How to Not Let Pinterest Ruin Your Wedding
As photographers, we absolutely love using Pinterest. We especially love Pinterest for wedding planning. It’s an endless source of pretty things, useful things and interesting ideas. More than one bride has told us that Pinterest is one of the greatest tools when planning a wedding. But on the flip side, it can also become a source of major overwhelm and anxiety.
So here are 5 ways you can wisely use Pinterest for wedding planning. These ‘industry approved’ tips have been tried and tested by us and our couples. They will go a long way in preventing PIOA (Pinterest Induced Overwhelm & Anxiety).
1. Use Sections or More Than One Pinterest Board
The generic ‘Wedding’ Pinterest board always starts off with only a handful of pins. Which seems manageable at first. Then pretty soon it has about 200 pins on it and things start getting messy. Avoid the stress and use sections or different boards for the separate areas of your wedding planning. It’s nice to still have an overall mood board though, to see the vision of your wedding and make sure it all fits together.
2. Give Your Pins Useful Descriptions
Whatever you do, don’t pin something without a description. Just don’t. Describe why you’ve pinned it and/or what it clicks through to. Adding useful key words makes it easy to search and find specific pins later on. So when you’re in that planning meeting with your florist, and you want to show them that picture of THE bouquet you pinned three weeks ago, you won’t have to spend 20mins scrolling through 200 pins to find it.
3. Only Follow Boards/Pinners That Truly Reflect What You Love
When using Pinterest for wedding planning, it’s just so darn easy to hit the “Follow All” button. But if you hit said button too many times, your home feed will most likely end up looking a little bit confused. Be selective with which pinners and boards you follow on Pinterest, and make sure they reflect what you love. It would be a shame to drown in all that ‘Pinspiration’ and end up forgetting what you actually want your wedding to be like…
4. Remember: Different Countries = Different Wedding Industries
Different countries are, well, different. Climate, culture, population, economy, industries – it all affects the availability and cost of certain items, as well as the relevance of some ideas. Most users on Pinterest live in the States, and a lot of the ideas you’ll see on Pinterest have originated from there too. This skews the content significantly. And the drawback is that some of those ideas might not work quite as well outside of the US. So when you’re using Pinterest for wedding planning, remember to think about how the ideas and information you find on Pinterest relate to the country your wedding will be in.
5. And Finally, Don’t Let It Take Over…
If in the end you find yourself with a severe case of PIOA, it might be time to give yourself a break from Pinterest. Try looking through some carefully curated wedding magazines instead (Hello May is an excellent example). Or maybe attend a boutique wedding fair in your area. Whatever you decide, remember that Pinterest isn’t the onlysource of pretty things, useful things and interesting ideas.
