From concept to coordination When you start planning your wedding, one of the first areas you make decisions is the design concept. Every decision stems from the design: venue, vendors, colors, and details. There are so many options to choose from and so many great sources for inspiration that narrowing down ideas and coming up with a cohesive design can be overwhelming. Here are five tips for creating an overall design concept and carrying it through your wedding.

1. Determine how you want your wedding to feel. This is such an important step and not usually the first thing that comes to mind when you get engaged. Before you scour Pinterest for ideas, talk to your fiancé and decide how you want your wedding to feel and the type of environment you want to create. Romantic, playful, sophisticated, low-key, intimate. We wanted our wedding to be warm and comfortable, so every vendor decision, color choice, and detail selection was made with that in mind.

2. Organize your inspiration. A good place to start is Style Me Pretty, a blog that has extensive real wedding galleries in a variety of styles as well as hosts regional blogs to help find local inspiration. Other great resources are Southern Weddings, Once Wed, and Grey Likes Weddings. Create a Pinterest board with the images you like that fit the feel of your wedding. Then create a secret board (don’t want to spoil it!) and narrow down your inspiration to your top twenty or so images. Having these images easily accessible will help you focus your inspiration and will keep you from getting lost in all the ideas out there.

3. Think beyond color. Colors are definitely important and make an incredible impact, but almost any color can be designed to fit a style and theme. Choose your feel, determine your style, and then pick colors that you like. By making the broader decisions first, it will be harder get stuck in the idea that every detail has to be blue and yellow or whatever colors you choose. We wanted a warm, comfortable wedding with a rustic, slightly vintage, and casual style, and we decided to use blush, peach, and green as our main colors. By focusing on style rather than colors, our flowers, linens, venue, escort cards, etc. all worked together to create a complimentary design.

4. Keep it personal. Make decisions based on who you are as a couple and your unique love story! We used peaches because they reminded us of the TX Hill Country, had a bluegrass band play Carolina in my Mind for the processional because we went to school in SC, and served fajitas and margaritas because we can’t get enough Tex Mex. Personalization is one of my favorite parts of designing a wedding. Have fun with it! Show off your story!

5. Hire a wedding planner. Finding the right planner who makes you feel comfortable and who understands the experience you want to create for your guests is an invaluable asset! Your planner works with you to understand your vision and how you celebrate. Throughout the process they help bring every little detail together and communicate your vision to your vendors, family, and bridal party so the overwhelming amount of ideas, inspiration, and “musts” out there doesn’t consume you. For me, in the end, it’s all about making each wedding a gorgeous representation of the bride and groom!

Alex Meyer Alex Meyer Events | alexmeyerevents@gmail.com

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