Hi bridal beauties, it’s Angela with Saffron Avenue here to bring you some tips on how to narrow down your wedding style. As you know there’s a wealth of inspiration at your fingertips these days – from blogs to magazines, and of course Pinterest. Being a new bride bombarded with inspiration can be a bit overwhelming, so I’m sharing how I was able to edit down, filter through the pretty and fall in love with my wedding style.
WRITE IT OUT | First things first – write down a list of words that describe your style and who you are as couple. Think beyond just the wedding, think about how you dress, how you decorate, where you shop, and how others would describe you. Are you traditional, modern, boho, vintage, rustic, funky, adventurous, southern, etc? Not only that, but think about what makes you unique as a couple, like your engagement, hobbies, pets, etc., anything that play a part in your wedding design.
PICK A PALETTE | Now think of a few colors that you are drawn to and palettes that might represent some of the adjectives or words listed above. To help search for color combinations I recommend looking at Design Seeds, Creature Comforts and even through abstract art like Kristy Gammill. Anything that may help you narrow down your selection or give you palette ideas.
When choosing your palette make sure to keep it around 5-6 colors and around 2-3 focal colors. Introducing too many colors may cause confusion and inconsistency throughout. That doesn’t mean you can do various shades though, we all love ombre. Just make sure to pick colors that make sense and can be incorporated throughout the wedding.
PIN YOUR FAVES | There’s endless amounts of ideas and inspiration on Pinterest so I would actually recommend creating more than one Pinterest board. This will not only help you but will also benefit your wedding vendors. First, create a ‘Wedding Style’ board. This can include your color palettes, wedding style, bridesmaid dresses, flowers, fashion, jewelry, etc. This board is one to show your vendors so they can get a clear idea of what style you are going for, typically by just scrolling through they should get a sense of your style and palette.
Next, create a “Wedding Ideas” board. Since a lot of ideas found on Pinterest may not blend with your style or colors, it’s smart to separate it into a different board. For example, let’s say you are having a rustic outdoor wedding but you found a photo in a ballroom with an escort card that you loved. It could be confusing if you put it under your wedding style board since it clearly isn’t that rustic style, but it if’s in your Wedding Idea board you can pin it and put the description as to why you liked it.
BUILD A BOARD | If you are anything like me, you’ll want an inspiration board. I do this all the time for my branding clients and did it for my own wedding to share with my vendors and my wedding party. I took my color palette and my wedding style photos and popped them into a inspiration board. If you are wondering how to do this you can use the “Build a Board” here on Style Me Pretty, or if you are familiar with Photoshop or Illustrator you can create your own board too.
CREATE A BINDER | Once you narrow down your palette and style you can start pulling together an inspiration binder. I love having something I can carry around and share. So feel free to pick up some fabrics, paint chips, ribbons, and card stock that can be added to your binder as additional pieces to show or give to your planner, florist, invite designer, etc. With that you can start tearing pages from wedding magazines for more inspiration and even sketch out your ideas. Not only will this help the design process but it will also be a keepsake for years to come!
I hope all of these tips help you narrow down your wedding style and give you a great place to start with the design process. Make sure to have fun with it too!
Photography: Stephanie Neprud | Styling: Saffron Avenue