How to Pull Inspiration for Your Wedding Day | 10 Tips from a Chicago Wedding Photographer

When it comes to finding inspiration for your wedding in Chicago a lot of people will instinctually head straight to Instagram or Pinterest. These are both fantastic tools when it comes to finding things that inspire you for your wedding, but they can be a little overwhelming and overstimulating at times! The good news is that there are PLENTY of other avenues that you can pull inspiration from for your big day! As you probably put together from the title of this article, that’s exactly what we’re here to talk about today. So without further ado, let’s get into 10 ways to pull inspiration for your Chicago wedding!

1. Pull Inspiration from Your Venue

Chicago is practically overflowing with incredible wedding venues, each with a unique draw to them. Whether you’re looking for something classy, something quirky, something big, something small, or literally anything in between, the Windy City has you covered. When you choose your wedding venue, pay attention to what it is that drew you to it and made you choose that over all the other options. Was it the unique decor, the rustic feel with modern amenities, or the blank slate that gives you the freedom to do WHATEVER you want? Pull from these feelings to help inspire other areas of your wedding day! For a look at a handful of the fantastic wedding venues you can find in Chicago check out my venue features on Fairlie and The Voco Hotel, as well as my list covering 6 of my favorite intimate wedding venues in the city!

2. Think Outside the Box for Your Color Palette

Whether you’ve noticed it or not, the colors a couple chooses to build their wedding day around really do influence how the day feels! It’s for this reason that I love to encourage couples to think outside the box when looking for inspiration for their wedding color palette. Maybe it’s the colors that make up your home and your wardrobe, or maybe you have a favorite interior designer whose colors you’re obsessed with. You could even look to something like a favorite childhood book of yours to pull inspiration from! There’s no rules here, and honestly it is a LOT of fun to dream up wedding color palettes that are anything but traditional.

3. Pull Inspiration from Chicago Itself for Your Wedding

You’re planning a wedding in Chicago after all, why not pull inspiration from the Windy City for your day! There are a ton of fantastic options for wedding portraits throughout the city that can act as a source of inspiration for your day. For example, if you plan on taking your wedding portraits at the Art Institute Gardens, what florals will look best with the marble and greenery? Or maybe you want portraits in one of the brick alleyways near your wedding venue, in that case what colors are going to make you POP? Use the diversity and beauty of Chicago to your advantage and pull some inspiration from it! For an idea on more potential locations for your wedding portraits and inspiration, check out my article covering my favorite spots in the city!

4. Think About the Experience

Your wedding day is one of the only times in your lives where ALL of your favorite people come together to celebrate you and your love! It’s important then to create an experience for your day that your guests will enjoy just as much as you will. Think back to the best party that you’ve ever attended. How did the hosts make you feel, and how did they go about doing it? What can you do on your wedding day to have your guests feel similarly? Creating a wedding day experience that both you AND your guests enjoy is key to creating wedding memories that you’ll all be able to reminisce on for years to come!

5. Think About YOUR Experience

Enough about your guests though, it’s time to talk about YOUR experience on your wedding day! When pulling inspiration for your wedding day it’s important to keep in mind that this is your wedding day, not anyone else’s. So while you should keep your guest experience in mind, ultimately you should aim to craft the wedding day experience that YOU want. Will your day have a first look or no first look? Do you want to prioritize time with your guests, or focus more on portraits and the events of the day? Do you want to attend cocktail hour, or would you rather have some alone time with your partner? There’s really no wrong answers here, it all just depends on what kind of wedding day you want to have!

6. Make a Mood Board

Ok, I know I mentioned that there are other ways outside of Pinterest to pull inspiration for your Chicago wedding, but the app is just TOO good to not use! There’s one strategy I do recommend you try out though before typing in different search terms for your wedding, and that’s to create a mood board from your main feed. Sit down with your partner and scroll through your main feed to put together a board of anything that catches you and your partner’s eyes. It can be a celebrity style, a piece of artwork, or even a style of interior design. Select things that you like the look while on your unaltered feed so that when you do start looking at inspiration specific to weddings you’ll already have a mood board going to help guide you!

7. Choose Vendors that Inspire You

Some of the most impactful decisions you’ll make that determine the feel of your wedding day is which vendors you choose to help you create your day. Your florist, photographer, videographer, hair and makeup artis(s), and DJ or live band all significantly impact the look and feel of your wedding day. As you look for vendors for your wedding day, look for those that fit your vision, the style you’re going for, and the vibe you want your day to have. If you need more help on how to choose specific vendors for your Chicago wedding be sure to check out my article covering all the different vendors you’ll need to make your dream wedding day a reality!

8. Think of Family or Cultural Traditions 

One area that I LOVE for my couples to pull inspiration from for their wedding in Chicago is the different family or cultural wedding traditions present for them! Whether you incorporate these traditions verbatim, or you put your own unique spin on it, this is an incredibly meaningful way to inspire areas of your wedding day while also making it more personal. 

9. Talk to Trusted Friends and Family

One of THE best ways to pull inspiration for your wedding in Chicago is a pretty simple one, talk with the people that are important in your lives about their wedding day. Whether it’s family, friends, or both, ask them questions about their experience. What did they love most about their wedding? Is there anything they would have done differently? How did their guests and family feel about the decisions that they made for their day? People love to relive and reminisce about their wedding day, which means they’ll be happy to share all of the details to help ensure that you love your wedding day just as much as they did!

10. Think to Past Weddings You’ve Attended

Our last and final tip on pulling inspiration for your Chicago wedding is to pull from your own personal experiences. Think of past weddings you’ve attended and look back on what stood out to you from the day. Did the couple have a unique wedding party favor that everyone was excited about? Maybe instead of heading to cocktail hour the bride, groom, and wedding party members all snuck off for a drink at a nearby bar before the reception. Big or small, details like this can be huge when searching for inspiration for your day. I do recommend telling your friend if you do end up using an idea from their wedding as it feels SO good for them to hear how their day inspired you!

So you see there’s actually quite a few different ways for you to pull inspiration for your Chicago wedding alongside Pinterest and Instagram. The important thing to keep in mind is that each and every wedding is different, and that’s a good thing! Use the inspiration you find to create a wedding that is true to you and you’ll be set! For more wedding planning tips be sure to keep an eye on the blog, and if you’re ready to book me as your photographer you can head over to my contact page to send me an inquiry.