Why I Didn't Use Pinterest to Plan My Wedding
/CHRISTINA DEHAN JALOWAY
I remember when Pinterest became popular, because it coincided roughly with the time when I first began blogging. I had dreams of becoming a Catholic fashion blogger, so Pinterest seemed like a brilliant concept to me: one convenient digital home for all of my favorite style, decor, and recipe ideas. I got to a point where I was spending hours on Pinterest each day, constantly re-pinning from other boards, checking to see who had re-pinned or liked my pins, and scouring my favorite blogs for images to pin. It became unhealthy, and once I recognized my addiction, I stopped using Pinterest cold turkey. It is a form of social media that I simply couldn’t use in moderation.
Fast forward to the summer of 2016. I was engaged and in the midst of planning a wedding within a five month time frame. Every wedding vendor I contacted asked to see Pinterest boards for examples of my aesthetic, and I think I surprised all of them when I admitted that I hadn’t actually created any Pinterest wedding boards. Even in the height of my Pinterest obsession, I had an intuition that creating a “dream wedding” board would not be good for me emotionally, nor would it be good for my eventual wedding budget.
How did I plan a wedding in five months without Pinterest? Considering the fact that I was 32 and had been to many weddings by the time I was engaged, I had a good sense for what I did and did not want in terms of flowers, a dress, reception venue, and so on. I ended up being thankful that I had broken my Pinterest habit long ago, because it made the planning process much simpler and less stressful.
Instead of scrolling through a seemingly infinite number of ideas for centerpieces, wedding favors, dresses, hairstyles, and bouquets, I shared my initial thoughts with my vendors, and trusted them to execute things beautifully. Also, many of the wedding-related photos on Pinterest are so stylized and luxe that they are cost-prohibitive for the average bride, and can lead to sadness and jealousy--neither of which are from the Lord.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think Pinterest is bad in and of itself, nor do I think it’s completely useless. I can be a useful tool for brides who are on the fence about what they want, or who are super crafty and want a DIY wedding, need some Spoken Bride-style inspiration for their Mass or reception, or who simply aren’t going to get sucked into the vortex of comparison and greed that can be prompted in some of us (me) by Pinterest.
But if you’re like me, and Pinterest is more of an occasion for sin than it is a helpful tool, consider either scaling back on your Pinterest time or not using it at all, and focus on working directly with your vendors to design the various aspects of your wedding. You may find that wedding planning is much less stressful this way, and that it will still be beautiful, because it will be a reflection of the love of Christ present in you and your future husband’s relationship.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments: did you use Pinterest when planning your wedding? Did you choose not to? Please share!
