How To Start To Plan Your Rustic Wedding

I often hear from brides or couples who have just started to plan their wedding and they all seem to be wondering the same thing, how should they go about starting to plan their rustic wedding? When you first get engaged it is so exciting and your head is filled with wonderful possibilities and fantasies about what your dream wedding will look like but after awhile the reality sets in that you need to start planning this wonderful affair and that is when I often hear from brides – at that first moment of panic about where to start. Here are my top 3 suggestions for how you can start to plan your rustic wedding.

1. Pick A Season & 3 Possible Dates

I know the old ideas was to pick a date and then make everything fit into that date but with bigger considerations like venue availability and work schedules I suggest starting with a season and then picking 3 dates that work for you, your fiance and the close people involved in the wedding. By having more than just one date in mind you will have the opportunity to be a tiny bit flexible when it comes to things like finding a venue and then making sure that venue is available for the day you want.
2. Put Together A List Of Words That Describe Your Dream Wedding 

This may seem like something you did in the 7th grade and if you were anything like me then it was something you did in the 7th grade but now at the very moment when you are actually planning your wedding you get to do it for real. I think that before you can attach a visual idea to what type of wedding you want you need to be able to verbally express what type of wedding you would like and then you can you start to move onto putting together an inspiration board.  When coming up with the words that describe your wedding try to think about more than just the venue and style but try to think about words that people who were leaving your wedding would say about your day – try to capture the mood you want for your wedding. If you want to have a relaxed barn wedding, than write that down and then try to come up with all of the other words or ideas that you feel come from this one overarching term of relaxed barn wedding. One thing to keep in mind is that these words or ideas may change slightly as you go through the planning process and that is okay, it is more important that you have a starting point.

3. Create An Inspiration Board

After you have come up with the words that will represent your wedding day it is time to put some visual ideas together. Any inspiration board is a wonderful way for you to see how the aspects of your wedding might come together. Some brides tell me that they do an inspiration board for each main section of the wedding: flowers, dresses, colors, cakes etc… or some brides choose to do one inspiration board that just touches on each detail. Here is an example of an inspiration board that would get you going if you were looking for a summer wedding in a barn with soft pink flowers.

credits: inspiration board photography- row one: Chris & Adrienne Scott, Photographers / J.Crew / Simply Rose Photography / row two: Minted / Rebecca Shepherd Floral Design / Brklyn View Photography / row three: Julie Roberts / J.Crew / Jennifer Boyle and Jordan Van Aken for Jennifer Boyle Photography