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For many of us, planning a wedding is the first time we’ve had to hire someone – maybe ever, and almost certainly for something creative! It can feel like a lot of pressure to get it right, because your wedding vendors are the folks who will transform your big, precious ideas into a celebration that can be enjoyed by the people you love most. We’ve got a whole roster of vendors we love for browsing, but today we’re taking it one step further and really breaking down the question “how do I find vendors for my wedding?”

Use your network. Naturally, some of the best recommendations come from people you trust. Loved the flowers at your best friend’s wedding? Ask her who she used. And remember, negative reviews can be just as helpful as positive ones!

Ask your vendors. Found a vendor you 100% click with? Ask him for other vendor recommendations. Photographers and planners, especially, work with countless vendors every weekend and can have great insight into the best options in your area.

Look to blogs and magazines. Wedding blogs and magazines can be a wealth of vendor leads, in a number of different ways. Search for real wedding or editorials that took place in your area and follow up with anyone whose work you love. Check to see if they have a vendor directory, usually a hand-picked selection of vendors that have been vetted in some way (ours is called the Blue Ribbon Vendor Directory). And don’t forget print and online advertisements – if you love a publication, chances are you’ll love the vendors that care enough to advertise with them.

There’s a common belief that vendors and venues charge more for the same services as soon as the word “wedding” is mentioned. Surprise! That’s probably true – but for good reason. A once-in-a-lifetime event like a wedding comes with an entirely different set of expectations, pressure, time spent planning, service, and creativity than your average cocktail or bridal party, and a higher price often reflects that. Though it can be hard to justify the expense on the front end of a wedding, talented vendors are worth every penny in the end!

I’d love to hear: how did you find your vendors? Who are your favorites?

We’ll be sharing a quick and simple piece of wedding planning advice based on our most frequently asked questions once a week! Feel free to email us with your own question, or pick up a copy of the Southern Weddings Planner (available in the Southern Weddings Shop!) for all of our best resources in one place!

emily Written with love by Emily
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Many gals describe planning a wedding as a full-time job. In my experience, it certainly seemed that way at times! No surprise, then, that planning weddings actually is a full-time job for some people (a.k.a. wedding planners!). They’re there to worry about the details of your wedding so that you can focus on preparing for your marriage – the good stuff. One size does not necessarily fit all, though, so today we’re breaking down the differences between wedding planners, wedding coordinators, and wedding stylists, and which one might be most appropriate for y’all!

Full-Service Planning
A full-service planner handles it all, from start to finish. Their duties can include everything from hiring and meeting with vendors to mailing invitations to setting a wedding day timeline. If they also offer design services, they’ll help you develop and execute the look, feel, and style of your celebration. This type of planner is perfect for couples having a logistically complex event, who both work long hours, or who simply want a professional to guide them every step of the way.

Partial Planning
Many planners offer à la carte services for couples who have a firm handle on the details but want some assistance–either at the beginning, with selecting vendors, or in the thick of things, with specific projects. Most charge either an hourly rate or a flat fee.

Day-Of Coordination
Technically, we think this category should be called “month-of coordination,” because no planner worth her salt is going to step in on the actual day of your wedding. Most will charge a flat fee to work with you from about a month out, handling vendors, set-up at your locations, timeline execution, and the myriad other tasks that go into a wedding day. Coordination is great for those who love being knee-deep in the details but want to hand everything off for a stress-free experience on their big day.

Wedding Styling
A wedding stylist can join you at different parts of your wedding planning process. At the beginning, she might help you develop a mood or inspiration board. If she steps in just on the wedding day, she’ll take all of your decor items and everything you’ve planned and set it up (and, well, style it!) just as you imagined. She’ll likely work with your photographer, too, to style images of details you want to remember, like your invitation suite.

We’re sure you’ve heard it before but it’s worth repeating: you want to be able to enjoy your wedding day instead of stressing over how everything is being set up and whether details are being taken care of. So whether you want to collaborate on every aspect of your celebration or hand things over just for the big day, there’s a planning service out there for you! Though it can be hard to justify the expense at the outset, for what it’s worth, countless couples have told us in their wedding interviews that hiring a planner or coordinator was the best money they spent on their wedding.

I’d love to hear: are you hiring a wedding planner of any sort? Which type?

We’ll be sharing a quick and simple piece of wedding planning advice based on our most frequently asked questions once a week! Feel free to email us with your own question, or pick up a copy of the Southern Weddings Planner (now available for pre-order!) for all of our best resources in one place!

Written with love by Southern Weddings
1 Comment
  1. avatar Erin reply

    Nope! We had a four-month engagement where we chose everything from afar, sight unseen. I am pretty organized, and our short engagement forced me to be decisive, so I never felt like I needed on. Secretly, I thought wedding planning was lots of fun and pretty easy :)

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In our wedding planner, one of the first tips we recommend is making an inspiration board. At the beginning of your engagement, an inspiration board is the perfect way to represent the look and feel of your wedding in a neat, tidy, and beautiful package. Inspiration boards are also a useful tool for working with your wedding vendors – they’ll help you clearly articulate your vision and get everyone on the same page. Finally, a great inspiration board will also serve as a touchstone you can refer back to again and again throughout wedding planning to see whether new ideas or options match up against your overall vision. Today, we’re going to teach you how to make one!

Actually, there are two types of inspiration boards – true story-based inspiration boards, and what we like to call mood boards or color boards. 100 Layer Cake creates some of our favorite color boards, including the bright spring example above. Mood boards are much more conceptual and streamlined than inspiration boards. They convey the major colors involved in the project, and a general feeling – light and happy, pale and dreamy, dark and romantic. Mood boards usually only consist of 2-5 images.

Inspiration boards, on the other hand, are unified by more than just a color and a feel. They usually contain 8-12 images and have a storyline that is cohesive and logical, than can easily be brought to life in an actual event. In fact, inspiration boards will often include specific elements that will show up in the event they’re inspiring! Snippet & Ink creates some of our all-time favorite inspiration boards, and she has an incredible backlog of 500+ boards to browse! You can see some of SW’s past color and inspiration boards here.

You know why you need one, so now it’s time to create one! I’m going to use the inspiration board I made for my wedding as our example. The first step is pulling a collection of inspiring images. Don’t feel limited by using only wedding images — pull from interior design, food photography, etc! Pinterest is perfect for this collecting phase. Above you can see some of the 200+ images I saved as inspiration.

Once you have a few images you love, it’s time to start piecing them together. There are many, many ways to do this (Photoshop, InDesign, Polyvore, even Microsoft Word or Powerpoint), but the program I think is best is called Adobe Illustrator. Happily, you can download a free 30-day trial of Illustrator right here – plenty of time to make and save a board! :) To start, I open a Web document and choose 600 pixels by 900 pixels wide, because our blog is 600 pixels wide. If you’re mostly planning to print out your board, you can make your Illustrator board 8.5 by 11 inches wide.

Next, I’ll begin adding in any photos I’m considering using. It might look like a little like this at this point:

When narrowing down images, I tried to stick to elements that I knew were realistic for our day and that evoked the setting we would be in, while still being true to the colors and feel we were going for. As you refine your board, play around with your layout and move things on and off until the overall composition looks pleasing. I like to add thin white lines between images to keep everything looking clean and crisp!

To finish, I export the board by “saving for web and devices.” And that’s that!

Tablescape photo by Jonathan Canlas via Snippet & Ink; cake via Martha Stewart Weddings; Sperry tent flags photo by Cramer Photo via Snippet & Ink; wine bottle photo by Jonathan Canlas; bouquet photo by Stephanie Williams; navy wedding invitation poster by I am Always Hungry via 100 Layer Cake; flowering boxwood bush photo by Katie Stoops from Southern Weddings; dapper groomsmen photo by A Bryan Photo; bow tie escort cards from Martha Stewart Weddings; arrangement photo by Lisa Lefkowitz via Snippet & Ink; black and white dance floor photo by Abby Jiu; dock portrait by Tanja Lippert via Style Me Pretty; tablescape photo by Jonathan Canlas via Snippet & Ink

I also wanted to let y’all know about a new service I just heard of – Violet. If you’re not comfortable with design software, they make the process of creating an inspiration board much easier! You can start with one of their curated boards, and then tweak by uploading your own photos. We love the look of this tool!

If you have any questions at all, I’d be happy to answer them! In the meantime, here is your easy to pin graphic to save for later:

We’ll be sharing a quick and simple piece of wedding planning advice based on our most frequently asked questions once a week! Feel free to email us with your own question, or pick up a copy of the Southern Weddings Planner for all of our best resources in one place!

emily Written with love by Emily
5 Comments
  1. avatar Kyla Fetzner reply

    Making inspiration boards has become one of my favorite ways to refine my style and piece together ideas that I love, especially for my blog. Thank you for sharing your process Emily!

  2. avatar Laura reply

    This is great! Although I’m not planning my wedding anymore, I know I can definitely use this to create inspiration boards for room makeovers, party planning, etc. Thanks!

    • avatar Emily reply

      So true! I now have one for each room in my house, and use them for planning parties, too!

  3. avatar Ashlie Muller reply

    I just LOVE inspiration boards! They are so pretty to look at, but so very helpful too!!

  4. avatar Shannon reply

    This is a great resource! In my new online course I go into depth on how I create them by video – it’s a similar process – I think mood boards are SO important when it’s time to design your wedding!

Southern Weddings reserves the right to delete comments which contain profanity or personal attacks or seek to promote a business unrelated to the post.  And remember: a good attitude is like kudzu – it spreads.  We love hearing your kind thoughts!

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