The latest Etsy wedding and back-to-school trends (+ design ideas)

As you probably know, a big part of the design creation process with the Low Hanging System involves throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. However, as you list more inventory and grow your business, you can also take a more targeted and seasonal approach to increase your traffic and sales.

One of the ways you can scale up with Etsy is by jumping on trends and keywords that buyers are actively searching for. A few times a year, Etsy puts out a trends report detailing this type of information. Etsy releases one of these reports close to the start of the new year. Plus, it usually puts out a report with wedding trends, which is what I want to focus on today, along with back-to-school trends.

Since we’re in the midst of wedding season and back-to-school is right on its heels, now is a great time to roll out wedding and school-related designs to take advantage of these targeted trends.

Below, you’ll find a list of trends including wedding and design ideas and images of products found on Etsy for you to use as inspiration. The trends you’ll find in this post include the following…

Wedding trends:

• Cute bows
• Styles from the ’60s
• Personalized gifts for the happy couple and bridal party
• Destination-inspired designs
• Regency era (“regencycore”)
• Vibrant color palettes

Back-to-school trends:

• Personalized friendship gifts
• Ways to make at-home learning fun
• Custom teacher appreciation gifts
• Whimsical designs
• Animal prints
• Dorm room décor

Let’s dive into what’s trending now on Etsy so you can start creating more targeted designs for your shop.

Here are the Etsy wedding trends happening now 

Cute bows

Bridal bows are popular this wedding season. Bows add an element of romance and whimsy to the bride’s special day. They typically appear on dresses or fashion accessories, like jewelry or hair pieces. But you can also incorporate bows into the wedding gift designs for the items you sell.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

For any wedding designs you create (e.g. bridal party proposals, congratulations, and well wishes for the happy couple), you can add a bow image somewhere to the design. If a bride’s dress or accessories include bows, she’ll love the idea of other items featuring bows as well.

Here are some examples of Etsy wedding gift ideas:

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The bows you add to your designs don’t need to be this ornate. You can use a simple clipart image and place it above or below your design’s text. You can even add bows beneath basic black text mugs for bridesmaid or mother-of-the-groom phrase ideas.

Styles from the ’60s

This year, Etsy saw a rise in searches for mod and retro styles, including pillbox hats and A-line and short wedding dresses. And while these searches relate to bridal clothing and accessories, you can incorporate ’60s elements into your wedding designs and appeal to brides and wedding guests by relating to the wedding’s overall style.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

Trendy colors during the 60s included green, gold, orange, and yellow (anything that gave off a psychedelic vibe), and popular patterns included tie-dye, paisley, and large, stylized flowers. You can add these colors and patterns to your text-based wedding designs to give them some fun ’60s flare.

Here are some examples of Etsy wedding gift ideas:

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Personalized gifts for the happy couple and bridal party

Personalization never goes out of style, especially for special events like weddings. People don’t want generic. They want something unique. So with any wedding designs you create, I would recommend giving customers the option to personalize your items.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

Personalization options can come in a variety of forms. For example, adding…

• the happy couple’s names
• the wedding date
• the wedding location
• the bridal party members’ names
• a personal photo
• a custom message

With just about any wedding design you create, you can allow for some type of personalization. And offering this can definitely help increase your sales.

Here are some examples of Etsy wedding gift ideas:

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Destination-inspired designs

A lot of couples opt to have destination weddings. Sometimes, the destination is significant to the couple. Other times, they just want a stunning, faraway backdrop for their special day for themselves and their guests to enjoy together.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

Destination weddings occur in a variety of places, from tropical beaches to locations with serene mountain views, so you can cover a lot of ground with your destination wedding designs. You can add elements like palm trees, sunsets, and mountain peaks. Or you could make designs that are city- or country-specific, such as by including famous landmarks.

If you decide to go the latter route, you might consider making your designs more evergreen (i.e. not super specific to weddings) so they appeal not only to people looking for destination-inspired wedding gifts but also to a wider audience with wanderlust.

Here are some examples of Etsy wedding gift ideas:

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Regency era (“regencycore”)

This trend stems from the popularity of period dramas like Bridgerton, which take place during the nineteenth century and depict the glamour and opulence of that historical time.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

To add a bit of regencycore to your wedding designs, think royalty and luxury. Etsy says the idea of tea parties also relates to this trend. So try to incorporate pastel tones, soft and delicate details, and other fairytale-esque into your designs. You might even take a cue from a Jane Austen novel in terms of how you phrase your text-based designs.

Here are some examples of Etsy wedding gift ideas:

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Vibrant color palettes

Couples are shifting from the muted, neutral tones that were trendy before in favor of bold, vibrant color palettes, like emerald and sapphire.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

This is a pretty easy trend to incorporate into not only your wedding designs but also your 2022 evergreen designs. You can choose bright colors for your fonts and look for vibrant images to include as well.

Here are some examples of Etsy wedding gift ideas:

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Here’s what’s trending for back-to-school 

Personalized friendship gifts 

Friendships are important to students. And when students get to the upper-grade levels (middle school, high school, college, etc.), they like to commemorate those friendships, especially if distance is involved, with personalized gifts.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

With personalized friendship designs, you don’t have to go the back-to-school route necessarily. You can make these designs more generic so people will want to buy them year-round. You can come up with simple, text-based designs, talking about the value of close friends and then let customers add names, dates, photos, or custom text to the design.

Here are some examples of Etsy back-to-school gifts:

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Ways to make at-home learning fun 

Since the pandemic, many students had to transition from classroom learning to at-home learning. This includes students at all levels, from preschool to college. At-home learning is obviously different from classroom learning and it presents unique challenges, one of which is how to make at-home learning fun for students.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

To make at-home learning more fun, you can create designs aimed at helping kids learn – for example, designs showing the alphabet, multiplication tables, state and country capitals, et cetera. You can create designs to make the home environment feel a little more classroom-like or designs aimed at parents coping with the stresses of their new roles as educators.

Here are some examples of Etsy back-to-school gifts:

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Custom teacher appreciation gifts 

Showing appreciation for hard-working teachers is always trendy as far as I’m concerned. Teachers do so much both inside and outside the classroom and they often do so with very little reward.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

To create great teacher appreciation designs, you can come up with funny or sweet messages that express gratitude. Then, you can elements like apples, books, pens and pencils, globes, and chalkboards and leave some space for personalization (e.g. adding the teacher’s name).

Here are some examples of Etsy back-to-school gifts:

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Whimsical designs for Etsy back-to-school gifts 

Adding a touch of whimsy is popular on Etsy with back-to-school items right now. The whimsical trend appeals especially to introverted, bookish types. But it’s certainly not limited to that personality type. Anyone who doesn’t want boring or cookie-cutter products would appreciate some whimsy.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

With your whimsical designs, think cozy and cheerful with rosy palettes. Images like leafy plants, cups of tea, pretty pastries, forest animals, and stacks of books come to mind. Bookworm and apple images are also popular, especially among younger students.

Here are some examples of Etsy back-to-school gifts:

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Animal prints 

Animal print is in this year, especially when it comes to back-to-school attire, including backpacks. But you can also easily add animal prints to the designs you create for the items in your shop.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

The types of animal prints you see most often include cheetah, leopard, zebra, tiger, and snakeskin. But you can also work with other prints, like cow and giraffe. You also aren’t limited to traditional color palettes. For example, you could make a funky animal print design featuring a hot pink zebra pattern.

You can do a lot of different things with animal prints. You can add the print to your designs’ background, you could include images of the actual animals, or you could find other images that use animal print as the “color.”

Here are some examples of Etsy back-to-school gifts:

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Dorm room décor

When it comes to back-to-school, don’t forget about college students. College students need to decorate their dorm rooms so they, along with their parents, are typically on the hunt for dorm room décor this time of year.

Design ideas for print-on-demand

College students vary a ton in terms of their specific likes and dislikes. But one safe angle you can take to create funny, relevant designs is to focus on college students’ new independence.

For most students, college is their first experience being away from home, and there may be a learning curve as they adjust to their new environment. You can create fun designs that acknowledge this experience with reminders about things like going to class, doing laundry, and otherwise being responsible.

Here are some examples of Etsy back-to-school gifts:

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I hope this post inspires you to create great new Etsy back-to-school gifts along with wedding items! If you’d like to learn how to make as many ecommerce sales as possible with these designs, check out my Low Hanging Mastermind. And if you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends and followers!