Coffee and chocolates traditionally signal the end of a meal at a wedding. But now many couples are ditching the sweet stuff and doling out cigarettes instead. Bowls and trays piled high with fags have become the new party favour.
Last weekend, guests at Charli xcx’s nuptials were served Vogue Essence Bleue slim cigarettes from silver trays, and social media is peppered with wedding receptions featuring tiered dessert stands laden with smoking paraphernalia and dedicated “smoking stations”.
It can be an expensive addition to any wedding bill, considering the average cost for a packet of 20 cigarettes is now £14.
Many modern brides take their inspiration from Mary-Kate Olsen, the child star turned fashion designer for The Row. In 2015, Olsen doled out mini bowls of cigarettes during her wedding to her now ex-husband Olivier Sarkozy.
Emma Westblade, the editor-in-chief of the wedding planning directory the Wed, described the trend as “a soft rebellion against the polished perfection long associated with weddings, in favour of something more unfiltered and deliberately nostalgic”.
Charli xcx, whose wedding feature trays loaded with cigarettes for guests. Photograph: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
She added: “It’s controversial, yes, but it’s part of a larger return to vice-coded aesthetics, plucked from the noughties and revived by gen Z for today’s weddings.”
At the online marketplace 1st Dibs, sales of items with cigarette, lighter, tobacco and cigar in the item title are up 11% this year compared with 2024. Trending items include 1930s cigarette dispensers, art deco cases and porcelain Hermès ashtrays from the 1980s.
Getting a nicotine fix is also trending at fashion parties. In September, guests at a party in Paris for Kylie Jenner’s clothing brand Khy were greeted by waiters holding silver platters of slim cigarettes and branded matches. At an event to celebrate her collaboration with the denim brand Madewell, Alexa Chung served guests ice cold martinis next to bowls of Camel Blues.
And in November, at the launch of Lili Anolik’s book Didion & Babitz at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont, cigarettes and lighters branded with the book’s title were placed on tables.
Last month, the sale of single-use vapes in England was banned. Perhaps traditional cigarettes never really went away, but they now seem to be having a resurgence.
In March, research found that smoking rates in parts of England had increased for the first time since 2006. This is despite the fact that smoking is widely known to increase the risk of cancer and 94% of UK adults recognise this.
The trend is also reflected in pop culture. Singers Lorde and Addison Rae both mention smoking in their recent singles, and Sabrina Carpenter uses a fork as a cigarette holder in the video for her new song, Manchild. In June, just before France’s new smoking ban, Beyoncé lit up a cigarette on stage in Paris during her Cowboy Carter tour.
Charli xcx was photographed smoking outside her wedding reception, while Dua Lipa and Paul Mescal are regularly spotted with a fag in hand.
On screen, Seema (Sarita Choudhury) smokes everywhere in And Just Like That, including in her bed. Dakota Johnson’s character, Lucy, is rarely without a cigarette in her new film The Materialists, and in the latest series of The Bear, even anti-smoker Sydney attempts to light up.
Jared Oviatt who runs the Instagram account Cigfluencers described cigarettes as “kind of like blue jeans. They’ve survived every trend cycle you can imagine.”
Citing generational factors as playing a role in smoking’s revival, Oviatt added: “The dream of stability, owning a home, financial security feels increasingly out of reach. So the question becomes: why not do what you want? Why not smoke? Nothing matters!”