The Pros & Cons to Utilizing Pinterest in Wedding Planning

When Josh and I got married (2014) Pinterest was still in its early phases. It had become a big database that everyone was obsessed with. However, today it’s an even bigger database and a “Google” in its own right. The inspiration you can find is endless. I had my own “Wedding Pinterest Board” and it helped me with planning the style/look/colors of our wedding day. But the amount of content that was available was limited. I would often continually see the same images multiple times in a search. Wedding magazines were a big part of my planning and I had multiple physical copies of various brands to go with my Pinterest planning. Wedding blogs were still very popular, and places like Style Me Pretty and Green Wedding Shoes were go-to resources for inspiration. Many of the print and online publications use Pinterest today to disperse their content, therefore Pinterest has quickly become a leading go-to location for literally all of it.

So if you’re planning a wedding today, and you’re using Pinterest to help inspire the majority of it, I’ve got a few Pros and Cons to keep in mind as you tackle the never-ending-world of Pinterest.

Pros:
-A huge database filled with millions of images, ideas, blog posts, and products. It’s like Google but uses imagery.
-Able to save images/links, aka “Pins” you like to a board (stealing from the concept of a corkboard/bulletin board) for future reference
-An easy place to keep all your wedding planning inspiration which can be extremely helpful for your planning team/photographer/videographer.
-The ability to have “secret” boards — you can plan out your wedding inspiration on Pinterest while keeping it hidden from all your friends!

Cons:
-It’s a huge database filled with millions of images. Can be overwhelming, and seemingly endless.
-Can make narrowing down choices difficult.
-Can distract from your initial theme/style because of the other results that will continue to come up from your original search.
-The Comparison Game is a real thing and with Pinterest, there is no shortage of beautiful imagery from beautiful high-dollar weddings. The budget spent on those weddings may not be realistic to your budget and it’s easy to fall victim to the comparison game.

Tips for using Pinterest:
-Limit your time on the App — avoid falling down the black hole.

-When you first start planning your wedding, start with a leisurely browse through Pinterest’s “Wedding” search. Get some initial ideas/inspirations/colors — but don’t stay in this place too long.

-After your initial leisurely stroll, decide on what you’re looking for — if you know what you’re trying to find you will be more focused on the task at hand vs getting sucked in and “wasting” time.

-When trying to decide on colors for your wedding, utilize color palettes (search “color palettes” on Pinterest.) If you know you’re wanting a Fall Wedding for example, you can search Fall Color Palettes, and this is a great way to see complimenting colors schemes.

-Remember your wedding is ultimately about the marriage commitment you’re making to your partner, not how Pinterest-worthy your wedding is. Pinterest is an amazing resource and tool that has completely changed how weddings are planned but do not get caught up in the notion that your wedding has to live up to the Pinterest “hype”. If you plan your wedding with focus and intention to what is important and means a lot to the two of you, you will have the perfect wedding for y’all!