It is no secret that Pinterest has completely changed the wedding industry.

Don’t believe me? Just ask absolutely any couple who was married before the platform launched to show you their wedding album. Guaranteed it wont have the same level of incredible, thoughtfully crafted details that fill every single corner of the modern wedding. Today I’m here to tell you what most wedding vendors are afraid to outright say. To let you know that even though Pinterest has has made wedding planning so much easier, there really is a right and wrong way to go about using the website to pull together the wedding of your dreams. Here are my ultimate guidelines for using Pinterest the right way.

Follow boards that avoid outdated trends

If you ask any wedding photographer who has shot weddings in North America in the last five years what the most overused wedding trend is, they will most likely come out with “burlap” or “mason jars.” This isn’t to say that these DIYs aren’t awesome for being so easily accessible and inexpensive, but one of the difficulties with Pinterest is that it doesn’t automatically phase out trends that would have naturally cycled out otherwise. Avoiding vague searches like “wedding day decor” and sticking to using the Follow feature is the easiest way to give yourself the right kind of tunnel vision and stay away from trends that are getting a bit stale.

I don’t know where to start, who should I follow?

The best place to start is by following industry leaders who are fully dedicated to updating their pages with the latest and greatest. Wedding blogs are an incredible resource for wedding planning because this is their sole purpose, but there are a ton of other wedding vendors who truly care about creating an easy place for their clients to find planning help. I’ve been making it a serious habit to update my own Pinterest page for this reason, but here are some of my favourites both locally from the Toronto, the GTA, and beyond.

• Once Wed
• Laura Olsen Events
• KJ and Co
• Green Wedding Shoes
• BHLDN
• Style Me Pretty
• Wedding Sparrow
• Magnolia Rouge

Use Pinterest for inspiration, but let your vendors do what they do best

It is really easy to get a bit carried away when finding a ton of wedding inspiration online whether it is photography related, floral arrangements, or even just a simple piece of decor. My biggest piece of advice is to only use Pinterest as a starting point to find your style, or at most, to let your hired vendors know what you are looking for. If you spend the time to find an absolutely incredible local florist, you are doing them, and yourself a disservice by giving them a pin to work from instead of letting them bring their own creativity to the job. When you allow yourself to take a step back and trust the decision you made when hiring on your vendors, you’ll end up with something far more original and unique to your wedding than if you were to micromanage.

It is absolutely impossible for anyone to perfectly recreate a photograph.

There are so many times when brides come to a consultation with me and bring along specific photographs that they found on Pinterest that they want to recreate on their wedding day. As much as I am always happy to help a bride have the day of her dreams, there is one thing that need to be said about trying to emulate someone else’s wedding photos.

The shot that you’re giving your photographer is not going to look the same. These photographs that have been “repinned” thousands of times are iconic because the person who captured them was on the top of their game, using the situation in front of them to work creatively. Matching someone else’s work while in a completely different venue and lighting situation, is a creative anchor that can drag down even the most talented wedding photographer. Instead, trust in your decision to hire the person you hired and enjoy your day. They will be there to create your own iconic images, and instead of looking back on them thirty years from now thinking “that’s the photo I found on Pinterest” you’ll think “that was my favourite part of our day.”

“50 Questions You Need To Ask Your Wedding ______ Before Hiring Them”

I am going to be blunt with you here for a minute; most of these posts are complete and total overkill and are the Pinterest version of clickbait articles. Yes, you need to make smart decisions, but asking your photographer, florist, or wedding planner a list of questions that you don’t even understand or care about is not the way to do it. Invest the time necessary to make a decision on vendors that are a good fit for you by looking over full samples of their work, reading reviews on any platform you can find, getting personal referrals, and meeting in person. Ignore the articles that are designed to make you paranoid, and trust your gut instinct when it comes to deciding whether or not you should hire someone.

Having a hard time finding the right vendors?

Pinterest is not the ideal place to actually source out your wedding vendors unless you are prepared to pay a lot of travel fees. If you already have a start on your wedding planning, my biggest recommendation is to use any vendors you have already hired as a starting point to make suggestions to you. The wedding industry is a lot smaller than you would expect, and guaranteed, the one vendor you have found will be able to recommend at least one other vendor to fit your needs. After spending the last few years as a wedding photographer, I’ve developed a relationship with countless florists, caterers, makeup artists, and wedding planners who I know are complete trusted professionals. Most wedding venues actually have a “preferred vendor list” of local talent.

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