Use Vision Boards to Bring Weddings to Life

Mother of the Bride, when it comes to preparing for a wedding, it’s too easy for you and your daughter to overthink the details. Even if you have the invitations, ceremony details, menu, and attire nailed down, it’s still tough to feel 100% confident in every decision when you can’t visualize everything all together.

Why not suggest the following vision board ideas and plan to her? As she creates it, she can share it with you so you can know exactly what she has in mind. But first, share this post with her!

For the Bride:

To sort through your thoughts and focus on the most important elements of planning a wedding, vision boards are lifesavers. Designing a wedding vision board helps you slow down and lay out every idea—and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Whether you’re a fan of cork boards or streamlined digital formats, vision boards are effective because you’re dedicating time to bring the mental images you’ve been envisioning to fruition.

So, what’s the best way to start a vision board? Let’s narrow down the process to the three stages below.

Stage 1: Figure out your goals and inspiration

If all of your ideas are saved on Pinterest or folders on your Desktop, a digital vision board is probably the way to go. There’s a lot less manual work involved in these, and most future brides and grooms will appreciate how easy it is to move things around.

However, if most of your ideas are cutouts from magazines or printed out, a traditional format like a corkboard or foam poster board might be best.

If you feel really stuck, sometimes it helps to draw inspiration from your favorite leaders, authors, poets, etc. The free printable quote cards below can be fun and meaningful reminders you can add to a vision board (or just use to inspire yourself when you’re feeling stuck.) You can download these quotables right here.

Stage 2: Prep your physical and mental space

To make your vision board creation process as enjoyable as possible, clear the space around it. No one wants to be envisioning one of the most beautiful, meaningful days of their lives when they’re in a cluttered space. The preparation has to be mental, too. With new restrictions and mandates due to the pandemic, it’s easy to let stress get the best of you (even though micro weddings can be just as magical as a huge extravaganza.) Relax and clear your mind before diving into a vision board project so you can view prospective plans with a positive mindset.

Stage 3: Organize materials and start creating

Whether you need to gather all of your saved image files, Pinterest boards, or magazine clippings, it’s helpful to gather and organize all of your vision board assets in one place. Then, the fun can begin and you can start creating.

One of the best ways to keep yourself on track with your wedding planning goals when using Pinterest is by having a checklist. This checklist below is perfect—and you can download it for free right here.

If there are certain parts of your wedding you’re still struggling to nail down (like a family tradition you don’t know how to incorporate), play around with different ways to include it on your board. When you have all of the components of your ideal wedding laid out before you, either physically or digitally, you have the power to make the decisions that are best for you.

Do you wish you had a digital vision board template to get you started? Check out the free template below. You can access it right here.

Vision boards are lifesavers for couples who want to plan out all the details but need some structure for all their ideas. Plus, if you have budget constraints or challenging restrictions due to the pandemic, vision boards allow you to be more creative with your problem-solving strategy. You can seamlessly collaborate and bring your ideal wedding to life when you’re using a vision board as a tool.

Organizing a wedding is an exciting, detail-oriented endeavor and you’ll want to make sure you’re on the same page as your partner and your wedding planner/coordinators. Like any wedding planning tool or tactic, there are dozens of ways to go about using vision boards. I hope these vision board ideas have been inspiring. Happy planning!

*Thanks to Zola and their original post  as well as Siege Media for providing me with content for this helpful post!

*For info about my book Mother of the Bride and also my Wedding Inspiration cards, check out my Books/My Work page.

*The new issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter with a giveaway in every regularly scheduled issue, came out today. It’s not too late to receive it. Sign-up is free and to the right! (If you’re on a mobile device, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click View Full Site to find it.)

Preprinted Labels For Use At Bridal Fairs

Mother of the Bride, today I have a tip to pass along to your darling daughter turned bride-to-be. And the sooner you pass it along the better. Why? She needs this tip before attending bridal fairs during the early stages of planning.

When your daughter goes to bridal fairs and wedding expos—and hopefully you’ll get to go with her—she’ll be asked to write down her contact info time and again. Vendors will be offering giveaways and special offers and she will need to list her contact info to qualify for them. Of course, there will also be vendors she leaves her contact info with because of her strong interest in their services.

Instead of repeatedly handwriting her contact info, tell her to bring along a sheet of small pre-printed labels that list her name, address, phone number, and email address. She will be so glad she did—and so will the vendors. From personal experience when signing and selling my books at bridal fairs, many times I can’t make out some of the handwriting that is left for me to decipher.

I actually got this idea from a bride at one of the bridal fairs where I was a vendor. When she whipped out her contact info labels, I saw immediately what a huge help the labels were. I complimented her for being so well prepared and was super excited when she was the one who actually won the giveaway I offered that day. She deserved it for making life easier for both herself and us vendors alike!

So pass along this idea pronto, MOB. It will be one more time your girl thanks her lucky stars for having such a great mom!

*You might also like to read Bridal Shows—Both Fun and Practical!

*For info about my book Mother of the Bride and also my Wedding Inspiration cards, check out my Books/My Work page.

*The next issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter, comes out next week. One lucky subscriber will receive a $15 gift card to Barnes & Noble and a signed copy of my book to use personally, give as a gift, or donate to a library. Sign-up is free and to the right! (If you’re on a mobile device, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click View Full Site to find it.)

*Flickr photo by Aurimas Adomavicius, Creative Commons License

Wedding Planning Tip: Post-Wedding Inventory

Mother of the Bride, one of the smartest things you can do in the days following your daughter’s wedding is to take inventory of all the décor and supplies you have left. If you are planning to save items for another daughter’s wedding or for friends or family members’ use, a list of available items will be a lifesaver.

If you make a detailed list, you won’t have to waste time looking for things and unpacking them in order to get a count. When it comes time for your next daughter’s wedding or when a friend asks to borrow something, you’ll know exactly what you have left and how many of each item. What a huge help and timesaver.

To take inventory, simply make your list as you go through the leftover supplies when you’re preparing to store them after the wedding. When you and your helpers packed up everything as you left the reception, things most likely got disorganized. Instead of storing them like that, group like items together and take a count as you go.

Make note of how many white rose garlands you have left. Jot down the number of crystal candle bases you have available. Write down everything. You never know what might be useful to someone later.

Yes, MOB, there are a few duties to attend to after the wedding and taking inventory is one of them. Give yourself a few days reprieve and then dive in. Don’t neglect it. It will end up being a blessing to you and to others as well.

*You might also like to read After the Wedding: Thank Top-Notch Vendors and Prediction: A Special Memento for the Couple.

*For info about my book Mother of the Bride check out my Books/My Work page.

*The next issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter, comes out in early May. One lucky subscriber will receive a $15 gift card to Barnes & Noble and a signed copy of my book to use personally, give as a gift, or donate to a library. Sign-up is free and to the right! (If you’re on a mobile device, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click View Full Site to find it.)

*Hope this slightly revised encore post from February 2014 was helpful to you today!

*Flickr photo by DoNotLick, Creative Commons License