With the
Bridal Expo in Wichita this weekend (will we see you there?), I thought I'd post a little about a fantastic wedding planning tool.
But first, let me back up.
When I was planning my wedding 3+ years ago, I was obsessed with shoes. This is ironic, because with a narrow size 11 foot, there aren't many shoes that fit. Those that are long enough are usually too wide to stay on my thin foot. Having a shoe obsession with this size of feet is a recipe for a broken heart, so I sagely avoided one until it was time to plan my wedding.
I'd send e-mails with long lists of links for shoes I was drooling over to my sister/bridesmaids. We'd go back and forth about what we liked, and they would e-mail me even MORE suggestions. These e-mail threads were LONG and full of big links. Cumbersome is the word that comes to mind.
If I were planning my wedding today, I'd take serious advantage of
Pinterest.
This is essentially paperless scrapbooking - at least in my book. :)
Let me show you an example of a board I pulled together for a friend (you will notice I *did* obsess a bit about the shoes):
I sort of thew everything together on one jumbled board (honestly, I didn't expect to pin as much for her as I did, but it's like a slipipery slope: once you start, you can't stop!).
How I would use
Pinterest for wedding inspiration is this.
1) Create several different boards. I would probably make the following boards:
• Bride's attire (dress, shoes, jewelry, veil, hair jewelry)
• Bridesmaid's attire (dress options/shoes/etc.)
• Mother's attire (if the moms want their own visual board!)
• Ceremony decor (guest book table, etc.)
• Reception decor (centerpieces, cakes/designs, colors you like)
• Flowers (Bridal bouquet, bridesmaids flowers, etc.) - tip here: contrasting colors are great. If your bridesmaids have a dark green dress, white flowers will pop off of their dresses. Likewise, if your dress is all white/ivory, having some colorful flowers (with some white mixed in if you like) really makes your flowers stand out.
• Invitations• Misc. This is for whatever else you might think of.
2) Invite your bridesmaids/friends/moms to be "contributors" for your wedding-related boards. This means they can add images they find/like/think you might like. Your bridesmaids will especially love this when it comes to finding their dresses.
3) When you pin,
pin DIRECTLY to the item.
Here's what I mean: Let's say you liked the flags/pendants from
Emily and Joe's Wedding. You'd like to add them to an inspiration board. If you are at our full blog address (
www.heartlandphotographyblog.com) and pin to the 'umbrella' blog, you will land on the very first page of our blog. Since Emily and Joe's wedding was in October, and we are now in January, you wouldn't find the photos immediately.
Depending on the blog, you can either click on the title of the post, or at the bottom of the post, there will be words similar to "link to this post" or something along those lines. If you get ONLY that blog entry in the window and pin photos from the specific blog post, you'll be able to more easily come back to that item in a few months. Does that make sense?
Why would you want to come back later? Trust me. You will.
When you start planning, you'll devour every item you can find. You'll start with items such as your dress and locations. Then you'll work your way through the planning list. You might see/tag ideas for table decor for your reception now, but not start to 'work' or finalize ideas until June or July. If you're getting ideas from a wedding planning blog and they
specifically talk about the photo, you might wish to go back and refresh your memory (which is why you should
pin the specific post on the blog).
The same goes for your wedding/bridesmaids dresses. If you select the
specific dress that interests you, it'll be easier to find it again when you are ready to make decisions.
Feel free to comment with any questions - I've tried to make this as easy to digest as possible, but sometimes my typing fingers fail to capture the ideas in my brain!
Happy Planning!
