If you’re DIYing your wedding but you feel totally out of your depth with design, this blog is going to walk you through a few steps that will show you how to DIY your wedding design, so that you feel confident with the final picture on your wedding day.
Why should you care about wedding design?
Honestly some people do, and some people don’t. And like I’ve always said, your wedding always comes down to you, and what you want to remember when you look back 5, 10, 20 years from now. Some couples will decide to choose a venue that’s already full of gorgeous decor so that they don’t have to worry about adding on any extra design elements. And some couples love to work with a blank slate to get the exact vibe and aesthetic they’re envisioning.
But when we ask “why should you care about wedding design” we’re not only looking at the venue, we’re also looking at your invites, your website (if you choose to make one), signage, anything else you might print (name cards etc.), florals, and it’s important that each of these pieces represents you and your love.
So let’s look at a few ways to DIY your wedding design!
1. Gather your inspiration
You can do this on Pinterest, Instagram, or even old school using magazines. Gather absolutely everything that speaks to you. At this stage we aren’t looking for a final product so use this time to feel some JOY in your wedding planning! What COULD be? What is possible? What are all the different things that bring you joy as you do your design scouting?
Put everything in one place so that you can see it all at a glance – honestly this is why I love using Pinterest, because you can see everything pretty quickly, and that’s going to be a huge help for the next step.
I’ll highly encourage you, once you’re done this gathering phase, to make a mental note to stop looking for different inspo as you move into the next steps. It can become so incredibly overwhelming to continue to change and update and refine and explore different images after this phase is done, because it’s just going to leave you questioning – oh, do I really like that? Or do I actually like that?
Read on to learn how to get out of the inspo phase and into confident decision making mode!
2. Look for themes
What pops out to you as similar? What stands out as wildly different from the rest of your inspiration? During this stage you’re really going to start to see a clear picture come together, or reveal itself to you. You might notice a lot of woodland or forest images. Or maybe you’re seeing opulent metallics, golds and silvers, goblets instead of crystal.
This is where you can start to build trust with your own design aesthetic, one that is unique to you. Keep in mind, this is your wedding – so if you’re being pulled in a lot of directions here, take a moment to breathe, close your eyes, drop into your heart space, and let the answer to this question just simply arrive to you, “what do I actually want?” You’d be surprised how well this trick works!
Once you spot the themes that really stand out to you, start deleting anything that doesn’t fall within your primary theme. The less clutter, the less overwhelm we feel, and less pressure to perform and conform to “trends”.
3. Pull colours and key elements
Now that you’ve chosen an overall theme, we can start getting into the real nitty gritty of how to DIY your wedding design! Specific colours and elements should start to stand out to you now. If the colours repeat throughout your Pinterest board, you can start making notes of which ones are really standing out to you, and deleting anything that isn’t within that palette.
You’ll also pull out key elements in the same way. For example, do you like a lot of texture, or are you more drawn to smooth surfaces? This might help you choose your linens, your dress, your flowers, or even your stemware.
4. Create a simple mood board for your reference – and delete the rest of the inspo!
It’s so easy to get caught up in all of the gorgeous pictures you pinned and gathered for your inspiration, and to go back and forth on the final look. That’s where the mood board comes in. It doesn’t need to be perfect, in fact, it’s primarily just for you to refer back to – not to share out publicly, so you can take that off your mental plate!
Check out my sample mood board below for some ideas. Basically what we’re looking for is your colour selection, and general aesthetic. This is going to help you make the decision between two types of linens, or chair covers – it’s going to remind you what your vision is for the overall design vs. the nitty gritty details.
Think of your mood board as your design higher self, that all knowing essence inside you that has all of the answers, but lets you explore the details so that you can come to the answers in your own time. Or just think of it as a reference point and not an absolute – whichever makes more sense for you!
5. Make decisions based on your selections
Now it’s time to shop! You might choose to go with a rental company, or your venue may have a set of options for you to select from. Either way, you now have everything you need to make decisions when you meet with your vendors. You can even share your mood board with them if you feel comfortable doing so, and they might come up with some different ideas for you!
If you feel like getting started on making selections is too intimidating, start with a list of everything that will be impacted by your design choices. For example, flowers, invitations, ceremony arch, linens (the list goes on) and choose the piece that will have the most impact on your budget and vision. The other pieces will begin to fall into place from there.
Time to start planning!
Are you starting to plan your wedding and feel like you might want some more help than you originally anticipated? I’d love to help! We can book a complimentary wedding planning call together to go over your current plans for your wedding, and see how I can help you plan the wedding of your dreams, whether you’ve been dreaming of it since you were a kid, or you’re just starting to think about it now. Click here to book a call and get started!