One of the first decisions to make in planning your dream wedding is what the theme will be and what the vibe will feel like for this momentous day. Do you picture garden romance, boho whimsy, rustic countryside or minimalist elegance? No matter your vision, there’s an essential creative tool that can help you transform it into a reality: a wedding mood board.
A mood board is a curated collection of images, colors, textures and inspiration that captures the essence and aesthetic of your desired wedding style. A well-crafted wedding mood board can be a powerful way to bring dreams of your big day to life.
It serves as a visual roadmap, guiding your way through the entire planning process. With it, you’ll be able to easily visualize your wedding ideas, keep cohesion across multiple elements and precisely communicate your vision. Ready to get started? Here are five easy steps to help you create a wedding mood board.
1. Choose Tools to Create Your Wedding Inspiration Board
To start, you’ll need the right tools for creating your wedding mood board. They will help you gather, organize and visualize your ideas. Does the sound of a low-tech, traditional board appeal to your planning style? Or maybe you’re someone who prefers to have everything organized digitally in one place. Either way, there’s a wedding mood board for you.
Creating a physical collage can be a fun and tactile experience if you prefer a more hands-on approach. You can gather magazines, printouts, fabric swatches and any other tangible items that speak to you.
If you opt for a digital mood board, however, you’ll find endless tools to help you curate, design and organize it. A couple favorites include:
- Canva is an easy-to-use graphic design platform that offers a pre-designed mood board template and intuitive editing tools. You can arrange images, add text and incorporate colors and fonts that would be perfect for your wedding aesthetic.
- Pinterest and Instagram are digital treasure troves filled with endless images and inspiration — plus, you’re likely already signed up for these social media platforms. They both give you the ability to create boards or folders for different aspects of your wedding, such as decor, attire and flowers that resonate with your style and aesthetic. By using Pinterest’s search feature, you can discover new ideas that may never have occurred to you. A Pinterest board can also be shared with your partner, wedding planner or friends, making it a great tool for collaborating and discussing your vision.
2. Begin Brainstorming Ideas
It’s never too early to brainstorm ideas and visualize your dream wedding day. In the initial brainstorm, even before looking at any pretty pictures or searching for inspiration, you should sit down for a conversation with your partner about your personal styles. Discuss everything from your preferred color palettes to your favorite season to get creative juices flowing. A fun exercise is for you and your partner to write down any words that come to mind when you think of your dream day. Turn it into a word cloud to see where you agree or overlap — this will be essential as you craft your aligned vision.
As soon as you and your partner begin discussing your big day’s vision, start building your mood board. This step will help you establish a clear direction and set the tone for your entire planning process.
And remember — a wedding mood board is a dynamic tool that can (and most likely will) evolve and adapt as you progress through planning. The earlier you create it, the more time you’ll have to refine and fine-tune ideas, making the rest of planning much easier.
3. Gather Inspiration
Now onto the fun part: gathering inspiration! If you’re not sure where to start, just begin looking around you; inspiration can come from all directions. As you browse through various sources, collect images that speak to you and your vision. Save online posts, tear out photos and bookmark websites that catch your eye. Look for visuals that evoke the mood and essence you want to create on your big day.
Focus on elements such as dresses, decor, floral arrangements, color schemes, tablescapes, invitation suites, your wedding website, venues and even dreamy locations (especially if you’re thinking about a destination wedding). Also keep in mind that the time of year you decide to wed will determine much of the seasonal decor, florals and backdrop, and your mood board should reflect that vibe. For example, spring weddings are perfect if you prefer a lighter, airy color palette while a winter wedding is ideal for those who are going for a modern, black-tie indoor aesthetic.
There’s no such thing as “too many” wedding images or sources of inspiration to save, but do make sure to create folders to categorize different aspects such as wedding decor, attire, flowers, table settings and venues to keep your ideas organized.
- What to gather: Images, fonts, colors, patterns and even textures!
- Where to look: Explore wedding design blogs, books, Pinterest, Instagram and portfolios of your favorite wedding professionals. Look beyond the wedding industry as well — check out decor catalogs, gift wrap collections, product packaging, paint watches and even the red carpet. From fashion and interior design to nature and art, inspiration can strike anywhere. Thinking outside the box will help you discover unique ideas and unexpected elements to incorporate into your vision board.
4. Narrow Down Your Vision
Now that you’ve gathered your inspiration, it’s time to refine the vision. Take a step back and review all the pieces. Start editing your mood board components down, putting like images, fonts and complementing colors into different collections. Review and curate these folders, keeping the images that best represent your vision and align with each other in terms of style, color and theme.
And if you don’t have a specific wedding theme, don’t stress — with our wordplay exercise mentioned above in step two, you can create your own original wedding vision with a few words that resonate with you and your partner.
5. Start Wedding Planning
Now that your wedding mood board is filled with your curated and categorized inspiration, it’s time to start actually planning your wedding! This final vision board will ultimately serve as your guiding light as you continue your planning. You’ll refer back to it as you coordinate details with your wedding planner, caterer and any other vendors involved in making this vision come to life. Create a wedding checklist and start putting plans in motion, such as touring venues, meeting with florists, tasting wedding cakes, deciding what DIY projects you might tackle, and hiring a team of wedding professionals. With the perfect wedding mood board in place, you can plan with confidence and ease!
