Day Dreaming About Weddings: What Inspires You?

The first thing I did after my fiancé and I committed to a reception/ceremony place and a date was to start brainstorming for the color and theme of our wedding. Being my first (and hopefully, only) wedding to plan, I was pretty new to all the different ideas and ambiences that can become the inspiration for one’s big day décor. Since we’re getting married in February, I started to envision snowflakes, aqua or light blue, silver and white. I came up with the overall idea of “Winter Wonderland”. Sure enough I soon found out this was not such an original idea. So back to the drawing board I went.

After visiting the historic inn we chose to get married at and meeting our coordinator and contact there, she suggested we think of using bright colors in our décor, from the tablecloths to the flowers and everything in between. This really got me thinking and I started to come up with a few ideas….

Being the romantic dreamer I tend to be, I started to envision bright jewel tone colors and everything gleaming and sparkling. I wondered how I could tie these all. My first thoughts went to the importance of birthdays, anniversaries and the gorgeous gemstones that represent these celebrations. This gave me Ruby Red, Amethyst, Pearl and Opal to work with. From here I took my own direction and combined my favorite color (Fuchsia) with bold and bright jewel tones (Majestic Purple, Emerald Green, Sapphire and Claret Red) and traditional wedding images (Winter White and Silver) and I came up with the basic set of colors to represent our day.

The next thing I did (and continue to do) was scour the web for some real life weddings, centerpiece ideas and DIY decorations. As you might imagine, the resources are virtually limitless. From Crafty brides to Bees and DIY divas alike, ladies getting ready to tie the knot around the world are posting their DIY projects complete with pictures, sources of inspirations, directions and more! From easy to difficult, inexpensive to costly and the most simple the most elaborate, there is a DIY project for every bride out there. I know it has given me a huge helping hand.

Here are just a few of the images that I have seen, loved and used to create my own inspiration board.

My reception decoration ideas so far: DIY flower pomanders with swan feathers peeking out atop a medium height hurricane vase bejeweled in satin ribbons and rhinestones; candy dishes filled with candles and pearls; bling bling DIY napkin rings with rhinestone jewels and a feather and of course more bling - diamond and pearl confetti with rose petals strewn about the tables; and petals surrounding them atop a sea of alternating table runners in sapphire blue, emerald green, claret red and majestic purple. Hanging above? Chandeliers with dangling gems cascading off them and fun tissue paper pomanders floating in the sky.  Glammed out table numbers featuring postcards of Hollywood’s hotlist of the past encased in bejeweled silver frames; and for favors, I have cute little Swan basins that I might add a DIY shiny touch of silver paint to and filled with scrumptious candies, like M&Ms or the classic Jordan almonds. Look for future posts featuring my DIY work and progress!

What inspires you? Share your own links, pictures and whatever else inspires you here!