchange vows surrounded by vineyards in Stellenbosch, celebrate on a historic estate in Constantia, have photographs beside the Atlantic Ocean, disappear into a forest for your couple session or choose a private farm surrounded by mountains.
That variety is wonderful for couples.
It’s also wonderful for photography and film.
International couples often tell us they want their wedding photographs to unmistakably feel like South Africa.
We understand that.
If you’ve travelled thousands of kilometres to get married here, let’s use the landscape.
Give us the mountains.
Give us the vineyards.
Give us that ridiculous African sunset.
Give us the wind in the veil.
Give us the ocean.
Give us the wide-open spaces.
Your location should become part of your wedding story.
Turn Your Destination Wedding Into a South African Wedding Weekend
https://www.cherryglamping.co.za/
For our international couples, this is one 2027 trend we particularly love.
If your closest people are flying halfway across the world to celebrate with you, why limit everything to eight hours?
Make a weekend of it.
A welcome dinner gives everyone time to reconnect after travelling.
The wedding becomes the main event.
Then host a relaxed brunch or wine tasting the following day.
From a storytelling perspective, multi-day destination weddings are incredible because we’re able to document much more than formalities.
We capture people arriving.
Old friends seeing each other again.
Families meeting.
The anticipation before the wedding.
The madness of the wedding itself.
And those wonderfully relaxed moments afterwards when everyone finally exhales.
International weddings are often where photographs become particularly important because the people you love may live on completely different continents.
There may not be another opportunity to have everyone together like this for years.
Your Photographer Can Be Part of Your Destination-Wedding Planning Team
This is something international couples sometimes don’t realise.
Your photographer shouldn’t only arrive on the wedding day, take photographs and disappear.
We’ve worked in the South African wedding industry for decades.
We know venues.
We know light.
We know travel times.
We know Cape Town weather can occasionally develop a personality of its own.
We know where the sun will disappear behind a mountain far earlier than Google tells you “sunset” is happening.
We know which timelines work and which ones look lovely on paper but leave absolutely no breathing room on the wedding day.
If you’re planning your wedding from overseas, use that experience.
We’re happy to help our couples with timelines, photography locations and practical advice surrounding the visual side of their wedding.
Our booking process can also be managed remotely, with consultations and planning taking place before you ever board the plane to South Africa.
How Our Wedding Booking Process Works
https://ruthandco.co.za/our-processes/
One Team for Photography, Film and Wedding Content Creation
https://ruthandco.co.za/about-us/
This is particularly valuable for destination couples.
You already have enough suppliers to organise from another country.
You shouldn’t have to coordinate a photographer, separate videography company, separate content creator and drone operator if you don’t want to.
Ruth & Co offers professional wedding photography, cinematic wedding videography, highlights films, content creation and drone coverage where conditions and regulations permit as part of one coordinated creative team.
We can also provide lawn games and our Instax experience, giving your guests something fun to enjoy while you’re away having your couple photographs taken.
It means fewer moving parts for you and a team accustomed to working together.
View Our Wedding Packages
https://ruthandco.co.za/wedding-photography-packages/
Coming to South Africa Before the Wedding? Book Your Couple Session Too
If you’re travelling to Cape Town before your wedding, consider making time for a pre-wedding or engagement session.
It doesn’t have to be at your wedding venue.
Quite the opposite.
If you’re getting married on a wine estate, why not do your engagement photographs at the beach?
Or in one of Cape Town’s forests?
Or somewhere overlooking the mountains?
This gives international couples an entirely different South African landscape in their collection while also giving us an opportunity to get to know one another before the wedding.
By the time your wedding arrives, we’re no longer strangers pointing cameras at you.
You already know how we work.
And we already know how you interact together.
Planning Your 2027 Wedding From Overseas?
Don’t let the distance intimidate you.
Some of the most memorable weddings we’ve photographed have belonged to couples who planned their South African wedding from thousands of kilometres away.
And we absolutely love being part of them.
At Ruth & Co Photography & Film, we’re based in Cape Town and work throughout the Cape Winelands, South Africa and internationally.
Whether you’re South African and getting married close to home, a South African living abroad and coming home to marry, or you’ve simply fallen in love with the idea of a destination wedding in South Africa, we’d love to hear your story.
You bring your people.
We’ll bring the cameras.
And South Africa will provide the backdrop.
Wedding Photography & Videography Packages
https://ruthandco.co.za/wedding-photography-packages/
