I figured after last week’s controversial Thursday Tips I would go with something a little more neutral for this week. ;) (Honestly, I started writing a totally different post about my whole wedding planning experience, but it started to be waaaaaaay too long, so I’ll have to share it another day, perhaps in installments…)
So for today, the Thursday Tip is about taking wedding inspiration and applying it to your own wedding. It’s about making your wedding YOURS- not anyone else’s, not the wedding I featured yesterday, not the last wedding you saw in a magazine. I know it’s said so many times, over and over. “Be true to yourself,” or “Do whatever is right for you”, things of that nature, blah blah blah. But it’s the truth. So how do you actually take all of the inspiration out there and make it your own?
Really, when you’re planning your wedding, sometimes you just don’t know what to do to make it your own. I get that. I was totally there. I’m the first to admit that my wedding was a pretty run-of-the-mill-ballroom-of-country-club wedding with not that many awesome details (although I am still pretty proud of our EVOO and aged balsamic favors). What I ran into when looking for inspiration for my wedding was that I loved everything. I really couldn’t decide and I was all over the place. I was a designer’s worst nightmare because I had a specific look in my head, but didn’t know how to convey it. So today I thought that I would sort of “outline” the process of looking for inspiration and then applying it all to making it your own for your wedding!
1. You want TONS of inspiration for your wedding. Colors, flowers, details, dresses, themes, etc etc- inspiration is the key. You will spend hours going through blogs and magazines, saving photos, tearing out pages, scrolling through pages. Look until you’ve exhausted all of your options and feel content about what you’ve found. And then go to the next step…
2. So now that you have tons of inspiration, how do you narrow it down? Narrowing down your inspiration is really important to do, but many forget to do it. This is where you really have to know your style and what is going to reflect you best. You probably have a whole folder on your computer dedicated to photos that you’ve seen that you like, right? And another separate folder of pages you’ve torn out of magazines. (And if you’re internet-savvy, different Pinterest folders too!) Go through them to weed out some of the inspiration images you’ve saved. Refine your inspiration. And then do it again a few days (or weeks) later. Most of the time you’ll start to see a recurring pattern in your inspiration, whether it’s a type of flower, colors, a style, etc. It usually happens, so don’t worry about making it happen. Let your inspiration speak for itself. :)
3. You have your “refined” inspiration now, but you don’t quite want to completely replicate that one wedding you loved that you saw in a magazine. Now is the time to look to you and your fiance’s personalities to help you refine your inspiration even more. Sure, you really like that one favor. But when your guests get a packet of seeds at their seats, are they going to pick it up and say, “Now THIS is totally your name here and your other half’s name here!” Maybe they will, but maybe they’ll be totally confused as to why they’re getting seeds from you because you don’t even own a potted plant. See where I’m going with this?
Invitation Suite by ELV Vendor Gourmet Invitations, Photo by Kristen Taylor Photography
You want your wedding and everything about it to be a reflection of you and your fiance. Think about the two of you together as a couple- what you like to do together, a favorite hobby, favorite food, music, style, something that the two of you share. Even if you think it’s stupid, it could always be integrated into your wedding in some manner- especially if you’re working with an event designer. I have seen some pretty awesome things come to fruition because of a designer! Seriously, it can be anything- because it’s YOUR wedding! :)
4. And now come the decisions. What aspects of your wedding are you going to really infuse your personalities into, and what are you just going to buy or rent? What are you going to DIY? It all depends on what route you’ve decided to take- everyone’s situation is different. Ultimately, just know that when you want your wedding to really reflect you, it’s most likely going to take some work- whether it’s amongst yourselves or with a designer. But it’s so worth it. :)
I wanted to lay all of this out because I had no idea how to take my inspiration and make it my own when I was planning my wedding. Which resulted in it being pretty plain. But often times we get caught up in needing to have certain things a certain way for weddings. So much that we can forget about what was originally wanted and envisioned from the get-go. Sometimes what you originally wanted completely changes in the process of planning your wedding (thanks to all of the inspiration out there). This is all totally fine, because it needs to be YOUR wedding.
The bottom line is this: find your inspiration, refine it, and make it your own. No rules, no restrictions, just your. Own. Wedding. Then you’ll without a doubt have YOUR wedding.
Lauren
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I think I did the same thing with my wedding as you. Back then I thought I was being very creative, clean & elegant using white everywhere, but when when i posted my own wedding images as an example for something & someone commented how plain they were, I realized…maybe i needed more help than I thought. so i love all your ideas here!
Great advice that I will not only pass on to my couples, but use for myself as well. My Pinterest board is creaking under the weight of my Libran “Ooh shiny!”