Social media: it dominates a substantial part of our lives, from casual interactions with friends to significant endeavors, such as planning large events. Today, Pinterest – the online tool that allows users to search for ideas from assorted categories of pictures and descriptions – is one of the chief culprits in this trend. The modern wedding is often planned, pinned and promoted through Pinterest, from refining ideas in preparation to posting pictures of the event to share with fellow pinners.
From budgeting to timing to fresh ideas, Pinterest continues to play an increasingly important role in wedding planning, and these three brides have used the latest social media phenomenon to the fullest.
Amanda Hill: The Summertime Bride
On July 6, 2013, Amanda was married to Stephen Hill in Orlando after planning the couple’s wedding in less than nine months. Although the proposal didn’t come as much of a surprise — she and her boyfriend had been dating for five and a half years by the time they were engaged — the wedding planning process came and went in no time at all.
“I didn’t start planning before then, just some general ideas like a lot of girls have when just thinking about their wedding day,” said Hill, 22.
The current full-time psychology graduate student planned most of the wedding herself while in school with help from her bridesmaids and mom. The “elegant, rustic garden” theme that she was aiming for, however, required very specific ideas. That’s where Pinterest came in.
“I’m a more visual person; that’s why I liked Pinterest so much,” Amanda said. “I can see ideas I like rather than coming up with them out of nowhere. It was really helpful, especially with colors and flowers, and it helped to make a board with pictures on Pinterest.”
Amanda found Pinterest to be an easier option than Facebook and email for sharing and finding ideas. It enabled her to show her florist and hairstylist, for example, exactly what she wanted through a picture found on Pinterest. Amanda and her bridesmaids would pin pictures on an e-board through Pinterest so that everyone with access to the link could see the ideas in one place. The exclusivity allowed the wedding details to remain a surprise for guests.
According to one of Amanda’s bridesmaids, Jenna Box, 23, the bridesmaids were physically too far apart to make the bride-to-be’s vision a reality, but social media brought them together. Even the link to her bridesmaid’s dress was sent through a group Facebook message!
“As kids, we never imagined that we would practically be spread across the world as we were when Amanda got engaged. With six bridesmaids living anywhere from Boston to South Carolina to Denmark to Gainesville, helping our best friend plan her wedding wasn’t going to be easy,” Box said. “Amanda made a secret pin board on Pinterest — which I had never used before — and the seven of us started pinning wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, decorations, foods, cakes, everything down to table numbers and name cards.”
Amanda had used Pinterest prior to the wedding planning process for more leisurely activities such as recipes and home decorating, but, for the time crunch of a wedding, DIY was not her Pinterest goal. Through the site, she was able to focus her ideas and ultimately eliminate what would not work by seeing it in pictures at the click of a mouse and showing vendors exactly what she wanted.
“You think you’ll save money, but when you see how much it costs to DIY or how much time it’s not really worth it,” Hill said. “Some brides bite off more than they can chew with the wedding. Hopefully they have a lot of bridesmaids!”
Jessica Sherrick: The Newlywed
It began in July 2012, when Jessica Sherrick, 29, said yes to Michael Wolford on a road trip after three and a half years of dating. From then on, it was a constant flow of planning and coordinating to accomplish her wedding goals by the wedding date on Oct. 26. With a rustic, vintage theme in mind, it took Sherrick the combined forces of social media, friends and family to get every last detail completed in time.
“My mom, my friends, Pinterest and the Internet have helped me plan this — and my fiancé Michael,” Sherrick said.
Along with her job as head bartender at Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grille, wedding planning became a full-time position for Jessica. It was Pinterest that saddled up as her right-hand wedding planner, assisting the bride-to-be with an array of details in an accessible, cost-effective way.
“Pinterest played a giant role in planning. I was having a hard time finding a dress I wanted, so I searched Pinterest for dresses,” Sherrick said. “I was looking for a tea-length dress. Luckily, I found a picture of a dress on Pinterest and then found a lady in my hometown that makes dresses. I got almost an exact replica for under $300!”
The idea for the wedding invites proved to be another Pinterest savior. After finding an idea from searching Pinterest, a friend drew up the design and Jessica was able to get them printed in Gainesville for cheaper than the store-bought versions. Her wedding bouquet, made from antique brooches, was another Pinterest gem that allowed her to incorporate the “old, new, borrowed and blue” tradition in a unique way.
After hearing about Pinterest through a friend, it took a few “pins” for the bride-to-be to fall in love with the social media tool. It was her $5,000 budget that really drew her to the site, which helped her “more than she could ever have imagined.”
“Planning a wedding is all about who you know and how well you can work with the money you have,” she said.
Among her Pinterest searches, the wedding category and search option have been the most helpful. Sherrick crafted many of her Pinterest finds for the big day herself, such as mason jars and topiaries made out of lollipops. Ultimately, she was able to create her ideal wedding after seeing multiple pictures of new ideas assembled from the convenient media outlet.
“Honestly, I do not think this whole process would be as easy and painless without Pinterest,” Sherrick said. “The only things I’ve found outside of the website are my venue and my officiant. I really don’t know how people did it before — I’m guessing craft books and craft stores and lots of imagination.”
Nicole Merangoli: Engaged and Planning Out-of-State
Nicole Merangoli went on a trip to visit her family in Venice, Italy, with her boyfriend, Ian Kelly, and came back to Florida engaged and ready to plan her wedding. She has about 21 months to plan after her engagement in July 2012 until the big day on April 12, 2014.The couple’s engagement did not come as much of a surprise; Nicole’s pending trip in Sept. 2012 to Germany, Hong Kong and China for six months caused the couple to “put the foot down and say, ‘Yes, we are going to get married.’”
While the couple, Ian, 23, a student at Santa Fe College, and Nicole, 22, a community health worker at the University of Florida Health Street, live in Florida, the wedding will be in New York near the majority of Ian’s family. The distance, along with the $5,000 budget, has been both the biggest obstacle and the biggest push to use Pinterest to plan.
“I figured I would do the little things like centerpieces, but his mom (in New York) has been a huge help. It’s really been her and I,” Merangoli said.
The venue is in the country with plenty of open land, perfect for an outdoor wedding. However, because weather is always a variable, the decorations have to be somewhat simple to plan for the worst. The first thing to “pin” down was invitations, but flowers and centerpieces were next on the Pinterest search.
But, just how do you find what you’re looking for on Pinterest?
“Just search it. I like mason jars, so I type in ‘mason jar wedding,’” Merangoli said. “The majority of my planning is being based off what I find on Pinterest. My colors for the wedding I found there too; I got the idea from a picture of flowers.”
Planning from a different state has been a challenge, but Pinterest has allowed Nicole to gather her ideas and see them in action.
“The plan is if I find something I like on Pinterest, like a centerpiece, I’ll make a model of one here (in Florida), write down all the details of all the supplies that went into it, and take a picture to show it to Ian’s mom who’s in New York so she can buy all the supplies,” Merangoli said. “Then when we go up for Christmas, everyone can help make everything up there, and we’d leave it up in New York.”
Merangoli was adamant that without Pinterest, she would be at a loss for where to start in the wedding planning process.
“Pinterest is so convenient: It’s easy. It’s quick. It works.”