How do you start planning a wedding when you don’t know what you want? It seems odd that I didn’t have any sort of vision for my wedding when I first started planning, especially considering my fiancé and I were together for over five years before he proposed. Defining and creating the vision for your wedding is a big task that encompasses every aspect of your wedding planning, so it’s important to determine what you want.

Do you want a summer or winter wedding? Do you want a formal event, something more rustic and informal, or even a destination wedding? Do you want a specific theme? One of the most helpful exercises was something I learned from a bridal magazine: make a list of ten specific words or short phrases that you associate with your wedding. The more concise you can be by picking just a few words to describe a concept, the better. The first few words on my list were easy enough for me to think of, but after that, I had to think much harder to make sure each one was meaningful and specific.  You probably won’t think of all ten in your first sitting, or even in your first month or two of planning. I’m over a year into my engagement (about three months away from my wedding) and I still don’t have all ten, but the ones I do have on my list have helped me define my vision.

When you start noticing that you’re continually being drawn to something specific, work on describing it with a short phrase and add it to your list. Bring your list with you when you meet with your vendors like the florist or even the cake decorator-it will help them understand the vision you are trying to create and they may even help you add to your list.

As you begin exploring the options and creating your list of ten words to describe your wedding, take a little time to imagine the ideal experience for your wedding. What stands out as the most important part(s) (food, cake, music, venue, flowers, etc.)? What do you want to be able to say after your wedding, or what do you want your wedding to say about you and your fiancé? What do you want your guests to say about your wedding when they leave at the end of the night? Think about the answers to these questions and go from there to develop your vision.

I have gained inspiration along the way from many sources, including magazines, vendors, friends and family. I did lots of browsing-I highly encourage you to do the same! As you’re browsing, make a note when something catches your eye or figure out the reason why you love a certain detail-you’ll start to notice a common theme (whether it’s a certain shade or style for your color scheme or outfits, or a certain decorative detail like flowers in mason jars). Also look through pictures of other weddings to find flowers, décor, or color combinations that speak to you. Magazines are also helpful resources, but don’t just limit yourself to bridal magazines-also look at publications for gardening, home décor, etc. that might seem outside the box.

When you find something you like in a magazine, mark the page. For me, it was helpful to use small sticky notes or colored sticky tabs to mark something I liked. You can even use color-coded tabs for each different area of your wedding-flowers, bridesmaids dresses, centerpiece concepts, seating charts, invitations, etiquette, etc.

(As a side note, don’t feel obligated to buy every brand new bridal magazine on the news stand-borrow older ones from friends who are already married, or check with the local library to see if they have copies that were donated. You will still find lots of great ideas even if the magazine isn’t filled with today’s latest trends. If you already have tons of magazines, don’t throw them away after you get married-donate them or pass them on to the next bride. It saves everyone money-bridal magazines are expensive and when you’re on a budget, you want your money going toward the actual wedding, not the magazines!)

Anyway, back to sources of inspiration…watch wedding shows on tv-it’s free access to creative concepts you might otherwise have to pay a wedding coordinator for. There are also great local resources available as you search for elements to incorporate into your wedding vision. Attend bridal events in your local area to meet vendors in person and see their work. Look at photo galleries on the websites for venues and photographers-you’ll probably find creative ideas from photographers, wedding coordinators and other local brides. What better way to visualize how your event space will look than to find photos from other weddings at the same venue?

The vision for your wedding will continue to develop throughout the planning process, so don’t worry if you don’t have an exact vision right away. I am still about three months away from my wedding, and my scattered ideas are just starting to come together to form a cohesive vision. As you meet with and/or book each vendor, you will get additional ideas that enhance and move your vision forward. Eventually, the fragments of ideas you’ve collected during your planning will all come together in perfect harmony to create the vision for your ideal wedding.

Until next time, best of luck creating your ultimate wedding vision!

Swithin

Thank you to Billings  Montana Photographer Brittany Putnam, for allowing us to use your images.

And thank you Halley, I know your story will inspire a reader to DIY. Your wedding will be beautiful and memorable. Enjoy each and every moment.

Since many of our brides and grooms have their own web sites now, it may be fun to use your own bar code, (also called QR code). I found  this site easy and reliable. Just make sure you check your code with your own phone before you put is on a lot of printed material. So when you run across our card, pull out your phone, aim, and bookmark us right on your phone. The 2 apps that I found to work well are ShopSavy and QR Reader. Fun and easy as pie, and you can even forward our code directly to your friends. Or better yet, leave us a comment or write to us at info@montanaweddingguide.com and tell us what may interest you in future posts. We are always looking for interesting wedding ideas that you are implementing in your own weddings.

There are countless ways that you can create an invitation that will capture the essence of the upcoming event. The sky really is the limit.

Go and visit with Priscilla and Kathy. I promise, Ro Sham Bo will become one of your favorite stops in town.

www.roshambomt.com     Ro Sham Bo Paperie     17 South Tracy Avenue      Bozeman, Montana 59715

But no matter how much I try, I never look as good as when a seasoned pro has helped me with my make up.

Video Make Up Tutorials – Makeup Looks & Tips by Maybelline New York.

Thank you Lauren Brown Photography for this fun image which tells exactly how a great drink can complement your wedding.

In future editions I will explore the complexities of a good bar.

If you have any great recipes for wedding cocktails you may like to share with us, we would love to publish them right here on teh MONTANA WEDDING GUIDE.

I’m Swithin, a 27 year old soon-to-be bride in Bozeman. In my blog posts, I hope to share useful tips and ideas I’ve learned during my journey of planning my wedding. My goals are to share information that is somewhat specific to Bozeman/Gallatin Valley/Montana brides, and most importantly, to share information that you may not get from the big bridal magazines.

Living in and planning a wedding in a more rural area (like Montana) means some of the ideas you find in wedding magazines aren’t always practical…like wearing expensive designer stiletto shoes with 4 inch heels when the aisle for your outdoor wedding is a lawn or field. Unless your escort down the aisle is someone carrying you on a lounge chair like a queen, you may have some problems getting down the aisle gracefully.

I don’t mean to discredit the wedding magazines, because you can get inspiration and some great concepts from them. (Keep in mind that whether you find ideas you love and want to incorporate or ideas you dislike that send you running in the opposite direction, both will help define your vision for your wedding.) For me personally, the wedding magazines have been more helpful for giving me some basic info (different types/colors of flowers, timelines of when to order and send the invitations, etc.) and ideas that I definitely disliked. As long as you’re also finding concepts you do like, it’s nothing to be afraid of when you find ideas you don’t like because you’ll narrow your possibilities and ultimately work toward a clear concept that you love.

If you can’t tell by now, I’m a very detail-oriented person, which has made my wedding-planning enjoyable but time-consuming and a little daunting at times. I’m a girly-girl when it comes to most things (especially wedding details) and I’m fairly high-maintenance, but I’m not one of those girls who knew and dreamed about my exact vision for my wedding since I was little. I always pictured getting married and having a family, but I never envisioned specific details about my dress, the ceremony, etc.

When it came time to start planning my own wedding, I was starting from scratch. The only thing I knew was I didn’t want a church wedding, and I didn’t want it to be rigid or strictly traditional. With most things in my life, my taste is a modern twist on classic, timeless designs. My style is definitely not trendy, but it’s is also not vintage…it’s a balance somewhere in between. I suppose it’s like Goldilocks trying to find the right fit…I don’t want things to be over the top, but not too underdone either. Trying to avoid the extreme ends of the spectrum and finding a middle ground has been a challenge. I also tend to have difficulty being able to describe and communicate my ideas, so putting into words what I see in my head isn’t always easy. My vision is coming together now (thanks to my core group of supporters in my wedding party and my great vendors who could decipher and translate my sometimes jumbled ideas). I’ll talk more in a later blog about how things came together…it may take you a while to get your “light bulb” moment where all your ideas fall into place, but I promise it will happen!

There are lots of decisions you make as the bride planning your wedding. It’s enough to make anyone’s head spin trying to make sure that each aspect isn’t too much of this or too little of that-trying to make every detail turn out just right. The two final pieces of advice I’ll leave you with for now are:

1. Most importantly, surround yourself with a small, core group of your most supportive friends and family to help you throughout the planning process. Whether it’s your mom or dad, your future in-laws, your fiancé, or your best friend(s), make sure the people around you are going to support you. They will be the ones who help make the wedding of your dreams become reality, so make sure your core group is going to make that process as smooth and stress-free as possible. After all, it is your wedding! Having great people around you is one of the best ways you can ensure it turns out the way you want.

2. Ask for help from people who have skills that aren’t your strong suit. If you want a lot of the elements of your wedding to be hand-made or custom, or if you only have the budget for “do-it-yourself” but you’re not great at arts and crafts, ask a friend for help-even if they’re not in your wedding party. If you’re not great at organization or prioritizing your to-do list, find a friend or family member whose strong suit is keeping things on track. Your friends will enjoy helping you (as long as you don’t take advantage of their time and skills), and the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place.

Until next time, happy planning and good luck on getting everything “just right.”

Enter Pinterest – the perfect tool for couples (let’s be honest, mostly brides) planning a wedding, even here in Montana! Pinterest is basically a giant online inspiration board. The technology allows you to pin anything photo-based that you find anywhere online to a board that you create, name and categorize. You an also browse through other people’s pins and follow specific people or just specific boards or certain categories.   To get started on Pinterest you will either need to be invited by a friend or go to Pinterest.com and request an invite. Once you are in, you can set up your profile, connect it to your Facebook account or Twitter account and start creating some pin boards. If you are going to be planning your wedding using Pinterest, more than likely there will be moments when you go absolutely pin crazy. I would highly recommend, because of this, that you don’t have Pinterest push your pinning activity to your Facebook profile if you want to have any friends left after your wedding!   There are several ways to pin things to your pin boards. One of the easiest ways is to simply scroll through what other people have pinned and “repin”. You can even go to the “weddings and events” category to see everything that anyone is pinning that is related to weddings and events.

The other thing you can do is to pin photos straight from websites. The easiest way to do that is to follow the instructions given by Pinterest here to place a “pin it” button in your bookmarks bar. Once you have that set up, whenever you are browsing the internet and happen across a beautiful wedding idea you can just click the “pin it” button and pin the idea to one of your boards.   One of my favorite features of Pinterest is the ability to add contributors to any board that you create. If you want to include some of your closest friends or family members or your bridesmaids in the planning process just add them to your wedding boards as contributors. Make sure that they are set up with a Pinterest account and then here is how you add them:

Once they have been added they can pin any ideas that they like to your board.   A Real Life Montana Pinterest Wedding   A great example of how to use Pinterest to plan your Montana wedding is Robyn. Robyn is getting married at Deep Creek Range outside of Livingston, Montana this summer and she has been brainstorming almost every aspect of her wedding on Pinterest. You can see all of her boards here.

She has one board to which she added contributors, allowing some of her closest girlfriends to share their favorite wedding ideas with her as well. They used this early on in the planning process to hash out the perfect color scheme for Robyn’s big day and now they are working on all of those very important little details.   Montana Wedding Guide on Pinterest   In an effort to make your Montana wedding planning even easier, the Montana Wedding Guide is now on Pinterest as well. The account was just recently set up, so the boards are still a work in progress, but the hope is to provide you with great ideas, true Montana wedding inspiration, and links to some of the best vendors around. To follow the Montana Wedding Guide’s boards go to Pinterest.com/mtweddingguide.   Have you been planning your wedding on Pinterest? Do you have any great tips? If you have some unique Montana wedding ideas that you have been pinning and don’t mind sharing we would love it if you leave a link to your board or profile in the comments!   This article was contributed by Chieko Horn. Chieko is a Social Media Marketing Consultant and owner of H&H Web, based in Livingston, MT. You can get a glimpse of her varied interests on Pinterest at pinterest.com/snapfotogirl.

Because of some recent events I am not able to devote as much time as I would like to the MWG, so I asked Bärbel if she would be interested in working on it with me. She agreed and will be running the MWG this coming year and will be in touch with all of the vendors shortly.  I will still collaborate with Bärbel, and will be a guest blogger on occasion but she is going to be your new contact person.  She has a lot of great new ideas that she will be implementing and will be in touch with a lot of vendors who have not been featured on the site which will make it an even more helpful tool for our brides and grooms to plan their wedding.

Please welcome Bärbel to the MWG and if you have any questions for me please don’t hesitate to be in touch with me.

We will feature Fundy and his team on our web site soon.  In the meantime take a peak at a feature they did on me on theirs.