From Proposal to Wedding Day-setting the tone for your wedding

When you had finally found your perfect venue, booked the dream date and put down the deposit it is time to visualize and dream your perfect wedding- on paper and in your head.

With roughly a year to go, take a few weeks off from actively searching and booking your wedding vendors and try to focus on the theme and feel of your wedding. Look through pintrest.com (you can start with our wedding boards at http://pinterest.com/agnieshkaburke), enjoy your free time with a latte and wedding magazines at the local Barnes and Noble. Truly cherish this time of the planning process when nothing needs to be finalized just yet and sky is the limit.

Creating your online boards is very helpful, but what I find more effective is creating actual collages of the things you like. Set two or three foam core boards in your living room and start pinning all the things that look beautiful and feel like you. And don’t limit yourself to the wedding magazines alone. I find that home décor magazines are extremely valuable for fresh colors schemes and don’t follow the beaten wedding magazines path. Also international magazines offer a breath of fresh air.

Start grouping your clippings into a few categories: table design and décor, flowers, cake, wedding dresses and hair and make up, etc. Once you have a large selection of things you like, start narrowing it down, cross-referencing things across the categories to see if they are cohesive and complement each other.

Try to insert personalized elements—referencing your hobbies, heritage, and traditions. You want your wedding décor to be beautiful, but also tell your and your fiancé’s story, so when your guests enter the ballroom they will see and feel your imprint.

When your wedding day theme is visualized and designed it will be a breeze to choose wedding professionals to complement your day!