So you’re engaged…congrats!!! I can only imagine your excitement, whether you got engaged 1 hour ago or 1 month ago. I remember all the thoughts running through my head after getting engaged in 2013. It’s almost embarrassing how quickly I started Pinterest Wedding Planning. Since getting married in 2015, I have watched several wedding trends come, go, and stay. Some I love, some I hate, but it’s the bride’s day and all that matters is that she is happy and loves it. (And I guess the groom, too… 😉)
I think it’s safe to say all brides use Pinterest quite a bit to plan their wedding. Some use it up until the day of, some use it as initial inspiration and then they go on their “marry” way. (See what I did there?) Maybe they’ve done this before so they didn’t need that much to help them. Well, I definitely did. I used Pinterest day in and day out. I probably ended up with tens of thousands of pins about the wedding. Needless to say, it got pretty overwhelming. Throughout the process, I came up with some tricks that kept it from being so overwhelming that I didn’t know which direction to go. I was so incredibly happy with how everything turned out, considering I didn’t have a planner. Once I figured out how to use it the right way, Pinterest was a HUGE help.
Here are my tips for planning a wedding on pinterest:
Organize your wedding pins into separate boards
Don’t act like you didn’t already have a Pinterest board for weddings before you got engaged. Every normal girl does. And if you didn’t, then WOW you have some self control. I think I had about 1,500 pins in mine before I even got engaged, and that number shot up a significant amount soon after. Having all of these different pins in one board can be really overwhelming, and make it hard to use for actual planning. Take a few hours and start going through your Wedding board and saving each pin in it’s own category board. Here are the different wedding boards I made, to help you get started:
- Rings
- General Planning
- Dresses
- Shoes
- Accessories
- Decor & DIY
- Hair & Makeup
- Before the Wedding
- After the Wedding (Honeymoon)
- Bridesmaids/Wedding party
- Bachelorette/Bridal Shower (this is a great board to keep for your friends’ future weddings)
- Ceremony
- Reception
- Cakes
- Guestbook Ideas
- Stationery & Paper
- Misc.
- Groom
- Flowers
- Photography
- Gifts & Favors
Yes, it’s a lot, and people may have made fun of me for it, but I stand by this tactic. It helped a LOT. It’s a lot of work, but that’s what wedding planning is. 🙃
Filter through Your boards
Go through each board and delete anything you don’t love. It helps to do this as you’re filtering through your first board to create the new category boards so it’s not so time consuming. Do this at the beginning and throughout the process. If you don’t love it, chances are you’re not going to use it in your wedding, so why let it take up space on your Pinterest? Also, vendors like to use your Pinterest images to get a feel for what you are wanting at your wedding, so you don’t want to show them something you aren’t going to like!
Don’t pin something unless you LOVE it
Going along with that, after you filter out your boards, don’t add more stuff you don’t love. Be very conscious about what you are pinning and don’t just aimlessly pin something that just “seems cute.” Trust me, I know, it’s HARD. Sometimes you see something and you think you love it because you’re blinded by all the beautiful photography. But if it’s not your style, don’t waste your time (or board space!)
Create group boards…
…with your mom, your maid of honor, your fiancé (if they use Pinterest), your bridesmaids, your planner, whoever you want. While you have the final say-so in what happens at your wedding, it helps to have someone you trust’s input. I did a group board with my MOH using the Bridal Shower/Bachelorette Party board, since she was in charge of those aspects. We both pinned ideas and she was able to see what I liked without having to actually talk to me about it and tell me that’s what’s going to happen (since my parties were a surprise…I had no part in planning any of it besides the location). If you have just a small handful of bridesmaids, let them pin ideas about dresses, hair, etc in the Bridesmaids board. Although I wouldn’t suggest this if you have more than 4. At that point you end up having too many cooks in the kitchen.
Narrow Down As You Go
As you start narrowing down options and details for your wedding, narrow down your pins by deleting pins that don’t match your details. This will make it easier and easier as you go and less confusing for vendors.
Create a “Mood Board” Board.
Start this once you have a good basic idea with colors and your overall look and feel. Find pins with color palettes you want to use and images with those colors incorporated. It doesn’t even have to be specifically wedding-related. It just has to give you the feeling that you want your guests to feel when they walk into your wedding. Maybe you want a beachy feel, so you find a beach picture with the colors you love in it. You’ll get excited because it will feel like your wedding to starting to really come together! Once you have this, you can send it to yoru vendors to give them a better idea. Eeeek, I’m already so excited for you!
Random fun fact…the very last pin I pinned in my “Dress” board was the exact dress that I ended up purchasing…and I didn’t even realize it! How crazy is that?
Pinterest Accounts to Follow
I asked around some of my friends who are recently engaged/married for their favorite Pinterest accounts to follow when planning their wedding. Here’s what they said:
Huffington Post
Wedding Chicks
Stone Fox Bride
MODwedding
Etsy
Junebug Weddings
Style Me Pretty
What do you think of these tips? Do they help? What tips would you give for someone planning their wedding with Pinterest? What are your favorite wedding Pinterest accounts to follow?
xo // Ems