A WEDDING PLANNER'S PERSONAL JOURNEY

Being a wedding planner, a lot of the people around me assumed that it must've been easy and effortless to plan my wedding, but it was anything but easy! Designing for myself was definitely a challenge - probably one of the hardest things I've had to do in my career so far.

Ernest and I are lovers of simplicity (his favorite saying is "Simple is best"), so I knew from the start that I wanted to keep the design of our wedding clean and elegant. That was when we first booked our venue, and I loved that The Barlow was a clean, blank space that I could fill however I wanted. Then I discovered the world of fine art weddings, and ohhhh boy, did my world get rocked hard. I suddenly had visions of villas in Italy and old world, European-inspired details, full of drama and romance - the opposite of the simple, clean design I had originally been envisioning. Thankfully, I was reminded that our wedding design should reflect who my husband and I are, and our love and commitment. Our wedding would be simple in design, highlighting the beauty of God's creation in the form of flowers (and lots of them - more on florals coming in a later post!). 

Visually, I had two aesthetics I wanted to marry (no pun intended): modern and fine art. I was watching Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightley version, if anyone was wondering), and fell in love with the effortlessly serene and simple feel of the English countryside, as portrayed in the movie. I went through pictures on Pinterest of English gardens, and also used wedding blogs (such as Once Wed, which my wedding will be featured on this summer!) as a resource to learn how other more experienced stylists & designers translated a concept into a tangible set up. I also pulled pictures of colors in tones that spoke to me - mainly neutrals, with dusty blue and dusty rose.

Below, you can find the inspiration board I put together. To find out how I worked together with my vendors to incorporate the moods this board represents (delicacy, elegance, flow, simplicity, organic texture) into every element of my wedding, check back next Wednesday for Design & Inspiration, Part 2!

all images by Meiwen Wang.