How to Create a Wedding Vision Board for Your Big Day

TLDR

• Creating a mood board for your wedding can help you pinpoint the style you'd like on your big day as you hone details.
• Use a digitial wedding vision board template, or be more tactile by using poster or cork board.
• What you put on your board is up to you. From bow ties and stationery to hair and floral arrangements, anything goes.

Esteemed French poet, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” During wedding planning, that sentiment is uniquely accurate. If you are in the midst of planning your wedding, you likely have the ever-growing Pinterest boards, collages, and mental images that encompass everything you wish for your big day.

One way to help these ideas come to life is to create a vision board. Vision boards serve as valuable visualization tools that allow you to easily conceptualize and lay out your thoughts, and in turn, make them a reality. We’ll discuss how to create a vision board, so that your big day mimics each and every mental image you’ve been storing since planning began.

What Is a Wedding Vision Board?

Vision boards are creative visualization tools that can help you find direction and goals for a certain aspect of your life. You can create vision boards for your home, family, job, events, you name it. They’re particularly helpful for identifying and creating a theme for your wedding specifically. Your vision board can be a store-bought cork board, poster, digital version, or whatever format fits your style best.

How to Create a Wedding Vision Board

The key to creating a successful vision board starts with the planning step. Without predetermined goals and adequate planning, your vision board can turn into a simple collage without any clear cohesion. As you get started, make sure to keep your distinct vision in mind and select items that help you build that picture. Follow the steps below to help you best do so.

1. Determine Your Goals

Before you start putting your vision board together, make a list of the goals you would like to achieve. These goals can be color direction, a decorative style, or even theme inspiration. If your goal list gets too long, don’t be afraid to split your vision board into multiple sub-topics.

2. Pull Inspiration

Once your goals are pinned down, the fun part begins: the search for inspiration. During this step, look for any items that represent your vision and save them for later when the creation step takes place. You can find quotes, images, products, etc in a variety of places. Here are a few of our favorite places to scour: Google

• Magazines, newspapers, catalogs
• Pinterest
• Postcards
• Stickers
• Fabric
• Flowers and nature
• Clothing

Don’t be afraid to jot down any inspiration that comes your way, as it makes for a more thorough and cohesive vision board.

3. Establish a Game Plan

Next, take your pile of inspiration and think about the format that makes the most sense to you. If the majority of your ideas are cutouts from magazines or printed from the internet, a traditional format might be best for your vision board. Conversely, if all of your ideas are saved on your desktop, a digital board might make more sense.

4. Start Creating Your Board

Now that your ideas and goals are in place, take as much time as you need to put it all together. What do you put on a wedding vision board? Anything you find inspiring! From color palettes and floral arrangements to dresses and venue types, it's up to you.

You can even create multiple vision boards—just be sure they blend well together. Make one for your wedding and reception (filled with flowers, food, and invitations) and another for your wedding day look (with hair, makeup, and gown ideas.)

We’ve created various templates and helpful checklists to help your ideas come to life below. For a bonus bonding experience, sip some wine and have your loved one help with the creation process! Once it is finished, place your vision board in a spot where you can easily take a few moments to observe it everyday to help stay on track.

3 Types of Vision Boards

It seems obvious, but the best type of vision board is the kind you will actually reference and use. Your board should capture your goals and inspiration in a format that you can easily consume every day.

Below are a few formats that will help guide your vision board creation.

Traditional Vision Boards

When you think of a vision board, you most likely picture a collage of cutouts from magazines pasted on a poster board. This format is popular for a reason: the process of looking through inspiration and manually adding your ideas can help to establish a big picture view of your vision.

To create a traditional vision board, choose a poster board or other type of canvas and attach your inspiration. Feel free to get creative and add stickers, glitter, or any other types of content that piques your interest. We’ve included a handful of quotes that you can download and add to your board to jazz it up and keep you inspired.

Pinterest Vision Boards

If you are planning your wedding, you’ve most likely turned to Pinterest time and time again. The endless inspiration for cakes, decor, dresses, etc can be a tremendous help in discovering your theme. However, sometimes it can be information overload!

To help better create carefully curated, thoughtful Pinterest vision boards, use our downloadable checklist to guide your thoughts. We recommend getting specific and creating separate boards for each aspect of your big day (food, dress, tablescapes, etc).

Digital Vision Boards

Finally, the last type of vision board you can consider is a digital board. The benefit of this format is the flexibility. You can keep your boards on your phone, computer, or even print them out. To create a digital vision board, choose an application or program that supports your goals. Some of our favorites include:

• Google Jamboard
• PicMonkey
• Canva
• MindMovies
• Visuapp
• iWish

Once you select the best program for your vision board, upload images of quotes, products, colors, and other inspiration to build your vision for your big day.

How to Best Use Your Vision Board

Okay, so you’ve made your vision board, and you’ve placed it in a spot that you see everyday. Now how do you make sure you actually stick to these visions when the planning begins? Here are some final tips:

• Set an alarm for the same time each day dedicated to looking it over and reminding yourself which ideas you want to focus on. This will keep your vision and goals top of mind.
• Use Post-it Notes! If you were able to plan your bachelorette party or send out the invites from an inspiring note on your board, add a Post-it that reminds you that you’ve accomplished that specific vision and can cross it off your list.
• Be realistic and patient with yourself. Remember that your vision board serves as inspiration, and it’s hard to completely replicate something to a tee. Take bits and pieces to inspire parts of your big day, but ultimately allow yours to take shape on its own.

Wedding Vision Board Examples

Of course, you could go old school and use a cork board, but there are also plenty of ways to create a digital vision board. So, are you ready for some real life mood board examples and templates for your own wedding planning inspiration board? Let's go! Here are a few examples below.

Color Palettes from a Wedding Expert

Planning Process from a Bride

Editable Canva Template

Quick and Easy Wedding Vision Board

Between communicating your ideas to your coordinator and sharing your vision with your florist, your overall vision of your wedding is important to nail down. Whether you are in the first stages of wedding planning or your date is right around the corner, use these tips to create a vision board that will inspire and guide your goals for your special day.