How to Get Started Designing Your Wedding

You are engaged! Yay! Happy day! After you’ve bought all the wedding magazines, bookmarked all the blogs, followed all the instagram accounts, and dove headfirst into The Knot and Weddingwire, it’s time to think about design. As I’m sure you can guess, the design is my favorite part. Grab your wedding planning binder and open up your Wedding Planning google drive folder, let’s talk visuals.

Every wedding has a design. Whether you think that wedding design is part of the dreaded wedding industrial complex or not, you are going to have to make design decisions for your invites, your dress, and your flowers. Minimal is a design aesthetic, as is opulence. Wedding design might be down low on your personal priority list, that’s cool, but let’s get at least an understanding of the design choices you’ll have to make while planning this event.

Your first step to designing your own wedding: Research.

As with the beginning of any project, research is the key to taking that first step in this massive project. For the majority of you, this is your first wedding, the first large party you’ve planned, and the first time you’ve had to even think about what kind of paper quality you like in an invitation. Research is the key to keeping your wedding design process organized.

Specifically in regards to wedding design, take a few weeks and research the following:

• Wedding specific visuals you are drawn to:
  • Grab a few magazines. Wedding magazines have been quietly ceasing publication the last few years, but there are still a few gems out there: Martha Stewart Weddings is now publishing a twice a year issue, the local and national issues of The Knot, and Grace Ormond.
  • Start on some quick searches in Pinterest for wedding inspiration and pinning them to your wedding design board. (now is a good time to get that board going. I have a free 5-day course about designing your wedding on Pinterest. Sign up right here.)
  • Google image search your venue, if you have one, or general wedding themes and color palettes that you love.
  • Blogs are still relevant! Some of my favorites for wedding inspiration are Junebug Weddings, Every Last Detail, and A Practical Wedding.
• Creative Wedding Pros you want to hire:
  • Start researching the creative pros you want to hire to make your vision come alive.
  • Event designers: an event designer or wedding planner that offers design is crucial if you really want a wedding with a lot of personal details that you don’t personally have to manage.
  • Stationery designers: Either a pre-made invitation design or an independent designer, gather some names of companies that you might want to use for your invites.
  • Flowers: Start a short list of florists in your area that draw you in with their style. One of my most popular blog posts, How To Hire a Florist, will help you.

So, go start researching. Take this weekend to sit down with a few magazines and your computer. Gather all the intel you can.

Want real life, down to earth, advice from other couples and wedding pros while designing your wedding? Consider joining my Weddings Well Designed Facebook group. It’s in it’s humble, beginning stages, and I’d love for you to be one of the first people to join us!

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