How to Make Pinterest Work for You When Planning Your Wedding
Let's be honest. Most of us have had a wedding board on Pinterest since it launched a decade ago. Way before the ring or the engagement or maybe even the man was in the picture, we had our wedding all planned out. So, it can be daunting when it is actually time to plan the big day, and you have to narrow down all of the ideas you've been pinning for the past ten years.
Fortunately for you, we have some tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your Pinterest experience (or lack of ― no judgement here) and really make the site work for you in one of the most beautifully hectic times of your life.
Types of Pins and What They're Good For
Before you start pinning away, it is important to know what types of pins there are and what purpose they serve. There are three primary pin types, each valuable and each with different uses for the future bride.
Photo inspiration pins are what you typically think of when you think of planning your "Pinterest wedding." They are photos, some authentic, some staged, that are meant to inspire you with beautiful dresses, lush flowers, and over the top venues. The primary content in a photo inspiration pin is, well, the photo. They are great for getting ideas and sharing them with vendors. It is a good idea to save photo inspiration pins for anything you might want to replicate, like a particular floral arrangement or a specific style of wedding cake.
Unlike photo pins, some pins' primary purpose is to link to a blog, where an author will elaborate on what was pictured in the original pin. They often include a list of "7 Things Most Brides Forget to Do" or some other number of things that are meant to inspire you to click to photo and read the blog post. These pins are also meant to provide inspiration but with more of a focus on informational content rather than photographic. If you are recently engaged and looking to learn more about a certain area, these are the pins you want to focus on.
The last type of pin is an infographic, and these are a bride's best friend. They usually provide detail for a certain process or part of the wedding that may need more explaining. Good pins also sometimes provide templates that you can customize and use to help plan your own wedding. If you are looking to learn more about creating a wedding budget, designing a day-of schedule, or figuring out what order your wedding party should walk down the aisle, these pins are right for you!
Organization is Key
If you are like me, and your wedding board still has images you saved from when you were sixteen, it may be time to sort back through your board to see what is relevant and what you can kiss goodbye. I used to think that it would be cool to have all of my bridesmaids in shimmery, full length sequin dresses for the wedding, like the kind that the models wore in Deal or No Deal when it was still on the air. The thought makes me cringe now, but at sixteen, it made perfect sense. Your board should be a whole picture reflection of what you want your wedding to be. Before you start pinning more relevant wedding inspiration, make sure you first go back through and delete the things you may have outgrown.
Now that that's taken care of, let's get organized. If you are new to Pinterest, don't worry. The mobile app and the desktop version are both really user-friendly and easy to navigate once you know the premise. Pinterest is essentially one big vision board, where users are encouraged to save images by "pinning" them to different boards that users can create for different occasions, interests, etc. Pinterest recently released a new update that allows users to save pins to different subsections of a board as well. This is perfect for brides-to-be looking to find inspiration for unique vendors, photography ideas, dress styles, etc.
The best way to leverage Pinterest as a planning tool is to start with your wedding board. We suggest creating one, comprehensive board that includes all of your wedding ideas from start to finish. Within that board, create different sections for each of the different facets of planning. Some suggestions for sections to add include:
Invitations and Stationary
Dresses, Veils, and Shoes
Photography and Videography
Catering and Wedding Cakes
Florals and Other Decor
This list is certainly not comprehensive, but it will give you a good start when you begin to create sections for your overall wedding board.
Keep in mind that Pinterest is meant to inspire. You won't end up using all of the ideas or photos that you pin. The purpose in creating a wedding board for your Pinterest page is to generate ideas and filter out what you like vs what you don't. That said, we want to take it a step further. After all, this article is all about getting Pinterest to work for you. So, aside from collecting a bunch of pretty pictures and letting them sit there for uhh, ten years, how can you leverage Pinterest as an actual planning tool?
Get Creative
Don't confine yourself to exclusively Pinterest content. I know that sounds crazy; no one has ever accused Pinterest of not having enough stuff to Pin. You can easily spend hours sorting through all of the content on Pinterest, but Pinterest is more than just a content engine. If you really want to make the most of the platform for planning purposes, don't be afraid to pin original content from other sites. Most webpages have a Pinterest icon in the top right hand corner of the site, especially blogs and other content driven sites. Build up your wedding board by saving ideas from other wedding sites or you could even pin your own images!
If you've already booked a photographer, a venue, or another vendor that has their own webpage, you can also use Pinterest to give them a better idea of what exactly you would like featured on your big day. For instance, you can go to your photographer's website, look at their gallery, and pin images that they have already taken to your wedding board. Then, when you go to create a "most wanted list" of shots for your photographer, you can simply send them that particular section of your wedding board; that way, they know what aspects of their style you like and what areas they need to focus on.
Now that we have created all of our boards and sub-sections, it is time to move from inspiration to planning. This is the hard part. Narrowing down your sections can be time consuming, and it forces you to make some tough decisions about what you want to prioritize. There are a couple different routes you can take when it comes to slimming down your board.
Simply delete or "unpin" all of the images that you don't plan on incorporating into the wedding. After you're finished, this makes it easier to share your final board sub-section with vendors by just clicking share in the top left hand corner of the board. They will receive a link to all of the images you've saved under a particular category, so you can easily send your florist all of the pins you have in your "Florals and Other Decor" section. However, once you have deleted a pin, there is no way to recover it. If you change your mind, or if you just want to go back and look post-wedding at all of the inspiration your originally saved, this won't work.
To avoid that problem, you can simply copy and paste the images from a particular section into a Microsoft Word document and save it that way. Create separate documents for each subsection, and email them to vendors as necessary. You can also print them out and add them to your wedding planning binder, if you have one, to bring to meetings with potential vendors. Then, if you change your mind or decide you want to add something new, you can always go back to your Pinterest board for more inspiration.
Be Realistic
The only pitfall with Pinterest is that, sometimes... most of the time, it can lead us to develop unrealistic expectations of what we want our wedding to be. The photos on Pinterest are a collection of the best of the best from across the country, and the world for that matter. While there are certain things you can try to incorporate into your wedding, trying to emulate all of the photo inspiration pins you see is just unrealistic. Keep in mind that many of the photos on Pinterest are either staged as part of a styled photo shoot or very expensive. Use your budget as a reference point when thinking of what your priorities are when it comes to Pinterest projects.
Pinterest is a powerful tool for wedding planning, especially when it comes to drawing inspiration and communicating with vendors. Use these tips to really make Pinterest work for you! Come into our showroom here at Purdon's Rental and Sales between 10 and 5 Monday through Friday or 9 to 12 on Saturday to show us all of your ideas for table arrangements, chair set ups, dinner place settings, or any other rental needs!