Create a mood board to gather ideas and inspirations for your wedding!
It’s decided, you said yes and you’re getting married! It doesn’t matter if you are swimming in a total blur or if you are drowning in a flood of ideas or inspiration for your wedding, this article will be useful for you, especially to create your mood board. Many of you have already thought about the perfect wedding since your childhood. You have imagined it, dreamed it and sometimes already prepared it. Why not after all! Now you are two in this wonderful adventure and it is time to lay the foundations of your wedding. In addition to the budget and the guests, it is the guiding line of your wedding that you must prepare first. You will certainly change your mind several times, talk and think about your wedding for about 1 year. We will see through this article how to gather your ideas with your wedding inspirations to create your mood board.
Where to get inspiration?
Looking for inspiration is usually very exciting! There are many ideas that appeal to you and you haven’t yet settled on a particular mood for your wedding. To collect various ideas to find inspiration for your wedding here are some tools before creating your mood board:
Google images: An immeasurable flow of illustrations and photos to discover via the keywords you want in the Google search bar? What could be easier?
Pinterest : An inexhaustible source of photos, texts, infographics etc… Let yourself be carried away by the ideas and wedding inspirations of thousands of brides and grooms around the world. Just like google, type in the Pinterest search bar relevant keywords to find the latest wedding trends or ideas following your theme.
Wedding blogs: Search for inspiration or the latest trends related to weddings through the multitude of blogs on this subject: The Barefoot Bride, The Sister of the Bride, Give me your hand or mine: The White Notebook (While I’m at it, I’ll put this here…)
Wedding fairs: The opportunity to meet wedding professionals, wedding designers, decorators, wedding planners who can show you their book, their inspiration shootings and you can exchange with them.
Wedding stores: Very often, wedding stores put forward decoration inspirations, “test” tables and theme ideas. It’s an opportunity for you to really see what’s out there and to pick up ideas and inspiration.
Instagram : We don’t need to introduce it anymore, the most used social network of images and photos in the world. By searching via hashtags, you’ll find inspiration and sometimes even sound advice, funny quotes and moving videos. So get started: #weddinginspiration #bohemianwedding #futurewedding #weddingideas
Organize your wedding ideas and inspirations,
Now that you have a multitude of ideas and inspirations for your wedding, it’s time to collect and organize them in a methodical way before creating your moodboard. Otherwise, you’ll quickly find yourself saying, “I found a great idea somewhere but I can’t remember where?”
Pin
Once again, I find that Pinterest comes out on top by allowing you to pin (thanks for the pun) photos and illustrations you like and store them in boards on your account. Type in a keyword on the search bar, for example, “Disney Wedding” (I love the idea) and pick out a few inspiring photos and pin them.
Download and capture
On google images, or various websites dedicated to weddings you can’t arrange and pin like Pinterest! So I advise you to directly download the images with “Save As” or to take screenshots on Instagram for example to keep these ideas or wedding inspirations. Don’t forget to store them in one or more folders to easily find them later.
Collect
For the “physical” part, i.e. objects, materials, paper etc… Create the “Inspirations Box”, in this box collect all the material inspirations and ideas you find. A shoe box will do very well! Everything you collect in this inspirations box will be useful later on! I’ll explain below ??
Define the guiding line of your wedding
The goal is to not get overwhelmed with ideas and regret not being able to achieve everything you chose. I’m going to share my tips on how to best build your wedding guideline. Start by brainstorming together and taking stock of all the ideas or inspirations you have found. Sort out what your partner doesn’t like and then lay the foundations of the guideline for your wedding. It will serve as a red thread throughout the preparations.
The style
First of all it is a style. It will determine the general atmosphere of your wedding: country, chic, rustic, sophisticated, bohemian, minimalist… And each choice must be made according to this style. From the dress to the choice of venue, it is imperative that your style be consistent with your wedding in general. For example, having a chic wedding in an old renovated barn seems to me a real challenge! In this case, choose a nice reception hall in a hotel or a domain. And a country or rustic wedding in the old barn.
The theme
Then, there is the theme. It refers to a place, a time, an object, a person or a more precise theme. It corresponds to the concept of your wedding, the universe in which you want your guests to live. Here again, there is a multitude of themes: Roaring Twenties, Guinguette, Hello Kitty, Woodstock, Disney, Carnival… For the theme, try to convey the idea through the invitation and the decoration. It is not necessary that your entire wedding be consistent. Unless you really want to dress as Minnie or Hello Kitty for your wedding, no one will judge you! It’s your wedding after all.
The Key Detail
Finally, there is the key detail. It intervenes in your wedding by a small discreet touch whose presence is noticed all the same. It can be an object, a flower, a color, a pattern etc… For example, an origami swan that will be found on the invitation, on the reception table, or in small touches of decoration. It must be closely related to the theme and style of the wedding.
For this part, you can be helped by a Wedding Designer who will be able to manage the guiding line of your wedding, according to what you have found as inspirations. The Wedding Designer can then create a Mood board summarizing this guideline and your main ideas and inspirations.
With your ideas: create an inspiration board of your wedding: the Mood board
This is my favorite part: Creating a Mood board for your wedding! It is reflected as an inspiration board created from photos, materials, colors, illustrations and texts. The inspiration board is part of the list of essential tools for the preparation of your wedding. It is a task that you must include in your planning schedule. The mood board accompanies you in your meetings with your suppliers, in the choice of your decoration or your wedding dress. There is no perfect mood board, because there are as many mood boards as there are ideas for your wedding.
Why make a mood board ?
To visualize the graphic charter of your wedding
To save time for the next step
To confirm the guiding line of the wedding
Gather the theme, the style and the key details
Release inspiration
Check the coherence of the ideas
How do I format my mood board?
The final goal of the layout is to gather your ideas with your wedding inspirations to create your mood board.
Minimum size A4 (A3 more optimal) – landscape position
Maximum of 10 images to avoid having an excess of information and a visual too messy
White background to emphasize the essential and leave borders to highlight
Put photos in good quality
Find an essential element in the photo for each category: a dress, a costume, a cake, a hairstyle, a centerpiece, a decoration, an announcement
Have a color palette
Add a maximum of 3 keywords with different typography corresponding to what you want
I suggest you take a look at the pre-designed mood-boards made by the International Wedding Institute which are for me a great way to showcase your inspiration board. Write down the ideas with your wedding inspirations to create your own mood board.
On what medium to make your mood board?
Paper version: Print your photos, write your text, paste your materials like a real artist on a canvas, cardboard or thick paper. It’s time to bring out what you’ve been keeping warm in your “inspiration box”. Visually, it’s very satisfying to be able to touch the materials and arrange them in your own way, but be careful with the format so that it remains portable.
Digital version: Create your mood board via free software or software already installed on your computer. Practical, easy to take everywhere with you and infinitely modifiable.
Combined paper and digital version: This is what I recommend. Start by incorporating the photos on your A3 digital document, add the typography and the color palette as well. Leave some empty spaces and print! You can then decorate it by pasting your chosen materials.
What tools should I use to create my moodboard?
Designing your inspiration board is relatively easy if you have the right tools. The solutions I propose are free or already installed on your computer most of the time.
Word: Basically for word processing but allows you to insert images and resize your document. I find it the least intuitive and fun solution and it can make you waste time
Power Point: Better image management, allows you to move pictures around better, insert illustrations and change the format of the document as you wish
Canva : Let’s talk about it ! CANVA is a godsend for creating a lot of different documents. The site on registration offers design templates to fill, with a large photo resource base, endless typography, patterns, effects, icons! In other words, I love it! Here is an example of a template on CANVA: Don’t forget to duplicate it in your personal account!
