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Not everyone spends their childhood dreaming of their wedding day and planning out how every single tiny little detail will look.
I'll hold my hands up and say I was definitely not in that club!
For those people, wedding planning can come as a bit of a shock. There will be so much love and excitement swirling around you both and your friends and family will very soon start hounding you with questions about the who, what, when and where of it all. It can be overwhelming!
When you do sit down together and start thinking about things, a common starting point is Pinterest. Now, don't get me wrong, Pinterest can be a wonderful tool for gathering inspiration and collecting all of your ideas in one place. However, there is an awful lot of material to get through. There are so many different ideas… Different colours, flowers, styles, textures and moods- each all absolutely gorgeous in their own right. But how do you choose what you want?
I'm going to break down a few ways that might help you think about what theme you might like, before you both get burnt out browsing Pinterest (believe me, it's possible!).
My first suggestion is...
Think about the Seasons
Think about what season you're getting married in- Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter? This can have quite a big impact on what types of flowers are available, which in turn can impact on the colours you can choose. If you simply must have beautiful full and lush pink peonies, you need to aim for a Spring/Summer wedding as they're typically only available between mid-May and early-July.
Certain colours and themes also happen to suit different seasons really nicely ("Florals for Spring?... Groundbreaking").
This, of course, is completely flexible but there's just something about a sunny Summer's day that makes bright colours pop and it's hard to beat matching vibrant orange bridesmaid dresses to crisp Autumn leaves.
Speaking of bridesmaid dresses, the weather in different seasons can have a huge influence on what they wear and this can lend cues to the style of your decor. If you're thinking of a Winter wedding and you've been eyeing up fur shawls for your ladies, this might be better suited to a luxe and elegant wedding day with beautiful tablescapes full of candelabra and draped velvet.
You can see how something as simple as the season can start to influence different decisions, from this your ideas will hopefully start snowballing.
If not, you've at the very least narrowed down your Pinterest search quite a bit!
I have a suite of wedding invitation designs created with the seasons in mind, and these might be a great jumping off point!
< Consider the location
My next suggestion is to think of where you might like to get married. Do you want to have a chic city wedding? A rustic barn wedding? Or maybe you've found the perfect ceremony location at the edge of a river bank or in the middle of a forest.
Different locations suit very different styles. If you're thinking of a city wedding, perhaps a more minimalist or industrial style might be what you lean towards. City venues will generally be more modern in style, think clean lines, polished concrete and touches of metal. This might not quite suit a wedding with doilies and lace table runners, however, marble and copper could work beautifully.
On the other hand, barn weddings are just perfect for hessian, lace, wooden crates and milk churns overflowing with flowers.
An outdoor wedding might offer you a beautiful natural colour palette full of lovely hues of green and blue. If you allow that to influence you, everything will come together and flow organically. Take cues from the venue and its surroundings and this will start to lead your theme and allow you to start putting your ideas together.
Add in your interests >
Last but not least, I want to talk about letting your interests and personal style guide you. The most important part of your wedding is you as a couple, after all, you are who your friends and family are gathering to celebrate! Your wedding is the perfect time to allow your personalities to shine.
Think about what brought you together as a couple...
What do you have in common?
You might both share a love of comic books and so start theming your wedding decor around iconic comic book characters or covers. Your wedding cake could be decorated with comic panels and your topper could even be you both as superheroes!
A music-loving couple might consider using vintage records found in a charity shop for their table decor and even their table plan.
With this, the possibilities are endless. Inspiration could even be taken from your careers or how you choose to decorate your home. Building your wedding theme around you both is the perfect way to add in all those wonderful personal touches that make a wedding so much more special and unique.
There is definitely no one right way to start theming your wedding and strictly, you do not even need a theme! However, it is something I would recommend to help you through the planning process. The wedding industry is vast, with many different ideas and styles fighting for your attention. Having a good idea of your theme and style can really help to streamline everything out there and can help stop you from becoming overwhelmed by all of your options.
Knowing what will not suit you and your wedding will be a big help as you move through the different stages of planning your wedding day.
If you've looked through my designs and found something you like, I've created a 'matching' themed Pinterest board for each and every one of my designs- you can find those here.
I hope my advice helps you as you start out on your wedding planning journey! It really is a fun and exciting road- when else would you have the opportunity to pick and choose everything about a day, just to suit you and your future spouse? Don't forget this is all about both of you and what you love, and that's the most important style of all!
