Reading time: 12 minutes
Where do you even get started with your wedding design? In today’s episode, I’m breaking down the wedding design process into 4 basic steps so you can plan a gorgeous and cohesive wedding from start to finish. Whether you’re just starting to plan your wedding or your Pinterest board is one endless scroll, this episode is going to show you how to put together a beautiful and cohesive wedding design that’s unique and personal to you.
NOT READY TO PICK OUT YOUR DECOR YET? MAKE SURE YOU SAVE THIS POST SO YOU CAN COME BACK TO IT LATER – AND DON'T FORGET THE WEDDING MOOD BOARD!
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HIGHLIGHTS FOR THIS EPISODE: HOW TO DESIGN YOUR WEDDING
When you're picking out your wedding decor, it’s important to pick design elements that serve a purpose. When I design weddings for my couples, I want to make sure that the elements we include in the design or the details we pick for the wedding decor have meaning. They weave little tidbits of information that I’ve pulled from the couple’s story into the overall day.
In this episode, I break down the design process into 4 basic steps:
- 1: Find Your Inspiration [8:18]
- 2: Pinterest Purge [17:14]
- 3: Pick Your Theme [20:02]
- 4: Create Your Mood Board or Wedding Design [24:26]
Links Mentioned in the Episode
- Make sure you download my wedding mood board to help you organize your design and bring it all together
- Ask the Planner Episode 13 (where I talk about why you should pick 3 style words to define your wedding aesthetic)
- Architectural Digest
- Elle Decor
- @AskthePlannerPodcast on Instagram
- Book a 90-minute Clarity Call to get more help on your wedding design
Thank you to our podcast sponsors!
- LoveStream – Get 10% off your virtual wedding package with my code Ask10!
- Zola
- Honeyfund
If you prefer to read, here's the text . . .
How to Design Your Wedding
I’m so excited for today’s topic – How to Design Your Wedding – because I know it’s something a lot of you struggle with but know is important if you want to make your wedding special, memorable, and one-of-a-kind.
And the best way to make your wedding unique to you is through the design. These are the details and decor elements that you choose to include that will distinguish it from other weddings.
Even though it’s super important, I know a lot of couples stall when it comes to the wedding design because there are so many directions that you can take it.
In this episode, I break the process down for you as simply as possible. But if you still want more help, send me your questions and book a 90-minute clarity call with me so that we can work through whatever issues you’re having and get you on the way to planning your gorgeous wedding!
First, I want to start with this quote by Charles Eames, he’s a furniture designer known for the Eames Chair and other functional but really gorgeous pieces.
“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.”
I start with this quote because it’s important to pick design elements that serve a purpose. When I design weddings for my couples, I want to make sure that the elements we include in the design or the details we pick for the wedding decor have meaning. They weave little tidbits of information that I’ve pulled from the couple’s story into the overall day.
And that brings me to the first step of designing your wedding:
Step 1: Find Your Inspiration
Your Story
Like I said before, your wedding is inspired by your story. In order for it to be personal, it needs to be about you.
So how do we do that? First, let’s think about you guys.
- What are your backgrounds?
- What’s your heritage?
- Are there cultural traditions from your backgrounds that you want to incorporate into your wedding decor?
- Where did you both grow up?
To hear what fun details about our heritage when we got married almost 12 years ago, listen to Episode 15.
Another source of inspiration for your wedding decor is your relationship.
- Where did your relationship start?
- How did you both meet?
- What do you both like to do for fun together?
Another source of inspiration for your wedding decor and details is your engagement. Maybe you want to include some details about how he or she proposed, where it happened, or any funny details about it.
Of course, when you’re looking for inspiration, you don’t need to know all the answers to these questions right now or at the beginning of your design process. Just keep them in mind or make a list of things you might want to incorporate into your wedding design and come back to it later.
Planning a virtual wedding? Make sure you use my code ASK10 for 10% off LoveStream's virtual wedding services!
Blogs & Pinterest
Now that you’ve pulled together some thoughts about your story, it’s time to turn to wedding blogs and Pinterest.
Like I said, I don’t like just copying things other people have done, but it’s good to see what’s out there and what inspires you.
You don’t have to search for specific details at this point, like invitations or wedding colors. We’re just casting a wide net of inspiration to see what you gravitate towards.
Take some time to read different blog articles, save some images that you like but don’t worry too much about why you like them.
When you’re on Pinterest, scroll around and see what jumps out at you. Let different Pins lead you to other pins. Go down those rabbit holes and see where it takes you.
Take some time with this process. When I’m putting together a wedding design, I do this over several weeks. I have ideas that I research, then I let it marinate for a little while. Then I come back to it again later. I go in different directions depending on what I’m inspired by and the couple’s priorities and styles.
Also, don’t feel like you can only get wedding inspiration from wedding blogs. I love looking at interior design magazines for inspiration about colors. So feel free to pin items related to interior decor if you love them.
Interior design magazines would also be a great place to get inspiration for wedding color palettes. I mean, I think we’ve all seen those designer kitchens and homes in Architectural Digest and Elle Decor. Their color combinations are gorgeous!
Alright, so that’s step 1 of the design process: Finding Your Inspiration.
Step 2: Purge Your Pinterest
Like I said before, Pinterest is a great tool to get inspiration and ideas, but more often than not, too many pins can overwhelm you and after a point, you've lost track of all the stuff you’ve pinned.
Now it’s time to do a Pinterest purge. During this purge, you can either delete images that don’t resonate with you anymore because you found ones you like better or you can just move your most favorite images to a Final or Top Inspiration board that has the best of the best and leave the other ones where they are in case you need to reference them later.
In Episode 13, where I talk about how to pick your wedding venue, one of the first steps I said to help you narrow down your venue search was to pick 3 style words to describe your wedding. If you missed that episode, definitely go back and listen to it.
I mention this because picking 3 style words will help you whittle down your Pinterest boards, too. If the images you’re looking at don’t align with your 3 style words, remove them, archive them, or put them on a different board.
If you haven’t chosen 3 style words to describe your wedding, like elegant, colorful, and whimsical, now’s a great time to do it.
During your Pinterest Purge is also a good time to start organizing your inspiration into more specific boards, like flowers, color schemes or color palettes, table decor, etc.
Once you’ve finished your purge, you’re ready for Step 3.
Step 3: Pick Your Theme
After you’ve cleaned out your Pinterest, it’s time to pick a theme to give the day cohesion. Hopefully, you’ll start to see some kind of pattern emerge after you finish your purge, whether it’s a color palette that you keep coming back to or a certain style or both.
Also, don’t forget about your 3 style words that I mentioned in Step 3. These words will also give you some direction as you pick a theme for your wedding. These style words could even be your theme.
If nothing jumps out at you, try having someone else take a look and see if they see any patterns emerge for them.
It could be that you’ve just been staring at it for a long time and need another person’s perspective to help you see the patterns or similarities among all the images that you’re drawn to.
To hear how one bride's color palette and a 17th-century Dutch painter led us to design one of my favorite and most beautiful fall weddings, listen to Episode 15.
Your wedding theme could literally be anything. It could be a place, a feeling, a piece of art, a color scheme, or a few choice words. Pick whatever you want as long as it’s special and meaningful to both of you.
Once you have an idea for your theme, it’s time for the last step!
Step 4: Create Your Mood Board or Wedding Design
Step 4 is creating your wedding design or wedding mood board, as many people call it.
This step can be as elaborate or as simple as you like as long as it’s helpful and not stressful for you.
The more elements in it, the better it is for sharing with your vendors so everyone’s on the same page as to the overall direction and feeling of your day. But if it starts to get overwhelming, then just stop. You can always come back to it later and add to it.
Also, don't forget that the mood board is just a starting point. Just because you put something in your mood board doesn’t mean it’s going to be there on your wedding day. So don’t stress too much about that.
Things you might want to consider including the inspiration for in your wedding mood board would be:
- Stationery and paper pieces: save the dates, invitations, etc.
- Wedding attire, including ideas for what colors your attendants will wear
- Ceremony decor and flowers
- Cocktail Hour decor, including your signature cocktails and the escort card display
- Reception decor and details including:
- Linens
- Table centerpieces
- Placesettings
- Table numbers
- A Sweetheart Table or head table
- Dessert display
- Lounge area
- Favors
Do this for the elements that are most important to you and the other items will likely fall into place.
The wedding mood board is supposed to help you give cohesion and organize your thoughts and the direction for your wedding. But nothing’s set in stone, so have fun with it!
Like I always say, planning your wedding should be fun and enjoyable.
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How to create your wedding design
Let’s review the 4 steps one more time:
- 1: Find Your Inspiration – What details about you do you want to include in your wedding decor?
- 2: Purge Your Pinterest – Delete the details and images that don’t resonate or excite you anymore.
- 3: Pick a Theme for the Day – This will bring everything together and give you one direction when you’re picking your decor items
- 4: Create Your Wedding Design – Focus on the details and wedding decor elements that excite you and the rest will fall into place.
I hope this episode helped you get a better idea of how to put together your wedding design. If you have ANY questions, I’m more than happy to answer them!
As always, feel free to DM me on IG at @asktheplannerpodcast. I respond to everyone – sometimes with voice texts! If you want even more help, I’m only a phone call away. Just book a 90-minute clarity call with me.
Finally, don’t forget to leave a review for the podcast if you liked this episode. Reviews are so helpful to us podcasters because it helps other listeners find the show.
That’s all for today’s episode. Next week’s episode will be another Wedding Tip Wednesday and then March kicks off with an AMAZING interview with a super talented wedding photographer.
Make sure you save this post so you can come back to it later when you're ready to pick out all your wedding decor!
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