Have you recently gotten engaged? Congratulations! You might be isolating at home wondering, where on earth you should start with your wedding planning while you can't go out. The easiest place to begin is to create a wedding mood board and it's really easy to do from the comfort of your home. Plus, it's a great, creative task that will help you visualise your dream wedding, no matter your planning stage.
So, are you ready to get creative?
What is a Mood Board?
This is simply a collection of images, ideas and colour themes that you like, and it can help you to build up a plan of what you really want at your wedding. The good news is that there is no right or wrong way to make one!
Why is a wedding mood board important?
Most couples find it much easier to plan their wedding when they have some kind of vision for their special day. A mood board helps you to figure out what styles you like and which direction you want to head in before you book anything. Having all of your ideas and things you like together in one place helps you to process what works and what doesn't. More importantly, a mood board can ensure that your overall wedding style is cohesive throughout. A mood board can be very helpful for your wedding suppliers so that they know what kind of look you're going for.
Can I just jump right into creating my wedding mood board?
Yes, you absolutely can! But, first, you may want to decide which season you want to get married in. This can have an impact on the venue choice and even the flowers in your bouquet. You don't want to be looking at beach weddings for a winter ceremony (unless you're getting married abroad!), or start falling in love with flowers that will be out-of-season.
While you may feel like you need to answer a huge list of questions before you start, this isn't the case. There's no need to decide on your wedding theme or feel before you begin to make your wedding mood board. The process of making the mood board will help you to figure that out.Â
Should my mood board be on paper or online?
You can make a physical mood board using paper, card, textile cuttings, magazine and brochure snippings, ribbons and many other materials. There's nothing from stopping printing out pictures online either to stick on your board. If you prefer digital formats, you can find inspiration anywhere online and use our favourite mood boarding tool, Pinterest.
For physical mood boards
Wedding magazines are full of great ideas. These are a great place to start; so, grab a pair of scissors and cut out all the images you love. Whether that be wedding dresses, cakes, flowers or even suppliers you like the sound of. If you have a scrapbook, a large piece of card or even just a notepad, you can stick all the images down together. Seeing all the images together in one place can help you to get a greater sense of the style you want for your wedding.
Key things you'll need for a physical mood board:
- Something to stick your inspiration to (i.e. large piece of card)
- Scissors
- Glue or other adhesive
- Materials to get inspiration from (i.e. wedding magazines).
For digital mood boards
Pinterest is an excellent option for those of you who would prefer to keep your wedding mood board completely digital. You can save images from virtually any website and keep them all in one place. You can also categorise, and sub-categorise everything, and have separate boards for 'wedding dresses', 'cakes' and 'wedding decor'. Now you'll have no excuse for being disorganised! There are thousands of wedding images already on the site. So, you can search for anything from boho wedding dresses to hand-tied bouquets, and start 'pinning' the images straight away!
Key things you'll need for a digital mood board:
- Internet connection
- Pinterest Account.
What about colours?
Colour swatches are a fantastic idea to help create a colour scheme for your wedding. You can pick up paint swatch cards from your local DIY store and begin to put different colours together to come up with your unique wedding colour theme. You might find a great colour combo you would have never put together! Swatches are also great if you're looking to mix-and-match bridesmaid dresses, as they can help you to keep within the same colour 'family' and ensure they all blend together nicely.
But, don't forget that you can create your own inspiration too! Try doodling, mixing paints or coming up with patterns you could use in your decor or stationary. Have a go at calligraphy and play around with different font styles. Write down any ideas that you already have on post-it-notes and add these to your mood board.
Refining your wedding style
Once you've started to gather several images together, you may find that you lean towards a few different styles. Perhaps you love the look of a rustic, romantic barn wedding, but also like the look of a clean, contemporary style too. You might not be able to decide between them at first!
The good news is, you don't have to pick one style or the other, per se. You can take elements you like from each, and combine them to create your own unique wedding theme. Because you've started a wedding mood board, you can easily see which elements go together, and which do not. That's the beauty of this visual task!
It's important to make sure there is cohesiveness between styles so that it doesn't feel odd. Once you've started refining the vibe you want, you can start looking for suppliers and book them up!
Examples of wedding mood boards
Here are a few wedding mood boards that we've created to give you even more inspiration, and to help you get started!
Don't forget to follow our Pinterest page for even more wedding inspiration to help you create your dream wedding day!