When we first got engaged neither one of us really knew what exactly we wanted our day to look like. This made things like choosing where and what type of venues hard but it also just left us feeling a little overwhelmed. Defining your vision will make the planning process and decision making easier and save you time and money later. It is a crucial step in the wedding process. How can you start planning your dream if you don't actually know what your dream wedding looks like?
Get your priorities in order
You want to make sure that your wedding vision is authentic to yourself and your partner. If you jump at the latest trends without considering yourselves, you may end up hating your wedding day. It can help to think about what defines you as a couple - your relationship, your values, your personalities. Sit down and talk about what your ideas are essential and most meaningful to you for your wedding day. After all, this day is celebrating your love and the union you are entering into together. Think about what's important to the two of you. Think about what you know you definitely don't want. Think about weddings you been to and what you liked and didn't like about them. And even think about what you want your guests to say about your wedding.Prioritize together
Jot down 3 or so must haves and have your partner do the same. Once you have finished, compare the lists and work together to order these elements by priority. Once you know what it is most important to the two of you as couple it can help in making future decisions. It can also help when you sit down to plan out your budget! Once you have your top priorities, you can discuss the other elements further. There might be elements that neither of you care about and can be marked off the planning list from the get go!
Gather ideas into a vision board
This the fun part where you start to see the beginning of your overall vision. Start to gather things you like. You can do this on Pinterest, by cutting things out of wedding magazine, searching Google, taking screenshots on Instagram, etc. My favorite is Pinterest. And since so many of us already had wedding boards (mine was private and HUGE) it's easy to pull that up and evaluate the pins on it. I chose to start a new board once we got engaged. I went to my private board and scoured all the old pins to see what I still liked. Once you have several things, gather them all together in one place so you can start creating your vision.Streamline your vision
Wherever you have all your collected pieces, the vision board should be able to give you an overall sense of your ideas and how they work together or if there are some elements that clash. Take a look at the vision board and see if it makes sense - do the colors go together, how does it make you feel? It's easy to see if there is a consistent color palette, textures or patterns that continue to reappear, and overall vibe or theme. This helps you streamline your vision. Maybe there is a consistent color palette save for a few items. If these are things that cannot be sourced in the coordinating colors, then perhaps you can remove them from your vision board. Once you remove the outliers, you should be left with your vision in picture form. That's one of my favorite things about vision boards. You have something to look at for evidence of what you are dreaming up in your head.
Go with your instinct
The most important thing is to follow your heart and create a vision that will be perfect for you and your partner. The day is all about the two of you and one of the most important days of your lives. Don't stress about trying to please everyone else. The little details will be forgotten but you will always remember how the day made you feel. Make sure to focus on details that are going to make you both happy!
I went through this process. I had no clear vision of what I saw for our wedding until I sat down and figured out what our priorities are, gathered ideas, and really streamlined the mass of ideas to create a consistent vision. Once I realized I had a cohesive vision, it made all the planning tasks seem a little less daunting! You can see some of my vision board from the Knot below! The Knot also has a quiz brides can take to help determine what your style and allows you to create a board of images as well as created a color palette!
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