re: Looking to make a sleigh bed for me and my wife

If you haven’t started this project yet, I suggest you go to a furniture showroom and study the sleigh beds on display. You may find some ‘inspiration’ from what’s on offer – don’t be afraid to feel around and look underneath to see how they are made.
Part of your design criteria is deciding what you, as a woodworker, can or cannot achieve with your tools and workshop – ie, angles or curves, straight or curved panels/flat or raised and fielded etc. Also take into account what materials are available to you, are you starting from rough sawn or pao timber? White pine is cheap for a reason, red deal (think it’s known as redwood in US) is a much more workable species.
Might also be worth doing a dry run on the carving first to make sure you are happy with the design and comfortable and proficient with the carving tools.
I am sure you will get a lot more advice from members here once you post a design, let us know where you are in the world for hardware/timber advice specific to your location. (I’m betting England).
Not much help I know, but might give you something to think about.
Cheers.