If you’re new to the wedding planning process but have no idea where to begin, creating a wedding mood board is a great place to start. As a wedding photographer, I definitely understand the need to have some visuals. A wedding mood board is the perfect medium to lay out all of your ideas and inspirations for you to physically see. 

Where to create your board

Pinterest is my favorite place to create a mood board. Some things that make it so great: you’re able to save links to actual products, places, and vendors, you’re able to lay out the overall aesthetic visually, and you’re easily able to easily change, delete, or update any aspect of your board. 

How to find inspiration

You can find inspiration from many social media posts, like celebrity weddings and vendor posts. When looking for inspiration and inserting it into your board, consider the overall vibe of your board. The great thing is, if you don’t like it, you can change it! Nothing is set in stone when it comes to your vision and your board. 

Creating sections/categories

The first step for creating your mood board is creating a Pinterest board with different sections for each category of your mood board. If you want to see your vision in its entirety you can create a section for overall mood and save some of your favorite pins from each category.

Here are some ideas of categories you might want to include:

Colors

A good place to start is colors. Deciding what colors you want can help make the rest of the decisions easier. If you really can’t decide what colors you want you can always come back to this category after you’ve found inspiration that strikes you. 

Choosing the right colors is important since they can very much impact the vibe. For example: pastel gives a soft and delicate vibe. Bright and colorful gives a fun and energetic feeling. Dark and rich colors give a moody tone. Some colors can correspond to feelings. Black and white give a classy and elegant atmosphere. Muted, earthy tones can be very calming and complimentary to nature. Bright red can add a sexy or romantic element. 

After you’ve picked the perfect color scheme and saved them to your Pinterest mood board, you can head to your local home improvement store (like Home Depot or Lowe’s) and pick up paint sample cards of your ideal shades. Doing this can be very helpful when it comes to matching accessories, flowers, stationary, bridal party outfits, or decor. Then if you have any friends or family who are helping you find these things or need to buy the right color outfit, they can easily pick up the matching paint sample card and match it themselves. 

The options really are unlimited, and you may change your mind several times before it’s all said and done, but that’s totally okay. Just remember to continue refining as you plan!

Venue

Venues are the canvas for the tone of your wedding. A castle has a very different atmosphere than a barn or a rooftop venue. Knowing where you would like your wedding, what city or area, or even in relation to other places such as a venue close to home or the airport is a great place to begin. I have a Pinterest board with a variety of locations in central Texas, and I’m always adding to it. 

If you have no idea what venue you might want, start simply by figuring out what features you would like to have. If you like photos with water in the background, you might be looking for a venue with a pool or a lake view. If you want something more connected with nature you could consider a vineyard venue. Want something more outdoorsy but you’re not quite sure about standing out in the open? You might want to look for a venue with a gazebo or a tent. Or if outdoors isn’t for you, you might want an urban industrial or modern rooftop venue.

You might also decide on a venue based on the style or theme of the venue. Think about differences like Italian versus French or Spanish style. If you want something more simple and localized consider a rustic Texan venue. If you want something more lavish and elegant, consider a castle venue. 

After you have an idea of what type of venue you want you’ll need to think about more specific questions and concerns you may have about the venue you’re about to book. You’ll want to ask about any stipulations the venue may have such as if they allow candles, what time you have to clean up, if chairs/furniture are included, or anything else you have questions about. 

Flowers

There are a ton of options when it comes to flowers. You can ask your florist for some ideas, but it’s a good thing to start browsing and finding inspiration so you have an idea of what you might want. You can start by deciding if you want an arrangement that is either greenery heavy or flower heavy. You could consider a monochromatic arrangement, or if you want something a bit brighter try some surprising color combos. Choosing what type of flowers will also be important, you can choose from various types such as tropical flowers, wildflowers, or traditional flowers. 

If you want something slightly less traditional and more unique you could look into reflexed roses. You could also consider fruit decor as a part of your floral arrangement. Another way to mix it up could be using dried flowers. 

Stationary

When it comes to stationary there are a few different aspects that you can evaluate to come up with your ideal outcome for representing the day to come. There are different fonts like elegant cursive, fun block letters, or modern simplistic text. 

Then, there is the actual paper itself. Some options could be using recycled paper, letterpress for some dimension, or doodle style for some fun. You could add some artistic touches by going with hand-painted stationary or by adding ribbons or flowers.

Photography

Photography is a very important part of your wedding, so you’ll want to compile some different ideas on how you want each aspect of your photos. The colors of photos will vary depending on a photographer’s editing style. They could be warm and orange-tinted, green and filmy, or pastel and airy, to name a few.

How they photograph your wedding is also very important. Some major styles include: candid documentary styles, vogue-esque editorial shots, or more traditional posed and formal photos. 

One aspect that you might not have considered yet is the time of day. Since you will likely be taking photos throughout the day, there will be different levels of daylight as your wedding day progresses. You should think about what time of day you want each event to take place. Lighting can largely impact the mood of the wedding. Sunset ceremonies and late afternoon ceremonies are both beautiful but will result in different photos. Taking photos at sunset creates a warm orangey hue. But, if your colors are bright and colorful you may want to opt for lighting which reflects those tones by choosing a time earlier, while the sun is still up. Later when it comes to planning a timeline, it’ll be important to look up the time the sun sets on your specific date so you can plan around the sunset. 

Clothing

The clothing for your wedding from the bride’s dress to the groomsmen’s ties, can be the cherry on top of your perfectly planned wedding. You may already have what you think is a set-in-stone idea of what you want for your wedding clothes. However, changing your mind on what you want happens all the time once you start trying things on. It’s still important to come with some ideas because even if you do change your mind, you’ll need a solid starting point to avoid decision fatigue.

The wedding dress might be the most anticipated and stressed over piece of clothing in a wedding. There are lots of details to keep in mind when it comes to choosing the dress of your dreams. Some details to think about when searching for inspiration could include whether you want a full skirt or a short dress. Do you want lots of details like lace or glitter, or something more simple like silk? There are different styles of dresses as well such as ballgowns and cowl neck slip dresses. Do you want to go sleeveless or have sleeves? There are different types of sleeves as well. You could have puffy sleeves, delicate sheer chiffon sleeves, or even a whimsical flutter sleeve. You may want to go nontraditional and choose an option other than a dress, or still wear a dress but make it not white. Comfort and practicality could contribute to your choices. For example: an off-the-shoulder sleeve may leave you unable to lift your arms all the way up, and a mermaid dress might be difficult to move in. On the other hand, a dress with pockets in it can be super handy. It may seem like the options are overwhelming, but if you start looking at these things now and saving ideas, it will give you more time to try on dresses that you actually like when you get to the dress shop. If you want to keep your dress a secret you can always keep this on a private secret board if you share your pinterest mood board with your partner.

While the groom’s suit doesn’t typically get as much love as the bride’s dress, it’s just as important. Luckily, when it comes to the suit it’s likely to be less overwhelming than finding a dress. The main things you want to decide on is if you want a tux, suit, or open blazer. Or maybe you want to go a non-traditional route with a crazy print suit or a classic country jeans and pearl snaps. Accessories like ties, bow ties, suspenders, or a lack of tie/bowtie can create different moods. The type of shoe can also elevate the tone or create a more casual vibe. Color can also create quite the impact – you could go with monochrome, bright colors, or fun color combinations. 

The bridal party will also need to have carefully crafted outfits to bring your whole vision together. Some things to think about are if you want their styles and colors to match, and what kind of shoes they’ll wear. One metric that can help you pick the style, color, and shoes for your bridal party is what time of year it is since weather can dictate what will be comfortable and practical for your party. For example, if you’re having a January wedding and you know it will be cold, you probably aren’t going to choose open-toed shoes for your bridal party. 

Cake

The wedding cake can bring the vibe of your wedding right to your dessert table. If you don’t like cake there are several options for cake alternatives as well.

When choosing your wedding cake the first thing that you need to consider is how many people you’ll be serving. The amount of people you’re serving can determine the size or type of dessert or cake that you need to order. You could have a small cake and a dessert table, no cake and a large dessert table, or replace the dessert table with a cheese and fruit table or other cake substitutes.

Wedding cake decorations can greatly vary, from simple writing on top to fruit or flowers. Cake toppers can be elegant and ornate or simplistically beautiful. Playing with the colors can be fun as well – you could do a neutral or white cake, or something bright and playful. 

When deciding on a cake or dessert option, think about the vibes of your wedding and the types of desserts that you and your partner enjoy and weigh all of your options. 

Decor

Having a theme is a good thing when it comes to determining your decor. Think about the vibes you want and start searching!

You can search for decor in general or specific decor items you want for your wedding such as a dancefloor (if there’s not one at your venue you plan on using), signage, table settings, guestbook, ceremony aisle decor, arch decor, etc. Or something super specific and catered to your theme like “italian olive tablescape,” “colorful doodle wedding sign,” “rustic wedding dancefloor,” or “red minimalist wedding decor.”

Help With Searching and Finding More Ideas

When you’re searching for ideas, look for words that are used under the pins you like and search them for more of that style. To give you some ideas on wedding mood boards I’ve made a few sample wedding mood boards with descriptions of terms I used to create them. 

Moody: https://pin.it/4kEdC0JZ0 

Castle: https://pin.it/6PBtILxfK 

Garden: https://pin.it/4wLf4LGEh 

Classy: https://pin.it/5o5nikoIb

Minimalist: https://pin.it/7d8oAJLzE 

European: https://pin.it/3cSMQULMg 

Bespoke: https://pin.it/60ip3bTEt

Desert: https://pin.it/5bPiy5Tso 

There are so many things to consider when it comes to planning a wedding, and while not all of them are listed in this article, I hope it can help bring your ideas together. If you start a wedding mood board you’ll have a direction to go and a vision to look back on as you plan!