Today the Express begins a new

series of columns to help couples create that perfect wedding. We hope that these articles will make that special day even more

exceptional.

Deciding how you are going to style your wedding takes time and creativity. One of the best ways to do this is by collecting all of the unique ideas that you find online and in magazines and put them into something called a "mood board".

A mood board helps to take all of the things that inspire and wow you and put them into one place. 

How to put

together a mood board

Decorators around the world use a mood board and it is a great way to piece together different fabrics, textures and colours to create your wedding style.

You can do this with real magazine cut-outs or just by copying these images on your computer for reference. It gets you into the mood for your wedding, you start to live and breathe your theme and your creative energies start to flow.

Recently I put one together for a Roaring 20s themed wedding.  Have a look at the great elements in this image that you could put together to create your dramatic, yet elegant effect.

A fantastic online tool for creating a mood board is Pinterest.com where you can save your ideas to your online board. This is perfect for creating your own unique wedding style and theme. 

Have a look at different blogs and find items that inspire you and save them to Pinterest or to you own computer for future reference.

Create a wedding style board or scrapbook

A great planning tool for styling your wedding is to create a style board or scrapbook in which you can place scraps of materials, centrepiece ideas, and colour palettes to choose from.

This will help you to visualise what every aspect of your wedding will look like and help you to choose those individual items that are in keeping with your theme while creating a wedding that suits you as a couple. You can start by:

v Selecting different colour palettes that you like. You can go to a paint shop and get samples there.

v Finding different patterns and materials that match your colours. Look in magazines or newspapers.

v Collecting sample pieces of material from cloth shops and stick them to your pages opposite to your colour palette.

v Cutting out different textures of material and objects to give you ideas and inspiration. Once you can put your colours and textures together then you start working on different ideas, themes and decorations that work well with your mood board. 

v Use photos that you like and include them in your pages.

v Draw from your mood board to find different accessories that you've seen in photos and try to find similar items or materials.

v Recognise patterns and trends in colour around you. You can see this on the fashion runway and in stores when new items are on display. 

v Try to get similar patterns and colours in different fabrics.

Most importantly, don't be afraid to create a unique or outrageous mood board or scrapbook.

Remember that this is how you will get your creative juices flowing and the beginning of your wedding planning process.

It's a great way to see what you like and don't like in a professional and organised way. This process is all about creating a day you will remember and you want it to be as romantic and individual as possible.

—Photo courtesy MALA WEBBER