How to use Pinterest to your Wedding Planning Advantage

I might be a the odd man out on this one, but as a wedding planner I absolutely LOVE Pinterest! If you are anything like me, you have had a Pinterest Wedding board since the inception of Pinterest back in 2010. (mine was a lot of neon bright colors and DIY signs, I have since refined my taste)

A lot of the wedding vendors I talk to are cautious about brides planning their wedding on Pinterest. And I totally understand the hesitation- Pinterest, like all other social media, is a HIGHLIGHT REEL! It is only going to show you the best of the best, the creme de la creme of weddings, and most likely the weddings that had a big ‘ole budget. Not to mention that a good portion of what is seen on Pinterest isn’t even a wedding, but a photo shoot that was shot under perfect conditions and ideal circumstances- I’m looking at you outdoor farm tables settings sitting in the middle of a wheat field photographed during sunset.

But that is the reason why I love Pinterest! Hear me out guys….. Pinterest allows brides to discover and dream up things they did not even know were possible! Did you know you can hang your cake upside down, or have a hanging floral halo over your dance floor, because Pinterest did. And although those Pinterest images may be unrealistic for your wedding for whatever reason (budget, season, venue restrictions, etc.), that doesn’t mean you can’t pull inspiration from it! I love it when my brides come to me with an image they found on Pinterest and we brainstorm some way to incorporate that into their wedding in a way that works in their budget and style. So please pin away!!

Now to the good part… Here are some tips on how to use Pinterest effectively and to your advantage!

1. Use it like a search engine

Although technically Pinterest is a social media platform, I want you to think of it like google! The search bar is your best friend and so are specifics. When searching for an inspiration picture of flower arrangements or cake or whatever, be as specific as you can possibly be! I promise that this will eliminate so much endless scrolling. Here is an example for you:

This is what happened when I searched “wedding invitations” versus “fine art romantic pastel wedding invitations” :

The search on the left shows an array of styles of wedding invitations- from rustic to formal to modern. It would take A LOT of scrolling to find cake styles closer to the search on the right. The more descriptive words you can use, the easier it will be to find inspiration images in your style, color, etc! (P.S. please don’t ever just search “wedding invitations” or “wedding cake”, it is a colossal waste of time!)

2. Pinterest knows what’s best for you

Pinterest has so many great features, and one of them is their suggestions feature! Not only do they now have suggestions for each of your wedding boards, but for each individual picture! Therefore, if you can’t find the right words to describe your wedding style or don’t know what key words to use in the search bar, it just takes one image for you to find, and Pinterest will find hundreds more like it! All you have to do is click on the image and scroll down- it’s really that simple.

3. Your Pinterest Board organization is everything

Go watch “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” on Netflix and then treat your Pinterest boards like your disorganized junk drawer (you know that drawer in your kitchen that holds the old batteries, birthday candles, and receipts.. we all have one). Like I mentioned before, I have had a general Pinterest “wedding” board for well over 5 years now. So when it comes time to start pulling inspiration pictures for your wedding, please go back through all of your old images and see if they still ‘spark joy!’ I bet a lot of fads that you saved from 2010 are now out of style and your tastes have probably changed. Once you have sifted through your old images and decided which to keep, organize those bad boys into as many categories as you can! Once again, specifics are your friends. Create a board for wedding dress, wedding venue, ceremony flowers, reception flowers, linens, cake, etc. This will not only be helpful for you when going back to find a specific image to show to vendors, but it is also massively helpful to your vendors in figuring out your wedding style! So many times I see brides with general ‘wedding’ boards that are all over the place- although they have a very specific idea for their wedding. I’m gonna hit you with another example:

These are all inspiration images from the Pinterest board of one of my current brides:

Now looking at these images, we have everything from minimal, to rustic, to garden, to lakeside. All of these are different styles of weddings! However, this bride also categorized her pins into boards for lighting, ceremony, flowers, aesthetic, signage, etc. so that as a planner/designer, I know what she likes about each image and can decipher what she wants her wedding style to be! For example, the second image she saved under “lighting” which tells me she is interested in the marquee “LOVE” letters and not necessarily interested in pink and orange flowers, or a rustic wood venue. Below is the example of her actual design board we created for her which shows a much more cohesive design (all with images found on Pinterest!)

Now that you have all these tools to be a pinning pro, go and pin to your heart’s content! And make sure to follow Sistered States on Pinterest for endless amount of wedding inspiration!!