Intentional wedding planning refers to the process of carefully and purposefully making decisions throughout the wedding planning journey. Keeping a focus on aligning each choice with the couple’s values, vision, and priorities. It involves thoughtfully curating every aspect of the wedding celebration, from the guest list and venue selection to the decor, food choices, and sustainability efforts. Intentional wedding planning is the secret ingredient that makes your love story an unforgettable fairy tale.

Intentional wedding planning may involve incorporating eco-friendly practices, supporting local vendors, promoting ethical considerations, and emphasizing meaningful experiences for both the couple and their guests. It aims to create a wedding day that not only celebrates the union of the couple but also reflects their values, creating lasting memories that align with their deepest intentions and desires.

How To Set A Wedding Intention

Setting an intention for a wedding involves identifying and articulating the core values and desires that you want to infuse into your special day. It’s about clarifying the purpose and meaning behind your wedding celebration. Like a garden of love, intentional wedding planning sows the seeds of happiness that bloom on your special day. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set an intention for your wedding:

1. Reflect as a Couple: Take some time together to reflect on what marriage and the wedding day mean to both of you. Discuss your shared values, beliefs, and aspirations for your life together. Finding ways to include personal detail through every element of the wedding style.
2. Visualize Your Ideal Wedding: Close your eyes and imagine your perfect wedding day. What emotions do you want to feel? What atmosphere do you envision, or innovative designs to include? Allow yourselves to dream freely and openly.
3. Identify Core Values: Together, one of the first steps is identifying the core values that you want to be the foundation of your wedding. These values could include love, unity, authenticity, sustainability, family, or any others that resonate with you as a couple. Do the vendor teams selected reflect these values?
4. Set Your Intention: Based on your reflections and core values, set a clear and concise intention for your wedding. For example, “Our wedding day will be a celebration of love, authenticity, and sustainability, surrounded by our closest family and friends.” This could almost be a mission statement for the wedding! 
5. Write It Down: Put your intention into words and write it down in a journal or on a piece of paper. This act of writing can solidify your commitment to your intention.
6. Share with Loved Ones: Communicate your intention with your partner, and if you feel comfortable, share it with best friends, close family, and friends. Let them know what your wedding means to you and the values you want to embrace on that day.
7. Make Decisions Aligned with Your Intention: Throughout the wedding planning process, refer back to your intention when making decisions. Ask yourselves if each choice aligns with your values and desired atmosphere.
8. Create Rituals and Symbols: Consider incorporating rituals or symbols into your wedding ceremony that represent your intention. This could include writing your own vows, exchanging meaningful gifts, or including elements from your cultural or spiritual backgrounds for your dream wedding. 
9. Let It Guide Your Wedding Planning: Keep your intention at the forefront of your minds as you plan each aspect of your wedding, from the venue selection to the decor and menu choices. It will act as a compass to guide your decisions. At the end of the day, the wedding day is a meaningful celebration full of special moments that deserve the intentional details and thoughts. 
10. Embrace Flexibility: Remember that setting an intention doesn’t mean everything has to go perfectly according to plan. Be open to unexpected moments and cherish the joy and love that naturally unfold on your wedding day. The most important thing, is that at the end of the day you are married and starting life as a happy couple. 

By setting an intention for your wedding, you infuse it with the purpose of your wedding and meaning. Making it a celebration that truly reflects your love story and values as a couple. It’s a beautiful way to create a wedding day that is authentic, heartfelt, and deeply meaningful to you both.

Top 20 Intentional Wedding Planning Tips

1. Define Your Vision: Take time as a couple to envision what you want your wedding day to feel like and the overall atmosphere you want to create.
2. Prioritize What Matters: Identify the most important elements of your wedding and allocate your budget and efforts accordingly.
3. Set a Realistic Budget: Establish a budget early on and stick to it. Be mindful of your spending and find creative ways to save.
4. Choose Meaningful Details: Opt for personalized touches that reflect your personalities and relationship.
5. Limit Your Guest List: Keep the guest list intimate, inviting those who are truly significant in your lives.
6. Communicate with Vendors: Clearly communicate your vision and expectations with vendors to ensure a seamless experience.
7. Embrace Eco-Friendly Practices: Incorporate eco-conscious choices into your wedding planning to minimize waste and impact.
8. Opt for Sustainable Decor: Use reusable or repurposed decorations that align with your theme.
9. Focus on Local and Ethical Suppliers: Support local vendors and seek suppliers with sustainable and ethical practices.
10. Consider Ethical Gifts: Encourage guests to give meaningful gifts or support charitable causes in lieu of traditional wedding gifts.
11. Plan Thoughtful Favors: Offer eco-friendly or locally sourced wedding favors for guests to take home.
12. Choose a Green Venue: Opt for venues with eco-friendly practices or natural surroundings that require minimal decor.
13. Limit Paper Waste: Embrace digital invitations, RSVPs, and programs to reduce paper waste.
14. Include Sustainable Food Options: Prioritize organic, locally sourced, or plant-based menu options for your wedding meal.
15. Mindful Transportation: Encourage guests to carpool or provide transportation options to reduce carbon emissions.
16. Opt for Seasonal Flowers: Choose flowers that are in-season and locally grown to minimize environmental impact.
17. Practice Mindful Gifting: Consider giving your guests potted plants or seeds as wedding favors.
18. Donate Leftover Food: Arrange for any leftover food to be donated to local food banks or shelters.
19. Share Your Values: Use your wedding platform to raise awareness of environmental issues and inspire others.
20. Embrace Quality Time: Above all, focus on spending quality time with your loved ones and cherishing every moment of your special day.

BONUS: 12 Steps for Prepping for An Intentional Wedding

An intentional wedding day is all about carefully curating the details to align with your values and vision as a couple. While the specific details can vary depending on individual preferences, some key elements to include in an intentional wedding day are:

1. Venue Selection: Choose a wedding venue that reflects your values and desired atmosphere, such as a natural setting like a garden, beach, or forest, or a sustainable eco-friendly venue. This could even be a private estate for a unique experience. 
2. Guest List: Keep the guest list intimate, inviting those who hold significant roles in your lives and share your values.
3. Ceremony: Personalize your wedding ceremony with meaningful rituals, readings, and vows that reflect your love and commitment.
4. Decorations: Opt for decor that aligns with your intention, such as using eco-friendly, recycled, or locally sourced elements. Wedding decor does not need to be complicated and elaborate. Simple and beautiful details could even include paper goods that incorporate local flower seeds!
5. Sustainable Practices: Implement eco-conscious choices throughout the day, such as digital invitations, recycling stations, and reducing single-use plastics.
6. Ethical Vendors: Choose vendors who share your values and demonstrate ethical practices, such as locally sourced catering or fair-trade floral arrangements. It can be helpful to find a wedding planner that is already familiar with curating a wedding with these values as the easiest way to plan. 
7. Sustainable Food: Offer a menu featuring organic, locally sourced, or plant-based options to minimize the environmental impact.
8. Personalized Touches: Incorporate personal touches that showcase your love story, shared interests, and cultural or spiritual backgrounds.
9. Gifts and Favors: Encourage meaningful and sustainable gifts for guests or consider donating to a charity in lieu of traditional favors. Or if you’d prefer gifting – incorporate local goods like honey, soaps, candles, and similar products by local artisans. 
10. Intentional Timeline: Plan the day with an intentional flow, allowing for ample time to connect with loved ones and enjoy meaningful moments. Insist on time alone as a couple – whether its 15 minutes after the ceremony to hide away in a dressing room, a private dinner, a private dance to a special song – whatever this looks like for you, include it in the timeline!
11. Mindful Photography: Work with a photographer who understands your intention and can capture authentic moments that tell your unique love story. This photographer should also be respectful of the quiet moments the couple has incorporated into their timeline. 
12. Post-Wedding Plan: Consider incorporating eco-conscious practices into your post-wedding plans, such as donating leftover food or repurposing decorations.

Remember that an intentional wedding day is about embracing the details that hold significance to you as a couple. Each element should contribute to the overall experience, reflecting your values and creating a celebration that feels genuine and true to your love and commitment.

Sarah & Jake’s Intentionally Planned Wedding Day

“Our wedding day becomes a magical tapestry when we intertwine intention with every heartfelt decision.”

Meet Sarah, a free-spirited and eco-conscious individual, who had always envisioned a wedding day that celebrated her love for nature and her partner, Jake. From the very beginning of their wedding planning journey, Sarah and Jake were determined to create an intentionally planned wedding day that aligned with their values and reflected the essence of their relationship.

The couple started by defining their vision: a rustic outdoor celebration surrounded by the beauty of nature. They decided to host their wedding in a lush, sunlit meadow nestled amidst the cedar trees. This serene and sustainable venue offered the perfect backdrop for their eco-friendly celebration.

As Sarah and Jake dove into the wedding planning process, they remained committed to making choices that minimized their environmental impact. They opted for eco-friendly digital invitations on a free wedding website. This encouraged guests to RSVP online to reduce paper waste – made easy with QR codes too! Sarah, a talented artist, designed the invitations herself, incorporating hand-drawn floral motifs that symbolized growth and the couple’s blossoming love.

The Vendors

In choosing their vendors, Sarah and Jake prioritized local businesses with ethical practices. They collaborated with a catering company that sourced organic, farm-to-table ingredients and embraced vegetarian and vegan options. The couple also selected a local florist specializing in local and seasonal blooms, reducing the need for long-distance transportation. This also had a surprising benefit of the florist bringing more unique florals that really surprised the couple with all the textures and little details that were included – and then preserved by flower pressing. 

The couple’s sustainable mindset extended to their wedding favors as well. Instead of traditional trinkets, they gifted guests with potted succulents, symbolizing resilience and the growth of lasting friendships. Even in the months after the wedding guests would send the couple photos of how the succulents are growing. This has been a fun way to extend the guest experience beyond the wedding day. 

The Wedding Day

On the wedding day, the meadow was transformed into a whimsical wonderland. Natural wooden benches, adorned with locally sourced wildflowers, provided seating for the intimate guest list, which consisted of their closest friends and family. Sarah and Jake stood beneath a gracefully arched wooden gazebo, artfully draped in flowing fabrics, blending effortlessly with the surrounding environment.

As the sun set, casting a golden glow over the meadow, Sarah and Jake exchanged heartfelt vows they had written themselves. Their promises to support and cherish one another resonated with the entire audience, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the meadow.

Throughout the day, the couple shared their love for the environment and emphasized the importance of protecting the planet. At the reception, they displayed a thoughtfully curated slideshow showcasing their adventures in nature and shared ways guests could contribute to sustainability efforts.

As the evening unfolded, the celebration continued under the stars. Strings of twinkling lights adorned the oak trees, illuminating the dance floor. Guests swayed to the melodies of acoustic music, laughter filling the air, and the dance floor became a symbol of joy and unity.

Sarah and Jake’s intentionally planned wedding day became a testament to their love for each other and their commitment to the world around them. Their celebration was not just about the two of them but also about creating a positive impact on the planet and sharing their values with those they held dear. It was an extraordinary day that left everyone inspired and deeply moved, a celebration that truly embodied love, intention, and purpose.

​Lasting Benefits of Intentional Weddings

Planning your wedding with intention is like creating a personalized love potion that captures all the magic! It’s like finding the secret ingredient that makes your big day extra special and uniquely “you.” So, let’s break it down in playful terms:

1. Couples Get to be Love Wizards: You and your partner become the ultimate love wizards, concocting a wedding day that perfectly reflects your unique love story and personalities. Abracadabra, it’s love at first sight!
2. Say Goodbye to Wedding Stress Monsters: Intentional planning banishes those pesky stress monsters that love to crash weddings. With a clear vision, you’ll breeze through the planning process with a smile on your face. Wedding planning can be hard work and doesn’t need to include any extra stressors that could come with a large-scale event. 
3. Eco-Warriors Unite: Eco-conscious couples become superhero eco-warriors, saving the planet one sustainable choice at a time. Green weddings, go!
4. Personalized Love Potions: Each detail becomes a personalized love potion that sparks joy and makes your hearts dance. Voilà! Love potion number “I do!”
5. Guests Feel the Love Magic: Your guests won’t just attend a wedding; they’ll feel the love magic swirling around them. It’s a heartwarming experience they won’t forget.
6. Destination Dreamscapes: Your chosen venue becomes a destination dreamscape that mirrors your wildest wedding dreams. Get ready to step into a fairytale realm!
7. Dance Floor Enchantment: Your intentional dance floor turns into a magical dance-off where you and your guests create unforgettable memories. Party like there’s no tomorrow!
8. Meaningful Moments Magic: Every moment is imbued with meaning and magic, turning your wedding day into a treasure trove of cherished memories.
9. Vows Straight from the Heart: Personal vows become love-spells from the heart, captivating everyone with your genuine emotions and promises.
10. Family and Friends Sorcery: Involving your loved ones in the process creates a web of love and support that feels like a warm, fuzzy hug.

So, embrace the magic of intentional wedding planning and conjure up a celebration that’s uniquely and playfully yours!