Eliza Morrison and her partner exchanged wedding vows at a picturesque manor house in the Surrey countryside to the applause of family and friends.
But once her guests were engrossed in champagne and canapés, she gave a surreptitious nod to her sister, mother and chief bridesmaid, before slipping away. Upstairs in the bridal suite, with the door closed behind them, her sister, Sara, pulled out a pair of scissors, held up the Hollywood curls that Eliza’s bridal hairstylist had so carefully created hours earlier, and snipped eight inches from the hair. Eliza’s blonde locks.
“It was a tremendously exciting moment, with us all screaming and cheering while she cut my hair,” says Eliza. “If we reflect on it, it symbolizes the transition to a new beginning as a wife.”
Eliza Morrison says the moment she was cut on her wedding day ‘symbolizes the move to a new beginning as a wife’
Forget about unexpectedly putting on a second dress, or even a third, to make your wedding memorable. This summer’s brides are turning to increasingly drastic transformations, with #weddingchop racking up millions of views on TikTok.
Eliza’s wedding planner, Lauren Goodman, even scheduled the other major events around the reveal of her “wedding chop.” ‘It was essential to include it in the timeline because all eyes are on the bride. “If she disappears for half an hour people will wonder what’s going on,” says Lauren, founder of Bluebird Creative. “I’d never come across a wedding cut before and thought it was a great way to up the ante and create something memorable.”
Eliza, 32, who works in events marketing and lives in north London, has been with Julian, 39, a finance director, for eight years.
It was a friend who suggested she try the chop, a few months before the big day last July. “It didn’t take me long to embrace the idea of creating a memorable moment,” says Eliza. “It would have cost a fortune to pay my bridal hairdresser for her time waiting for me to go upstairs, so she showed me how the cut should be done that day and I came up with the idea of having my sister do it at her place. .’
Sister Sara is a radiographer with no hairdressing experience, which would explain the way her hands were shaking when she did the operation. Eliza’s hair was tied in a ponytail, which Sara simply cut off.
“Sara was absolutely petrified,” Eliza says. ‘Her own hairdresser begged her not to do it for fear it would go terribly wrong. My mom was trying to look away from her, since she was very nervous about how she would end everything, but she also filmed the moment on her phone.
“My bridesmaid couldn’t stop laughing when my ponytail fell to the floor and within ten minutes my hair transformed into an elegant shoulder-length bob.”
Eliza, 32, who works in events marketing and lives in north London, married Julian, 39, a finance director she had worked with for eight years.
Then he cut himself off and said: ‘As soon as I looked in the mirror I loved it and I had no nerves.’
Julian “was totally shocked, but he loved it.” He told Eliza that he reminded him of how she looked the day they met in 2016.
She adds, “I already had Hollywood curls from the beginning of the day, so all I had to do was put on a headband.” As soon as I looked in the mirror I loved it and I had no nerves. It was something so special to share with the most important women in my life.
“As soon as we finished, I literally ran downstairs to show it to Julian, who had no idea what I had been doing, because he was so excited for me to see it.” Ironically, Julian didn’t bat an eyelid at first. Eliza says: “She was waiting in the hall for our last guests to be seated for the meal and the first thing she noticed was that I had removed the tulle overskirt of my wedding dress to reveal a long, tight skirt.
‘I ran my fingers through my hair to alert him to my new style and asked him if he’d noticed anything else different, to which he replied: “Oh, you’ve put a headband in your hair!”
“By then I was already laughing. He finally realized that he had cut my hair and was totally surprised, but he loved it. He told me that it reminded him of how I looked the day we met in 2016, when my hair was much shorter, which was very romantic.
Eliza’s bridal cut did not go unnoticed by her family and friends, who noticed it the moment the couple entered the reception. “There were a lot of surprised faces, applause and people asking if she had hair extensions that we had removed,” Eliza adds. ‘They couldn’t believe they had cut my hair in the middle of the wedding or that my sister had done it.
“I had thought that if it looked a little messy or wasn’t how I wanted it, I would have a couple of days to cut it professionally before going to Tanzania and Zanzibar for my honeymoon, but actually the cut was perfect.” was.’
Courtney Sneddon, 27, a personal assistant from Edinburgh, chopped her hip-length dark hair into a shoulder-length bob amid her big day at a barn in Fife in November 2022.
She had been with business analyst Cameron, 32, for four years when he proposed to her in 2020. “Although our wedding was fairly traditional, I’m known for being fun and spontaneous, and as my hair grows quickly, I’ve had long and short and everything in between over the years,” says Courtney. In fact, she spent two years growing her hair long specifically for her wedding.
Her hairdresser (and trusted friend from school) is celebrity hairstylist Christopher Laird, who has worked with stars including Cate Blanchett, Geri Halliwell and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. He suggested the bold move.
‘We were doing a hair trial for a wedding a few weeks before and I asked Chris if he had an appointment the Monday after the wedding to cut my hair.
“I had been growing it for two years for the wedding, but caring for it was driving me a little crazy,” says Courtney, who now has a three-month-old son, Finn.
‘His response was: “Why don’t we do it at the wedding, since I’m one of the guests anyway?” Then he told me about the TikTok trend and I thought it was very funny. Chris had never done a wedding cut before, so we were both very excited.
‘My only concern was not to waste too much time with my guests, so we decided to rest during dessert, when people would relax and move around. I told Cameron I was going to the bathroom. “Chris cut it all way above my shoulders and then ran the curling iron through it.”
Courtney Sneddon, 27, is preparing to have her hip-length dark hair chopped off in a shoulder-grazing bob amid her big day in 2022.
Just 25 minutes later, Courtney had a new look, one that made her husband Cameron do a double take.
The Edinburgh AP married business analyst Cameron, 32, in a barn in Fife.
Just 25 minutes later, Courtney had a new look, one that made her husband Cameron do a double take. “Thankfully, she said right away that she loved it, although she certainly took him by surprise,” Courtney laughs.
When the couple reappeared, Courtney says missing out on their tropical fruit panna cotta was worth the reaction from their roughly 100 guests. “I casually walked back to the front desk and immediately a table of Cameron’s friends noticed and started yelling and
applauding, then the entire room did the same. It took a few minutes for my in-laws to realize what all the fuss was about and they were shocked.
‘When I look at our wedding photos, I love the fact that she had two different hairstyles. Having very long hair allowed me to wear it in a formal updo for the ceremony, while the shorter style gave me new life for partying well into the night. My only regret is that I didn’t keep my hair cut as a souvenir.’
Angharad Jones, 28, also cut her long hair mid-wedding, to the astonishment of her husband Gavin, 30, an energy consultant, and their 110 guests at a venue in rural Shropshire in last September.
When Gavin proposed in April 2022, after five years together, Angharad asked her hairdresser friend Leonie to do her bridal hairstyle, growing her hair out especially to allow her to have a traditional loose bun, with wavy strands falling around her. her face. “I wanted to wear it to show off the pretty lace details and cut-out back of my dress,” says Angharad.
After seeing the cut trend on TikTok, she loved the idea of cutting it for the evening party, especially since we were going on our honeymoon to Kenya 36 hours after the wedding. He wanted short hair for the warm weather.
“Only Leonie and I knew the secret, and when we had a short break between the reception and the evening around five in the afternoon, we escaped.”
It took a nervous Leonie about 45 minutes to cut, dry and re-curl Angharad’s hair, something only echoed by a “stunned” bridesmaid who came into the bridal suite mid-cut to touch up her makeup.
‘The first thing he said was, “I could have known you would do something like this!” as I’m known for being spontaneous,” says Angharad. ‘Gavin has always liked my hair shorter and when I went to pick him up he said, “Have you cut your hair?” It looks incredible!
‘The look on everyone’s faces was priceless. They could not believe it. Some didn’t realize it had actually been cut, but made comments like, “I’m sure your hair looked different this morning.”
“In years to come, I realize that our guests won’t remember what they ate or what music they danced to on our big day, but it’s unlikely they’ll ever forget the big surprise of my wedding party.”