How to Style Your Wedding & “Mood Boards”
Hey friends! Today we’re talking about styling your wedding, and mood boards!
My wedding Pinterest board, organized into sections for quick inspo.
Okay, when I was planning my wedding, I heard this phrase a TON: Mood Board. Your florist might ask for a mood board. Your wedding planner might ask for a mood board. Your stationery designer might ask for a mood board.
If you were like me, the image that popped into your mind was a cork board pinned with scrap photos and random tidbits that define your style.
Well, that *is* what it is, but the digital version: a Pinterest board. (Why couldn’t they just call it a Pinterest board, am I right?) A digital vision of your aesthetic and style, compiled onto one big visual space. But guilty as charged.
Keeping a focus
When you first start pinning things on your wedding Pinterest board (and if you’re anything like me, that started in like… junior high), you probably have a mishmash of things that appeal to you. But you need to ask yourself—do these ideas bring together a cohesive look or story?
So when you pull together a mood board, you actually want it to be quite focused. If I pin boho florals, traditional invitations, and a beach venue—I mean, anything’s doable—but you’re going to give your vendors mixed messages about what you really want.
Let’s say you are planning a big cathedral wedding, but you love modern, minimal invitations. Well I hate to break it to you, but it just might not fit.
So where do you start? Because my problem was that I liked everything! I liked modern, minimal, boho, traditional. But I knew that I would have to narrow it down and pinpoint one main stylistic theme. So how do you decide?!
1. Start with your venue
The venue honestly helps guide and direct your stylistic choices throughout your wedding planning. Honestly you can’t really book anything else until you’ve locked down a date with your venue. If your venue happens to fall through, every other part of your wedding is useless until you find a new venue. But if you look at it the other way around, and if all your other vendors fell through, you can still have a wedding with a venue. So basically, the venue is important! And it helps to book it first, or at least early on in your planning process so that you have some inspiration to base the rest of your wedding on.
Our venue was a warmly lit, beautiful Spanish style church with dark wooden details. Based on the warm tones of the ceremony hall, I was able to narrow down a color palette, which was a range of blush pink to mauve. Then based on the aesthetic of the church itself, I landed somewhere more traditional but included modern elements (in the font choices of my paper goods mostly).
2. Think about the season.
We all know that seasons are usually associated with colors. And sometimes colors are associated with styles. For example, when you think of a boho color palette, you think of earthy tones, which feel like fall colors. Winter is darker, with deep greens, maroons, navy blues. You know what I mean. But when I think of a winter style wedding, I think of a cabin, or a mountain retreat, or something that feels more rustic. When I think of boho colors, I lean toward outdoor venues, maybe a desert background, maybe a winery. So if you scheduled your wedding for December, that might affect the colors or style you decide on. If you planned your wedding for summer, you might want to go for minimalist, traditional, or garden weddings. You know what I mean.
3. Decide on a style
You can take those fun quizzes online to decide what kind of style wedding you like based on your choice of dress, flowers, colors, etc. But really take a look at your Pinterest boards and figure out why you like the photos you like. And lean heavily on your own personal clothing style as well. There are a lot of ways to choose a wedding theme (and it’s definitely not one-size-fits-all, so be creative as you plan), but when you think back on who you and your significant other are, be real with yourself. Are you a cathedral wedding kind of couple? Are you a nature elopement kind of couple? Are you a warehouse kind of couple? I really wanted to believe I was. But honestly, I’m pretty traditional. And when I took a step back from looking at everything I wanted me and my wedding to be, I realized that it just wasn’t really me. And I’m really thrilled about how our wedding turned out.
I’d say they did a fine job of choosing their colors, wouldn’t you agree?
4. Decide on a color palette.
Once you decide on a wedding style, it helps you to narrow down your colors. I ended up going with a range of blush to mauve colors because I love the variety that it brings. Also, because my venue had lighter pinkish and darker wood tones, I wanted my bridesmaids’ colors to reflect that. Here’s the color palette that I made for my bridesmaids to choose from, and a photo of what colors they ended up wearing.
5. Organize your Pinterest board with Sections.
I think Pinterest sections are amazing!! I had pinned a bunch of photos—dresses, hair, makeup, shoes, flowers, venue, etc. etc. into a big wedding board, but once it came time to plan, I sectioned everything off. I had a Dress section, Hair and Makeup section, Bridesmaid section, Favors sections, and so on and so forth. That way, when I really needed to book a photographer, or find my caterer, I could just go to that specific section for inspiration instead of digging through piles of photos. So use those sections people!!! Make your own life easier.
6. Now you’re ready to share your Pinterest board, or “Mood Board” with friends and vendors.
Plus, it’s well organized, it contains one cohesive vision and look and feel, and your bridesmaids and/or vendors can get a feel for the rest of your wedding so that what they come up with complements what your other vendors come up with. It’s really a great feeling when your floral vision ties perfectly with the editing style of your photographer, or when your wedding invitations align perfectly with your table decorations. It’s just a great feeling, but it also looks well-planned and thoroughly though out!
So that’s what your vendor probably means when you’re asking for your mood board. If you’ve hired a wedding planner s/he may help you to create one and also help you narrow down what you’re looking for regarding wedding style and how to incorporate that into all of your wedding details. Hope this was helpful, and happy planning!
