Here Comes the Blog

Archive for the ‘Inspiration Boards’ Category

If you’ve selected Valentine’s Day for your nuptials, then you are likely a true romantic at heart. Injecting that romance into the ceremony and reception can be accomplished in many ways. For example, choose a romantic location for your wedding such as a local bed and breakfast, castle or even a winery. When it comes to a color scheme, red is synonymous with Valentine’s Day and using it in all aspects of the wedding is a great way to infuse a bit of romance. As you can see in my inspiration board below, I like wedding dresses with red accents or red bridesmaid dresses at a minimum. A classic black tux with a modern red tie pairs perfectly with the color scheme. Red roses are the obvious choice for Valentine’s Day flowers, but there are plenty of other red flower choices if you are on a tight budget (we all know how outrageously expensive roses can be around Valentine’s Day).  Be sure to use candles throughout the reception area to add some romantic ambiance.  You can also see on my inspiration board that I love the idea of a classic white and red wedding cake covered in red scrollwork….why not choose red-velvet as the cake flavor?  Creating a red or pink custom cocktail for your reception guests is a fun idea.  I love pomegranate martinis!  Finally if you want to give your guests a little thank you gift, consider small heart-shaped boxes of chocolate or white gift boxes filled with conversation hearts.  Just add a red ribbon and a personalized custom hang tag and voila!, you’ve got the perfect wedding favor.

Valentine’s Day Wedding Inspiration Board by WeddingBlogger on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
Timeless red and white wedding dresses
Real Weddings: A Romantic Red Wedding: Glowing Candlelight, $5.99
Wedding, Red, Bridesmaids – Photo by Bella Bridesmaid – Project…
Manassas Cakery – red scroll wedding cake – Wallpapers – Mobicious
Wedding Obsession – Your daily dose of all things wedding

Autumn is traditionally when people focus on the prosperity of the season and give thanks for all the blessings in their lives.  What better time to celebrate the union of two lives!

The magnificent colors of Autumn are inspiration enough for a fall themed wedding.  Reds, golds, oranges, browns, and greens can be incorporated in just about every aspect of the wedding including the flowers and bridesmaid dresses.  Using a harvest theme, “Fall in Love” leaf motif, or a fall fruit such as ripening apples can also provide a great base for an Autumn inspired wedding.  When it comes to the reception decorations or centerpieces, focus on nature’s abundance and utilize things like gourds, fall leaves, pumpkins, berries, apples, and corn along with candles (you can even find floating candles with a leaf shape).  

Below you will find some of my favorite colors, fashion and decorations for an Autumn-inspired wedding.  I hope that you find it useful when you are planning your own fall nuptials!

Autumn Wedding Inspiration Board by WeddingBlogger on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
Ideas for an Autumn Wedding Theme: Charlotte Geary Photography
Ideas for an Autumn Wedding Theme: Charlotte Geary Photography
The Knot – My Real Wedding – Our Autumn Wedding in the Mountains of…
autumn
Autumn Wedding Inspiration | San Francisco Wedding Photographer Blog -…

When I think winter wedding, I think “Walking in a Winter Wonderland”. Icy blue, white, silver, and a snowflake motif would be key elements in my ideal winter wedding. While searching for some inspiration at Polyvore, I found some amazing reception decoration ideas that you can see in the montage of photos below. You don’t have to be outside to create the feeling of a winter wonderland. The use of painted white trees uplit with blue lights along with pine trees covered in fake snow can set the scene perfectly. For tableware, I love silver chargers with white plates and then icy blue stemware. Of course, a snowflake adorned wedding cake with silvery glitter sugar is a must as well. When it comes to the wedding gown, I like a bodice with a bit of sparkle along with a faux fur stole or wrap. It also looks amazing when the bridesmaids where faux stoles around their shoulders as well. It tends to tie the entire look together. While winter isn’t the most popular time of the year to get married, it does afford you many advantages over a summer wedding. You can create a winter fantasy-land that your guests won’t soon forget and you can save money because you are getting married in the “off season”.

Winter Wedding Inspiration Board by WeddingBlogger on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
winter-wedding-dress.bmp (BMP Image, 540×900 pixels)
Winter Weddings | | Brides.com
Winter Wonderland – Preston Bailey’s Designs – In Style Weddings
Wintry Sparkle – Winter Wonderland Sponsored by Godiva Liqueur – Stars…
Winter Wonderland Dessert Buffet
Snowflake Ornament Wedding Favors

If you are getting married in the month of December, then chances are that you are considering a Christmas theme with a red and white color scheme.   Planning a Christmas inspired wedding can be great fun….plus you can save tons of money since it is considered “off-season” by most wedding retailers and venues.  Personally when I envision a December wedding, I think red and white with hints of green like pine branches covered in pine cones.  And I love the idea of the bride arriving in a horse drawn sleigh (or a horse drawn carriage if you get married where there isn’t much snow).  If you get married in a church, chances are that they will have the place decorated for Christmas with a tree and nativity scene.  For the reception, use white Christmas lights to add some sparkle.  I love the idea of using glass ornaments in the centerpieces and you can even give them to guests as wedding favors to take home at the end of the event.  For flowers, red roses are a traditional choice, but I also love the idea of using white/ivory and red poinsettias throughout the ceremony and reception areas.  Here are some inspiring photos that I found at Polyvore along with the resources where you can find the items.  Enjoy and have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Wedding Inspiration Board by WeddingBlogger on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
(Bridal Originals) Wedding Dress LD3DD :: Christmas Wedding Dress ::…, $180
Timeless red and white wedding dresses
Photos of Winter Wedding Flowers and Centerpieces
Real Weddings: Winter: Heidi & Michael in Indianapolis, IN from The…
Christmas Wedding Cake – Vox
Hot Cocoa Wedding Favors

Sweep your guests up and carry them away to a Winter Wonderland with some of these inspiring ideas. My favorite winter wedding color scheme is simple – white, silver and ice blue. This simple and elegant color scheme can easily be carried through to all aspects of your wedding. In my winter wonderland inspiration board, I found some of my favorite wedding accessories, venues, and attire that I wanted to share with you today. Enjoy!

Image Resources:
Row 1 Left – Winter Wonderland Wedding Reception from The Knot
Row 1 Middle - Winter Wonderland Garter with icy blue square-cut rhinestone from Wedding Favors Unlimited 
Row 1 Right – Silver Snowflake Bookmark Favor with blue and white package that can be personalized
Row 2 Left – Winter Theme Wedding Receptioninside the state street building in Boston, Massachusettes
Row 2 Center – Silver & White Reception Decorfrom Flickr
Row 2 Right – Winter Wedding at Donovan Pavilion in Vail, Colorado
Row 3 Left – Blue & Silver Snowflake Invitations from Invitations By Dawn
Row 3 Center – Winter Wedding Cakes from Wedding Flowers & Reception Ideas
Row 3 Right – Winter Wedding Gown by Alfred Angelo

The long graceful lines, showy blooms, and wide array of colors available make the calla lily a popular flower choice amongst today’s brides.  These traits are also what make it a popular choice for florists, cake bakers, and wedding accessory designers.  Calla lilies now grace weddings appearing in everything from the bridal bouquet to the reception centerpieces to the wedding guest favors. 

In a future post, we’ll explore the many colors that calla lilies are available in, but today, for this inspiration board, we have focused on the traditional white or ivory calla lily.  And please bear in mind, that traditional doesn’t need to mean outdated….calla lilies can be arranged in up-to-date modern ways to create a contemporary flair. 

One of our favorite finds during our research was the wide array of calla lily themed postage stamps available at companies like Zazzle or Cafe Press.  The stamps are fully compliant with U.S. postal service guidelines and they feature just about every color of calla lilies you can think of.  They are a great way to dress up your RSVP or wedding invitation envelopes.  Besides stamps, our calla lily inspiration board has ideas for the wedding cake, attire, flowers, accessories and more. 

Items in this Inspiration Board:

Calla Lily Wedding Cake 1 – Calla Lily Centerpiece - Golden Calla Lily Cake 2
Bride with Calla Lily Bouquet – Calla Lily Coaster Favors – Calla Lily Wedding Invitations
Calla Lily Place Card Holder – Calla Lily Postage Stamp – Calla Lily Bridal Bouquet
Calla Lily Wedding Accessory Set – Calla Lily Unity Candle – Wedding Cake Topper – Calla Lily Guest Book
Calla Lily Boutenniers - Calla Lily Centerpiece – Bridesmaids with Bouquets

Using brown combined with pink, Tiffany blue, or orange (for fall weddings) has been one of the hottest trends over the last few years.  Our designers searched the web for some of their favorite pink and brown wedding items to create this lovely board. 

Due to the popularity of this color scheme, it is fairly easy to find invitations, dresses and accessories that incorporate brown and pink.  We love the use of stargazer lilies and pink roses to add a splash of pink to both the bridal bouquet and reception centerpieces.  When in season, pink mop-head hydrangeas can also be a great flower for centerpieces.  They are stunning and the fill the vase with just a few stems making them quite affordable when they are in season.  Be on the lookout for more pink flower ideas in one of our future Here Come The Blog posts.

Items on this Inspiration Board:

Pink & Brown Wedding Reception Decor – Brown & Pink Camera Table Signs
Brown & Pink Chic Wedding Garter – Pink and Brown Favor Gift Boxes – Bridesmaid Tote Bag
Bride & Groom with Pink Cake – Bride with Pink Bridesmaid Dresses
Pink & Brown Wedding Cake Candle Favors – Wedding Invitation – Wedding Cake – Wedding Centerpiece

Well I had so much fun creating the blue and brown dress collage at polyvore that I decided to go ahead and create a black and white inspiration board of my own.  Seriously girls…if you are looking for a super easy way to make your own inspiration board, give Polyvore a try.  The drag and drop technology makes it so fun.  Here is the board I created along with some of the resources for the beautiful dresses and reception accessories that I found.

Black White Wedding Inspiration Board by WeddingBlogger on Polyvore.com

Using a black and white color scheme gives a bride great flexibility when it comes to choosing accessories and accents for the wedding.  Some brides choose to use black and white only. While other brides choose to use colors such as red, lime green and even pink as accents on items such as the bridal jewelry, bridesmaid shoes, dress sashes, reception chair sashes and more.   Using red roses in the bridal bouquet and reception centerpieces is one of the most popular ways to add a splash of additional color to a black and white color scheme.  Whether you choose to stick with black and white only or to tie in another color, this color scheme is classic and elegant.

The staff at Here Comes The Blog put together this black and white inspiration board that we hope you can use to get your creative juices flowing.

Items in this board:
Save The Date – Tying Back of Dress – Black & White Wedding Cake
Black & White Flowers – Black & White Accessory Collection – Black & Ivory Flourish Favor Boxes
Reception Area – Black & White Damask Wedding Invitations – Washington D.C. Couple
Black & White Favor Tag – Black Bridesmaid Dresses – Black Embroidered Wedding Gown

Many women have been dreaming about their wedding day since they were little girls.  They have folders filled with images and drawings as well as bride magazines with folded-over corners pointing them to beautiful photos of things they want to incorporate on their wedding day.  Well a wedding inspiration board is simply a modern, technology-based way to put all those magazine clippings and images together to make one big collage that is beautiful and well-organized.   And the great thing about such a pretty board is that you can print it out and add it to your wedding keepsakes or to your digital wedding photo album (if you used high res pictures).

If you hire a professional wedding planner or designer, chances are that they will help you develop a mood or inspiration board that captures the essence of all the things that you want on your wedding day.  The problem is that not every bride can afford to hire a high-end planner that will take the time to create a board with them.   In addition, even if you do hire a planner, it is a good idea to show up at the meeting with a vision of your wedding day.  Looking at the inspiration boards of other brides or designers on the internet is a great way to get ideas. 

That said, during our research, we often found that many ready-made boards didn’t necessarily coincide with our bride’s vision or budgetary constraints.  Therefore, we think that it is a good idea for brides to create their own inspiration boards by hand-choosing specific elements that they find during their research on the internet or in bridal magazines.  Over the years, we’ve found that the best sources for inspiration are the photographs from real weddings.  Today, many online sites like MyBridalStory and The Knot enable brides to upload their wedding day photos and stories to share with the world so we suggest stopping by these sites to peruse and get ideas for your own wedding.

Ready To Create Your Own Wedding Inspiration Board?

Our staff members generally use Paint Shop or Photo Shop to create in-house inspiration boards.  However, these programs are expensive and not very intuitive to use.  One tool that we’ve seen some brides use on their home computer is Microsoft’s Power Point program.  It is fairly intuitive and many computers come with it pre-loaded in the software package.  In addition, we’ve found  some other easy options for creating your very own inspiration board directly online.

Our favorite easy-to-use online tool for creating your own inspiration board is the Mosaic Maker tool from Big Huge Labs.  The tool enables you to choose the number of tiles (square photos) that you want in each column/row, the mosaic background and border color, and the distance between the photos.  You can choose photos from Flickr, upload your own photos, or use images that you’ve found on the web by providing the image URL.  You select your photos and then hit the create button …. the application then displays your mosaic.  Just right click on the image and choose “save as” to save the image to your machine.  The application also gives you the html code with links to all of the photos that you’ve used in your mosaic.  It’s simple, fast, fun and best of all,FREE!

This morning I created the following 4×4 (16 square) Tiffany Blue Inspiration Board using photos that I found on Flickr.  Because I hand-selected each of the images, I had to put in the image URLs so it took about 15 minutes to create.  The only drawback is that if you make a mistake, it doesn’t seem to keep the URL information (using the back button) so be sure everything is correct before you hit the Create button.

1. Tiffany Blue Wedding Cake with Gems and Magnolias, 2. Chocolate Brown and Tiffany Blue Wedding Flower Girl Basket and Ring Bearer Pillow, 3. Tiffany Blue wedding, 4. Our Wedding Favors: Tiffany Boxes, 5. Tiffany Blue Silk Clutch with Teal Chrysanthemum Blossom – Lined in Silk, 6. tiffany blue, 7. #C37 tiffany blue brown circle swirl, 8. Tiffany Blue Bridesmaids, 9. tiffanyblue-sakbag-partyfavor, 10. Tiffany Blue Pillars down the Aisle at the Palmer House, 11. Tiffany and Co. Cupcakes!, 12. Nothing Better Than Blue!, 13. tiffany blue card table, 14. Aqua Bengaline, 15. Wedding Shower Cake, 16. Tiffany Blue Damask Wedding Favor Tags

Another one of our favorite tools is the web-based collage creator from Polyvore.  This application enables you to pick and choose images from their database to create your own fashion and style collage.  The program is super easy to use and fairly intuitive since it uses drop and drag technology.  While testing it a few days ago, I created this set (what they call the collage) of blue and brown dresses. You can get the details about where to buy any of these dresses by simply clicking on the image.

Blue and Brown Bridesmaids Dresses by WeddingBlogger featuring Amsale dresses

Sometimes the real struggle is finding the same or a similar item that you liked in a real wedding or on someone else’s inspiration board because often their resources are not shared. Over the next month or so, we’ll share some of our wedding inspiration boards for various color schemes and wedding themes. We’ll do our best to share the resources for the photographs and items that we show on the boards, but if you see something that you like and have a question about it, don’t hesitate to shoot us an e-mail or leave a comment.