I stayed up until the wee hours of this morning starting my inspiration board for my son’s first birthday party in June. It is still 2.5 months away, but I know already that I want to add lots of special touches that will probably involve time-consuming crafts, so I wanted to go ahead and get my thoughts in order. At some point during my flurry of internet searches this morning, just as my eyes were beginning to glaze over, it occurred to me that I should blog about why inspiration boards are important (especially for brides!), and how to make them.
Why should I make an inspiration board? Because, chances are, you have gawked at the innovative, crafty weddings on blogs such as Style Me Pretty or 100 Layer Cake and wished that your wedding could be just as immaculately styled. These weddings are appealing because of the time and thought that went into the details of planning the special day (hand-in-hand with the photography, of course). These styled affairs are not every bride’s cup of tea… but if you are someone who looks at these weddings and thinks, “I could do that, but I have no idea where to start,”I’m here to tell you that making an inspiration board is an excellent way to visualize the culmination of all of your ideas, and to help you weed out the ideas that do not fit.
You don’t have to be the most creative bride or have an obscene amount of money to spend to pull off a styled wedding, but you do have to be dedicated, organized, and willing to do some extra planning and crafting (or maybe you have a planner or bridesmaid who will help with some of the organizing and grunt work). It may be true that the devil is in the details… but the details will make your wedding one of a kind.
How do I make an inspiration board?
- Get inspired. Gather photos as you find decor and/or concepts that inspire you (cut them out of magazines, or copy and paste into a desktop file if you are exploring online). You may have already decided on colors and theme, and if so, this is your opportunity to fine-tune it. If not, this will be a time that you narrow down and make decisions about overall wedding concepts. Sometimes I collect photos as if I am planning multiple events, and then decide based on which idea comes together best.
- Make a Collage. Making a collage so that you can see everything together is the key part in the process that many brides skip altogether. I see so many girls with 3-inch binders, packed to the gills with thousands of magazine clippings, who never put the concept together before their wedding day. Placing visual representations of everything of everything together on a board so you can see it, will help you visualize the key concepts and colors of your event, and will give you confidence in your vision going forward. I like the idea of using a physical bulletin board of some kind, but it might be easier to use images that you cut and paste from the Internet and put it together following these instructions.
Below are some examples of inspiration boards for weddings that I think will have some exquisite personal details, would be amazing events to photograph (yes, I know that I am partial to vibrant colors!). These are actually much less detailed than the ones I make… for my son’s party, I may make two: one for decor, and one for food ideas. But they are still pretty, and should get your creative juices flowing!
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