The Dangers of Pinterest When Planning Your Wedding

Pinterest is awesome! As a bride, groom or couple, I am sure you’ve probably already spent way more time than you’d care to admit to browsing through Pinterest. In fact, you probably have several wedding planning boards set up already. 

Personally, I get lost going down rabbit holes of discovery, looking for new wedding trends or just looking through classic photographs. However, when it comes to planning a wedding, Pinterest can be really great for inspiration, but it can also be something that may end up being less than useful for your wedding planning. 

GREAT FOR GENERAL IDEAS

Pinterest is a great tool when you are starting planning your wedding. There is going to be a Pinterest board for everything you can think of. From dress styles to florals or venue decoration, you know there will be a board out there. Each board full of amazing ideas that you can base the initial ideas of planning your wedding. It is great for inspiration when you begin planning. 

IT CAN GIVE YOU UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

Whilst Pinterest is great, it often sets unrealistic goals for couples planning their wedding. In theory, anything you can dream of is possible. As long as you have the budget, there really are no limits. You can also bet there is a Pinterest board out there to match your dreams, or enhance them.

The problem is though, almost everyone has a budget to work within. When you are browsing Pinterest things look so easy and you can be deceived in thinking they are cost effective. Many of these seemingly simple ideas are in reality anything but. Florals are a prime example. Those florals that just look super minimal and effortless are actually anything but. In reality, to make it look that effortless, people spend hours crafting away to make it look perfect. Sometimes it can be a case of the easier and more effortless it looks, the more it will cost you. 

A great way to think of it is: Can I do this myself? Do I have time to do this myself? If the answer to either or both of those questions is no, then you will need to budget for it. 

IT’S AMAZING! BUT WHERE THE HECK DO I GET ONE?

This is one of the most frustrating things. You may find the perfect piece of your wedding puzzle on Pinterest, like it’s been waiting for you. Then you click on the link to an Etsy store or similar, only to find the store has closed. What usually follows is a frantic and ultimately fruitless Google search trying to find the one thing that you NEED for your wedding. 

In many cases the things you will see will be one of pieces, possibly created for a styled shoot. Or, they are a vintage piece from the stylist’s personal collection. By all means Pin things, but don’t be upset if you can’t actually get one. Always look at it as inspiration rather than a shopping list.

STYLED SHOOTS ARE NOT LIKE A WEDDING DAY.

Styled shoots are beautiful things. The images you see from them are absolutely beautiful. In terms of a wedding, they make a venue look it’s very best. The dress looks amazing, the florals are the most gorgeous you have seen. The problem is they are a group of people playing weddings, rather than an actual wedding day. 

Styled shoots can be hard to tell apart from real weddings in the endless stream of Pinterest and wedding blogs.

Real weddings are real life, things happen, plans suddenly change and time flies by. Styled Shoots on the other hand are like Disney World. Everything looks real, but is perfectly choreographed to give the impression that it took no effort at all. 

I’ve done several styled shoots before and they are the polar opposite of a wedding day. There are no nerves, no friends and family to hang out with, no set time for a meal. They are a group of professionals who are happy that if something doesn’t look quite perfect, they will spend hours reshooting it until it is.

To put this in perspective. I am currently planning a winter themed styled shoot with some other amazing wedding suppliers. We have had an in depth meeting about the shoot, we have a secret Pinterest board on the go (The irony is not lost on me here) and a Whats App group that pings constantly. 

The shoot is planned to take 5 hours (plus 3 hours setup). We have a the venue owner, a bridal boutique owner to work with the dress, a florist on hand throughout to tweak florals. The model is a real bride with her real life husband. However, she is also a hair and makeup artist, who will be bringing her makeup along and will be constantly checking it between each shot to make sure it is perfect. 

When all is said and done the aim is to have 15-20 amazing photographs.

Compare this to 5 hours on an actual wedding day and you will easily be able to see why these images create that Disney like reality. 

Just remember, just like the cover of the fashion magazine, they can be great inspiration, but are not real life.

IIT IS EASY TO BECOME UNFOCUSSED, OR WORSE, UNORIGINAL.

Pinterest is great as a starting point for your planning. But if you are not careful you can end up looking at looking at beautiful beach weddings, when you are getting married in the city of Lincoln. Yes these weddings are beautiful, but if you are not careful, rather than inspire you, Pinterest can make you begin to second guess yourself. 

The other thing is some things on Pinterest that you will see time and time again and will therefore appear at wedding after wedding. Always remember that Pinterest is someone else’s idea of a perfect wedding, not yours. Pinterest is a great starting point for ideas, but try to be original with it. Add your own twist or variation. After all, you don’t want your wedding to be like everybody else’s do you?

YOU CAN GET LOST DOWN A RABBIT HOLE

Staring at gorgeous ideas on Pinterest (or any other social platform) can quickly suck time from your day. What began as a five minute glance before bed suddenly ends up with you still flicking through and pinning ideas at 3am, knowing you have to get up in four hours. This is only made worse if you have an evening for planning and all you manage to accomplish is adding 5 more pins to your boards. 

Whilst I offer advice, I wish I could take my own. I start looking at film photography ideas and end up two hours later looking at random Simpsons quotes and moaning that I feel tired the next morning. 

What are your thoughts on Pinterest? Let me know down below.

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