Bride Tech: Embracing digital innovations for your perfect wedding

Tech has a big part in daily life, so it makes sense that it should play an outsized role on the biggest day of our lives. Even as couples and planners now use artificial intelligence (AI) to generate ideas, mock up designs and plan and share schedules, tech is also pulling up to the wedding party – in the form of drones, 3D video mapping, digital photo booths and virtual reality (VR) connectivity.

“Tech is transforming weddings,” says Katerina Dixon, Assistant Vice-President, Corporate Communications & Marketing at the Shangri-La Group. “Beyond LED dance floors and drone photography, we’ve helped couples with livestream ceremonies via 360-degree VR for guests abroad, used holograms of absent loved ones for toasts, and to set up light shows on cue.” The group’s Muscat hotel is well equipped with these technologies, she says. There, wedding planning teams often organise drone shows instead of fireworks as more couples take sustainability issues into account.

Healthcare heiress Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani, the son of Asia’s richest man, used a drone show to illuminate one of the bridegroom’s passions at a pre-wedding party in India’s Jamnagar last March. The story of the animal centre Vantara was brought to life with 5,500 drones, in what would become India’s largest drone light show.

Drones are no longer unusual when it comes to filling a demand for unusual photo and video angles, says Kunal Rupani, Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Big Night, a luxury events and wedding planning agency based in Dubai. Couples coming to him now want to push the limits – and tech makes that possible.

“The Ambani wedding set a new bar for extravagance, and it has inspired UAE couples to dream bigger. Budgets are rising, and even non-Indian clients want a piece of the multi-day celebration magic,” he says. “Couples are asking for truly Dubai-style over-the-top experiences… and no idea is off-limits.”

At one event he produced, skydivers descended into the venue with cold pyrotechnics – safe, low-temperature fireworks – trailing from their ankles, all for a big reveal moment. Elsewhere in the UAE, he has seen people skydive into their own wedding, organised helicopter flower bombs and had couples’ names projected into the sky above the Ain Dubai Ferris wheel.

Brides now bring viral social media videos to consultations, showing scenes of colour bomb explosions or surreal dreamscapes. They want experiences that feel equally cinematic: transforming a beige meeting room into a lush, digital jungle using 3D projection mapping, for example.

This immersive solution means couples are no longer bound by a venue’s physical limitations. A subtle use was at one villa wedding, where Rupani’s team cast traditional Hindu motifs onto the plain white garden walls. The designs weren’t custom, but they matched the theme and made the space feel more special in a budget-friendly way to add atmosphere and make the event feel immersive.

Tech solutions can generally be tailored to couple’s budgets, but specific implementations or customisations can drive up costs, Rupani says. “The investment in the back-end tools and resources we utilise to implement these technologies also contributes to the overall pricing. For fundamental tech elements like laser shows and LED screens, a budget of around 10-15 per cent [of the total] could be a good starting point.”

He also warns of an over-reliance on generative AI. “What we see in this artificial world, won’t always match reality, even without budgetary restraints. AI engines can’t always explain how they created an image and what materials were used,” he says.

Dixon says everything is about balancing the wow-factor with practicality – as is so often the case when executing a project.

“Some items, such as synchronised drones, projection mapping, or live holograms can add an extra 30 per cent to total budgets,” she adds. “A tech-heavy wish list can increase costs significantly. But some tech, like AI photo booths or digital RSVPs, saves both money and time.”

Whether tech shows up in all its finery at your party depends on how much you’re willing to spend. But tech is already the silent co-planner for nearly half of all couples (49 per cent) getting married in 2025, a February survey by wedding planning website The Knot indicates.

Some 20 per cent specifically use AI tools, according to responses from 17,000 couples in the US. Generative AI – the subset underpinning tools such as ChatGPT – is now a member of the bridal party, helping create website copy, write thank you notes and consult on wedding etiquette (including how to say ‘no’ politely).

Alongside, pandemic-era QR codes are also being used in new ways, with 49 per cent of couples using them on save-the-date or wedding invitations – a growth of 42 per cent since 2021.

Other tools include the use of augmented reality invitations, so guests can scan a card to see a 3D-video message, and budgeting and timeline apps such as Zola or WeddingWire. That’s in addition to more prosaic use cases such as virtual try-ons for outfits or décor, and of course, scheduling in Excel and vision boards.

“We used ChatGPT for a lot of things,” says millennial bride-to-be and comms professional Barbara F, who is getting married in Salzburg this summer. The generative AI engine helped her find the best colours for her own and her husband’s skin tones, while also suggesting ideas for bridesmaids’ dresses. “We also used ChatGPT for vision boards and budget overviews – which, technically, you can use old-skool analogue solutions for. But it’s just so much easier with ChatGPT.”

At a time when people are forming romantic relationships with ChatGPT, it’s only natural that weddings, too, now include the biggest tools available.

Robot wedding cake: At this year’s Expo 2025 in Osaka, a Swiss-Italian team debuted what is thought to be the first robot-made wedding cake. RoboCake features LED candles and battery-powered dancing gummy bears – and everything is edible! It’s part of the EU’s RoboFood project, which brings together teams from several universities.

3D-printed wedding dress: Dutch designer Iris van Herpen is widely known for her kinetic garments. Last year, she 3D printed the first wedding gown for Brazilian bride Mariana Pavani using flexible nylon fabric and a digital sculpting software called ZBrush. Van Herpen used both traditional techniques like draping and beads as well as silicone moulding and laser cutting. The result was a flexible dress that maintains its shape no matter what the bride does.

Robotic barista: And in the UAE, attendees at Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2023 were introduced to Toni Compatto, a high-performance robot bartender from tech firm Makr Shakr. The machine serves up to 60 cocktails and coffee drinks per hour using a mechanical arm.