Creating a Vision for Your Wedding

As with anything you do in life, either planned or unplanned, your wedding will reflect your unique values, taste, personality, style, preferences, ideas, loves, joys, enthusiasms, beliefs and even shortcomings (love of chocolate?). So, before you plan your wedding, take some time, either by yourself, or together with your partner, to create a vision for your wedding.

Below are three things to know about creating a vision, followed by three steps for creating your unique wedding vision.

3 Things to Know About Creating a Vision

1. A vision is a passionate, future-based ideal. It's what you imagine with your heart, mind and soul when you think of your life, your career, your relationship, or something else that's vitally important to you, such as your wedding, in it's most perfect future form.

2. Your vision belongs to you. At some point you may choose to share it, or it may be a joint vision, but it's purpose is to inform, inspire and motivate you to move toward what you most want, in its' unadultered, ideal form. The purpose of creating a vision is to bring what's important to you to the surface, so that the end result is the best you can make it. Be grandiose in creating an image. Sure, life circumstances will limit you living out your ultimate vision sometimes, but having a vision will help you find a way to get closer to it than you might have imaged.

3. Things will get in the way of your vision. Creating a vision is exciting, inspiring and fun. However, when you create a vision, you are setting up change, and there's part of us that tries to protect us from change. Just be aware of the importance of commiting to your vision, so that when obstacles arise, you won't be daunted. Expect obstacles, and then solve each one as creatively as you can, when the challenge arises.

How to Create Your Wedding Vision

1. Set aside time to create your vision. Creating a vision begins with getting in touch with your heart and your imagination. A vision can't be forced. So set aside some time to get away from your "to do" list, and noise, to a private place, conducive to dreaming. Bring a tape recorder, or pen and paper, and maybe bridal magazines, or other magazines, and a scissors.

2. Allow yourself to dream of the perfect wedding for you. Consider writing down answers to the following questions, or take some time to journal about what you would love. Examples: Who is attending? What are the colors? What are the surroundings? What are the sounds, smells, tastes, textures? What is one word that captures everything? How am I feeling? What am I thinking? What do I look like? What is the style of the wedding? What song captures the tone of the wedding? What are the guests thinking? feeling?, etc.

2. Write down, or record your vision, in future tense, as if it had already happened. Example: "It's February, 2011. We're now living in our exquisite new home, and I can see our wedding album laying on the living room table. It's filled with gorgeous photographs of our wedding day. We were married in The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, etc., etc. It should be at least one page long, if not more. Remember, make it grand, so that when it comes to flushing out the details, you will be able to capture the spirit of your vision. If you like, you can cut out pictures and images from magazines, and create a wedding vision collage. Have fun, and be sure to review your vision story, and your collage, while you make your wedding plans!