I think you will find that entering either of the search terms in this post's title will bring you nothing but links to actual Pinterest boards, or articles from the Huffington Post about Pinterest boards for wedding planning.
Former bride Hannah says it best here in her blog post about the disillusionment that Pinterest engendered in her, as well as her dashed expectations and the way that Pinterest robbed her of her contentment with her own real-life wedding.
I fell prey to a little bit of this for a while. I scoured the internet for ideas of what our wedding could be. I bought into what the Wedding Industrial Complex tells you that you must have:
1) An expensive, big-ass dress
2) A quaint and unique venue
3) Adorable and creative save-the-dates
4) Intricate hand-crafted invitations and response cards
5) Glass vases filled with water, colored lights, and plant life
6) Lots and lots of bunting and little strings of fabric pennants
7) Hand-written signs that say things like "Happily Ever After" and "Love At First Sight" and "Married Bliss"
8) Glass beverage dispensers (I'm guilty of loving these and purchasing two, one by total accident/fate)
9) A colorful signature drink
10) Photo booths with mustaches
I'm not saying that I didn't find some fantastic ideas on Pinterest or other sites, and I still find Pinterest a very useful tool for cataloging all my ideas in one place where I can easily peruse them visually. For someone who is a list-maker, this is very nice.
However, how many of the ideas that I pinned did I end up using or executing? Around 20 out of 254 pins. And of those, nearly half were things that were real-life items/ideas that I added to Pinterest myself based upon something I was actually doing, not something I saw online first and then decided to do.
There are so many details, and they're all so beautiful and marvelous. It's hard to tear away from looking at them and feeling sorry for ourselves. I know, I've been there.
One of my biggest anxiety points before the wedding was that it wouldn't live up to my expectations, and that it wouldn't be beautiful or come together like I'd hoped. In the end, it actually came together really nicely, and we dispensed with a lot of things at the last minute because we (or I) just did not care anymore.
I did not have an expensive dress. I wore a $175 bridesmaid's dress that I ordered in white. It was entirely and uniquely "me". I love it and I still wish I'd also bought one in cherry red just to wear all the time.
Our venue was not quaint or particularly unique, but it suited us and our wedding very well. I am completely 1000% thrilled and satisfied with our reception location (thanks Super Husband!) and I cannot recommend them enough (Country Inn & Suites - they are amazing!!).
Our save the dates were simple - I used Vista Print, and an old photo strip from when we were first dating. They were free, plus shipping, and I ordered WAY too many of them (chalk it up to inexperience). Our invitations were hand-crafted by yours truly using just card stock and my old inkjet printer from 2006. I designed the invitations to be attractive, informational, and practical. Works for me. They got the job done.
There were glass vases, but not by my doing - the hotel events guy actually created our centerpieces, free of charge. They were not filled with water and lights, but colored glass stones and fake flowers. No bunting. No fabric pennants. But I did have a string of lantern lights and some clear glass bulbs that I strung up. No hand-written signs. There were glass drink dispensers, because they're beautiful. We had powdered lemonade and iced tea. No photo booth and no mustaches unless they were growing out of someone's face.
And you know what? We had a fantastic and wonderful wedding. It was perfect.
But when all is said and done and all the last wedding paraphernalia is packed away, it leaves one lingering relic from those maddening wedding planning days - the Pinterest board. What does one do with the precious collection of ideas that may have helped shape your unforgettable wedding day? Just delete it? Let it hang around forever as a fond reminder? Relocate the really cool stuff to other boards and cut the rest of it loose?
I haven't decided, but I'm leaning toward that last thing. The most important thing, though, is to be proud of what we accomplished, and what that day meant for us. And to remember that internet weddings aren't "real", and they are no measure of our own weddings' worth.
No comments:
Post a Comment