Discover Your Wedding Style

The best way to truly nail your wedding style is to see it all in color and detail as you plan it. But how do I do that you ask? Storyboard it! You have spent months scanning magazines and the web, pulling out pictures and cutting and pasting to your bio, right? And where are they? Stuffed in a binder or scattered in a bunch of computer files? Now is the time to get them out and play with them.

Here is the plan. Make a collage like you did in school. In reality it is called a storyboard and is used by event planners, interior decorators and fashion designers world wide to gather and express their thoughts. I want you do it for your wedding.

Grab a poster board of a reasonable size (you need enough room to hold all your pictures and things but it should be small enough that you can take it with you on appointments.) Start by laying out photos of anything you have already bought: your gown, the reception location, and the bridesmaids dresses-whatever. Now before you glue these down take a look at them and see if they all go together, if not you need to decide if the differences are something you can work with or if you are willing to forfeit the money you have spent. (It’s a tough call and is a big reason why you should start this project early on in the planning) Once you have the basics glued down, step back and take an objective look at what you have, see if a theme is developing. Is there a common design or style thread emerging? Try to put it into words. (No you can’t just use colors. That comes later. See previous post!) Pick five to six really descriptive words that can be used as a touchstone for the rest of your planning. Write them boldly on you board. Got that? Great let’s move on.

Dump the contents of you binder and print out the images you have saved to your computer and start going through them. With each image hold it up to the board, does it fit? Is it of a similar style? You may love starfish or floral tablecloths but do they go with the urban loft you have rented for the reception? Seeing it in living color helps clear the vision. Group the things that work together on your board. As you purchase things for your wedding, add an image or fabric swatch to the board. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as it represents its style.

Now you can head out to the local home improvement store and grab paint chips to represent your color palette. The reason I don’t want you to get hung up on color early on is because it will limit you. Suppose you find a bouquet you love in terms of style and shape and the flowers used but it isn’t in your colors, you will most likely pass it by. If on the other hand you can look at it objectively by holding it up to the board you can always make a note that you love this bouquet but in a different color. Remember when something goes on the board, you are looking at style, colors can always be changed.

At this point you have done enough work on you storyboard that it can start working for you. When you go on appointments to vendors such as florist or cake designers, take the board with you. Rather than having to try to explain your vision to the vendor and hope they get it you can just show them. How easy is that. It also helps make a decision when you are trying to decide between two different items. Hold them up to the board and see which fits better.

I hope this has helped you just a little. And as always, I am here to answer any questions you may have. Just leave me a comment.