It’s 2017 and groomzillas abound. You can (help) pick the flowers! You can hire your 13-year-old cousin to DJ from his non-premium Spotify account! You can commission an acapella performance from Boyz II Men! (Okay, All 4 One; times are tough.) But you must wield your power wisely and avoid this year’s most tired trends.

As we experienced with Taylor Swift, overexposure brings out the critic in all of us, and I’ll confess to some eye-rolling when it comes to certain nuptial tropes. Like mason jars. Or corny hashtags. Or the presence of children. (Kidding. Mostly.)

But that's just me. Who has an actual right to complain? Wedding planners—the professional attendees on whom everyone has piled their lofty expectations of romantic grandeur, uninterrupted happiness, and hors d’oeuvres that never get cold. We invited some of the most popular wedding planners from across the country to rant about the most clichéd trends they see—a state of the union on the state of our unions, if you will—so you can avoid them, too.

Photo booths

“I’m going on a limb here to say photo booths are about to see the end of their 15 minutes,” says NYC/L.A. event producer Yifat Oren. "There. I said it.”

Photo booths are great in theory: Your friends look their best (possibly ever) and can take home a keepsake of the raging reception you threw. But consider the law of diminishing returns: Adam’s spending 15 minutes deciding on a fake mustache to obscure his never-before-groomed face. The line is longer than the line for the open bar. Dance floors are being encroached upon by the explosion of a high school drama department’s prop closet.

Instead, get a simple portrait booth, recommends Julie Savage of Strawberry Milk in Washington, DC. Essentially it's a classier, rinse-and-repeat upgrade with a faster-moving queue and no gimmicky foam fingers. Think prom photos, but not cheesy.

Dance entrances

“I’m a massive disbeliever in corny entrances into the room,” says David Tutera of DT Studios. “The wedding party comes in trying a horribly choreographed dance, pumping their fists in the air. It always looks like a bad frat party gone horrifically terrible.”

Multiple wedding planners begged for a moratorium on all choreographed dances for everyone except brides/grooms who are actual dancers. Thus, have your tech-savvy nephew cut the song down to two minutes max, and "live here.” The YouTube community already has enough bad “Crazy in Love” renditions.

Signs

Sometimes signs are critical, i.e. at the food station where your guests may have allergies. “But signage for signage’s sake is way overdone,” says Courtney Spencer of Merriment Events in Richmond, Virginia.

There are now signs for everything. There are signs to the signs for the restroom, say Michelle Layman and Jonnelle Belger-Gentry from Events by Elle in Kansas City, KS. Your guests are (hopefully) competent adults: If someone needs to use the restroom, he or she will find the restroom. But if you must have them, use consistent elements throughout, says Jessica Sloane in Nashville, Tennessee, such as a monogram or a motif from the invitation.

Party favors

I honestly cannot recall a single wedding favor that I’ve used, or even could locate, a year later—aside from the mason jars I’ve stolen repurposed. Favors are miniature expressions of gratitude, so consider what you’d be grateful to receive.

“Be more original than candy bars,” says Misty Damico of Luxe Event Productions in Portland, Oregon. “Feeding your guests chicken and candy to say, ‘Thanks for coming to our wedding’? It’s not a 10-year-old’s birthday party.”

We say do your guests a favor: Axe the favors.

"Ditch koozies and the like for guests (who will undoubtedly leave them behind for us to trash),"say Kate Ryan and Chelsea Dillon of Gold Leaf Event in Aspen, Colorado. "Spend those funds on higher-quality liquor at the bar, or better entertainment."

Boutonnières

"Boutonnières for the men are way overrated,” says Paige Appel from Bash, Please in Los Angeles. “It’s not prom. Men look dapper in a good suit or tux. Skip the flowers on them.”

Country themes

All of my friends’ weddings were Southern snowflakes, distinct and beautiful, but if not for the Facebook albums I couldn’t distinguish between any of them. If I close my eyes, I just see jars.

“Texas will never let go of burlap,” says Tutera. And with Pinterest, the rustic reach extends well above the Mason-Dixon. When does it go too far?

"Hay, for the love of God," says Jennifer Hartman of Heart 2 Heart Occasions in Cleveland, Ohio.

For Sloane, it’s cowboy boots. “You’re wearing formal attire,” she says. “Why would you wear cowboy boots? That’s country-kitschy.”

And the mason jars? "They can go back to canning,” says Gretchen Culver from Rocket Science Events in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Naked cakes

A naked cake is a cake without frosting. Read: a bad cake.

“You have to be very cautious of a naked cake drying out quickly from air exposure and tasting not so great by the time it's served,” says Lisa Costin of Charming Fête in Cleveland, Ohio. Serving bad wedding cake should nullify your matrimony; you can’t possibly understand the loving sacrifice required of a marriage if you subject your guests to shitty cake for vanity’s sake.

”Naked cakes are beautiful," says Spencer, “but I hear from guests that they miss the icing.”

Gatsby bullshit

On your wedding day, you feel like you’re the man—the handsomest, winningest guy to ever walk an aisle. You’re still not Leonardo DiCaprio.

“The Roaring Twenties thing is out,” says Savage. “Let’s save costume parties for non-wedding events.”

And unlike Gatsby, you don’t need to overstate yourself. The hashtags have made it clear you’re the reason we’re here. Tutera says some of his East Coast brides and grooms have begun requesting self-aggrandizing, individual entries into their receptions.

“I had a bride in NYC two years ago who asked to be lowered down from a 75-foot-tall ceiling on trapeze,” he says. (Tutera told her yes. Eight weeks of trapeze classes later, and she still didn’t go through with it last minute.)

Actually, themes in general

Let’s talk about the general idea of “theming” your wedding. Nice. Let’s stop talking about it.

“Couples feel like they have to have a theme,” says Tutera. “You don’t.”

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People fall into what Hartman calls “the trend trap,” buying anything and everything in the Pantone color of the year. “This year’s is baby pea green. HA,” she says. If you’re on a budget, it always costs more to have a theme, and the potential for tackiness is unbridled.

“Rich Mexican culture is entrenched in Southern California life, but Pinterest is overloaded with Día de los Muertos skull cookies, piñatas, and sombreros,” says Oren. "You want subtlety—indigenous flowers, locally sourced linens, or inspired graphics on printed materials. Having no theme is the new original theme.”

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