The Julian Leaver Design Strategy: How We Define Your Design Vision

“Oh, that definitely looks like a Julian Leaver wedding”. 

This is not something you’ll likely hear someone say.
And most couples find and hire me for this very reason. 

Because they don’t want their wedding to fit into a wedding planner’s mold. Instead, they want something personal, and unique. And a wedding that represents them!  

At Julian Leaver Events, I create hyper-unique weddings and events. But, I don’t dictate the style and design – my couples do. 

My job is to take your needs, dreams, and desires, and translate them, so a high-quality team of vendors can execute your vision flawlessly. And no matter how abstract or in the clouds it may seem to be, as your planner I’ll help you define your wedding-day vision so that it’s crystal clear.

And today, I’d like to share with you just how we do that, step by step.

Wedding Design Starts With You 

Because honestly, where else could it start? This is your wedding, after all.

If you haven’t already, go ahead and give yourself space to dream and explore what you want in terms of design. Head to Pinterest and start pinning to your heart’s desire. And if you’ve already done so, I encourage you to do a little Pinterest decluttering before we begin our time together. This will help us paint the clearest possible picture before we dive deep into your inspiration.

To give you an idea of how this part of the process works, you’ll want to:

1. Evaluate your current boards, and delete pins that no longer resonate.
2. Create a new wedding inspiration board, and transfer only the best pins to your new board.
3. Rewrite the descriptions.
4. Look through your new board and conduct a style assessment.
5. Create a board for color inspiration.
6. Create a memory board that captures the best experiences you’ve had with your partner.

You can read in-depth details about each of these steps in my post 7 Steps to Auditing Your Pinterest Board Before Meeting With Your Wedding Planner.

After you have some ideas of how you want your wedding to look and feel, I’ll work to understand your aesthetic so I can match you with the right resources for your vision. 

The Julian Leaver Design Strategy

Our design strategy happens in three steps. 

Step One: Define the Design

Trust me when I say we won’t even step foot into a florist’s office until we’ve nailed down your design. So, let’s sit down and go through all of those Pinterest boards you created.

If you didn’t do a board audit, don’t worry, friend. Either way, we’ll go through each image to understand what you like about them. We’ll dig deep into the details until we’ve whittled down the ideas and vision.

Once I feel confident we’ve crystalized your wedding vision, we’ll move forward. 

Step Two: Stationery

Next up is the stationer. This is when you start figuring out what colors, fonts, and typography you prefer for your wedding stationery. At this point, we should know what your overall color palette and wedding style consist of, so we can use those as a jumping-off point for your stationery. 

Your stationery designer will help you come up with save-the-dates and invitation suites that reflect your wedding. And most importantly, provide your guests with all of the information they need. Because wedding stationery must be practical before it’s pretty. Otherwise, how will your nearest and dearest know when and where to be?

Step Three: Floral + Décor

One of the benefits of working with a wedding planner is having industry connections. And let me tell you, I’ve made some excellent ones! So once you and I have defined your design vision, we’ll take it to the pros and let them work their magic.

You’ll see those ideas come to life. And best of all, everything will be unique to you and your partner – not some cookie-cutter version of what you’ve seen plastered all over Instagram. Because, as I’ve said before, there is no such thing as a Julian Leaver wedding. It’s all you!

Take the First Step 

The first step actually happens before Step One in the JLE Design Strategy. And it’s to head to my inbox and let me know what you’re envisioning for your wedding. 

I can’t wait to hear all about it!