Pinterest Archive

The Emily Weddings Team from Emily Petersen on Vimeo.

Picture by Jen and Ashley Photography, Venue- Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club, Planners- Emily Weddings, Inc.

We LOVE Pinterest. We can start pinning and before we know it, hours have passed by. From yummy food and cocktails, gorgeous home design ideas, to DIY projects, what’s not to love?

Pinterest also helps out in the wedding planning world. When you allow us to see your wedding boards, we have constant access to what is inspiring you. It helps us move in the right direction for your wedding day. Some brides may not fully understand what they like or be able to put  into words want they want. When your wedding professional’s eye views the boards you have pinned for your wedding, we can understand what it is you have fallen in love with (we can see the common design element in each picture). This gives us great insight into our your dream wedding, as well a great direction to head in the planning process. With all of that said, we have to also warn y’all of the cons that can come along with pinning on Pinterest for wedding inspiration.

First, let us clearly state the Pros of Pinterest in Wedding Planning from a planner’s perspective (because there are many):

1. Gives us insight into what a you love and what inspires you.
2. Helps us with out-of-town brides because most of the planning is done at long distance.
3. Helps inspire a vision (especially if you have not been one to always dream of your day, and if you don’t have any ideas coming into the planning process).
4. Helps you locate wonderful sites that make or sell fun detailed items that you would like to incorporate into your wedding day.
5. Inspires you with creative ideas and DIY things for your event.
6. We really could go on because we adore Pinterest and find that it has tons of Pros!

Ok, So let’s move on to the Cons of Pinterest in Wedding Planning from a planner’s perspective:

1. You can start to overpin ending up with so many ideas all pointing in a different design direction that you can become overwhelmed with inspiration.
2. You can become so inspired by such luxury weddings that you become depressed about your own wedding because you feel it may not measure up to the pictures you have pinned.
3. You can find something you completely love and try to copy it, and it ends up looking like an elementary school project (you know what we are talking about…it has happened at least once to all of us).
4. You can start moving in a design direction for many months, all of a sudden get inspired by a new favorite picture, and feel you have to completely start over in order to get the wedding day you REALLY want now (this has happened to one of our couples). It sure is a lot of work to start over!
5. Here is the big one, y’all…ready for it?? Sticker shock from your favorite Pinterest picture inspiration!

So let’s talk about number 5 on the Cons of Pinterest…

We desire that you know about this so that you can prevent the problems that come along with your favorite all time inspiration picture and the my-wedding-has-to-be-this-exact-picture feeling. We have all seen that one wedding picture on Pinterest where you think “OH MY GOODNESS….THAT’S IT!!” So you head to the florist (you can actually put any wedding vendor in this spot and the story will come out the same) and you show them your inspiration and say please draw up a proposal around this picture. You don’t really give the vendor a budget because you think you can wiggle around that bottom line once you get the proposal (cut here, pull from there in other wedding categories to make it all work) because you just have to have this particular look at your wedding. You leave the floral meeting and start dreaming about how it’s going to look…you can barely sleep at night out of sheer excitement and wish your wedding day would be tomorrow so that you could see it all! (That’s excitement, y’all) A few days later the florist gets back to you with a proposal and has done everything you asked. Drumroll, please….HOLY MOLASSES that one centerpiece inspiration from the picture is $1000 and you were thinking that would be the cost of the flowers for your entire wedding! You are left depressed. UGH! We hurt for you…that is an awful feeling, and it can be prevented.

Below you will find a few ways to protect yourself from the cons of Pinterest pinning for your wedding day. These tips also help the wedding professional better serve you. It will save the vendor’s time and energy preparing a proposal that will never work, as well as save disappointing you on the vision you have for your wedding day. All wedding professionals want to see a smile on your face. They never, ever want to see you disappointed because you can’t get what you want…it really does break our heart…so we are going to say it…ready?…help us, help you…yep, we said it!

Here is how:

1. Go into planning your wedding knowing a firm budget. It will also help knowing that the average wedding in Virginia Beach is about $30,000.
2. Here is a great website with a wedding calculator to help guide your budget. This site helps with any location by using the zip code for your wedding destination.
3. We recommend hiring an wedding planner (of course we would!) because they can send you to the most reputable, creative wedding professionals that will work hard for you. This way you don’t have to fear if all of your money is well spent by that particular vendor.
4. Be open with your wedding professional on the budget you would like to stay in. This gives them a jumping off point for your vision and cost. They can be open with you right away if it will even come close to your inspiration picture because of your where you would like to stay monetarily.
5. Be flexible to other options when showing your wedding professional your wedding inspiration Pinterest picture. Hold loosely to the pictures you find. Be open to trying different ideas they may offer. They really do want to help.

Pinterest is AWESOME! Use it wisely in planning for your wedding. Let it guide, but not define. Let it inspire you, not lock you in. Let it be a creative outlet, not a rule book. Happy planning and happy pinning.

Photography by Echard Wheeler Photography, Planners- Emily Weddings, Inc