Keep your cool, you got this!
So you’ve just gotten engaged and you’ve selected the date. As a glow of accomplishment washes over you, you shift your focus to starting the planning. This is where you shine. You’re organized, you’re stylish, you’ve been dreaming of this day since you were 8 years old! You’re going to rock this.
First – location. You loved that vineyard your fiancé’s colleague got married on last year… but way more people would be able to attend in the city. Haven’t you always wanted to have an outdoor wedding though? Maybe start with flowers.
Flowers…you’ve been loving those deep red, dramatic bouquets you’ve been seeing all over Pinterest… but do those work for a summer wedding? Maybe start with the cake.
But, really, where do you start? How do you take all of the ideas you’ve accumulated over years of wedding-wishing and distill them into one cool unique vision? It’s utterly overwhelming! How does anyone keep their cool?
Relax, and read on for a few guiding principles:
Pick a Central Theme:
This doesn’t have to be the first step (sometimes themes take a while to reveal themselves), but having a theme can help unify your style.
Consider as a couple, what you value: are you outdoorsy? Do you like music? Are you modern minimalists?
Once you can loosely define your vision, then you can ask yourself if ‘that cake’ or ‘that venue’ is a good fit.
But – don’t get too caught up on staying perfectly true to a them. Having a rough vision can be enough. You’re going to make your wedding your own and your style will evolve into something that’s uniquely you (in the couple sense) out of that initial idea.
If Not a Theme – Then a Common Thread:
If the concept of a theme feels too intimidating, a traditional place to start is with colours. Mixing modern hues has become incredibly popular, and virtually no colour is off the table as long as you strike the right balance for you.
Bridesmaid dresses and flowers are two places where colour still reigns, even if you are going for a more minimalistic backdrop (but… black bridesmaid dresses are also more popular than ever and hey, have you ever thought of wearing a black wedding dress?)
You can also bring in a common thread that’s stylistic. Maybe your theme isn’t full-blown ‘rustic’, but you’re inspired to bring rustic elements into a modern backdrop.
A wedding can feel very cohesive even if you’re created a blend of traditional styles into something more unique.
Styling a wedding is like a dance, and you can certainly take a theme too far. As you’re building out details, ask yourself if you need more ‘balance’ or you need more ‘oomph’, and pull back or add more something-something accordingly.
Build out in ‘Layers’:
Approach building out the details of your vision in layers. Pick the biggest (and probably most expensive) details first; after all, they will be the hardest to change if you’re not feeling happy and they will make the biggest impact when you’ve made what feels like the perfect choice.
A great place to start is with your venue. Certain locations feel like a blank canvas and you can build out your vision around them. While other locations bring an incredible style that you’ll want to work with, rather than against. The venue is, of course, also the thing you will likely need to book furthest in advance.
Once you’ve got the bones of your theme in place, you can gradually build out more layers of detail, like decor and flowers.
Look For Inspiration and Capture Your Ideas:
Pinterest couldn’t be more helpful when it comes to gathering and organizing wedding inspiration. It’s also incredibly helpful because once you land on an idea you like, you can find about 74 different iterations of that idea to see how each bride did it differently.
You may even combine an aspect of one image with an aspect of a different image to hit on the note that you like best.
‘Making it your own’ and ‘editing details’ are two of the most important aspects to remember when you’re being guided by inspiration. Unless you love a previously done look, you don’t have to copy it to the letter, just store the inspirational ideas and make notes in Pinterest, so that you can talk to your vendors about what you like and what you want to change.
Another tip: look outside wedding inspiration! Many of the best ideas have come from somewhere ‘outside the box’, right? Use Pinterest to explore things you might like that maybe haven’t been done in a wedding before, but through using the ‘board’ function, create mood boards of your favourite colours, styles, venues, etc. and see how they can play together cohesively.
If a particular element is sticking out like a sore thumb, delete, delete, delete. It isn’t fitting anymore… but you already knew that, because you’re getting the hang of this.
And whenever you’re questioning if you’re on track, slow down and simply as yourself: ‘Does this feel like us? Does this feel like too much? Does this feel right?’; Ask yourself those questions, and I guarantee your special day will turn out perfectly.
For more tips on wedding planning and inspiration, follow us on social @beMakeful
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