Wedding Etiquette Forum

XP: PSA: Pinterest is not your friend

Pinterest will lie to you, it will show you pretty, stylised pictures of what could be with great lighting, a group of fairy folk and all the time and money in the world. 

Pinterest gives you lists upon lists of things that your Bridesmaids, groomsmen, photographers, people wandering by etc, should be doing for you leading up to your wedding day. They are wrong.

Pinterest wants you to spend your money, it wants you to fantasize and then, spend, spend, spend! Why do you think you see the same posts over and over again?

So please Brides, for the sake of your friendships and your marriages, please take Pinterest with a grain of salt and if you can't, stay off it.

Re: XP: PSA: Pinterest is not your friend

  • ashtsbashtsb member
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Comment 5 Love Its
    Even Pinterest crafts that are "easy" are not so! My FMIL threw me a BEAUTIFUL shower this past weekend and she had a very difficult time in making a craft that many on Pinterest said was easy!

    In the end she got some done, but she delcared never again! Pinterest is pretty to look at but difficult in practice!
  • jacques27 said:
    I'm not really sure where this rant came from, but I love Pinterest.  I actually got two really great ideas for my reception and they worked out well.  My bridesmaids got tons of cute ideas for my shower off there too.   I get recipes from there all the time, decorating ideas and hacks.   It's no different than anything else you might read or see online.  Some of it works, and some of it doesn't.   It's trial and error.  

    I love Pinterest.  


    Not to put words in TrixieJess' mouth, but it may be coming from the rash of brides here lately threatening to "fire their bridesmaids" (haha, like it's a job!) and complaining about how people aren't just tripping all over themselves because they are getting married and helping out with all of their wedding crafts and other nonsense.

    To some extent I agree with @TrixieJess, though I don't think Pinterest is inherently evil.  What I do think though, is that SOME women, in a Pinterest-fueled haze, fail to comprehend some very basic truths about life and their wedding, including, but not limited to:

    • Budget constraints and real life practicalities means not everyone gets the fancy evening ball of a wedding, nor are they entitled to it, especially if it means it's at the expense of hosting your guests well


    • Your crafts are not other people's problems - if you want to take on all these DIY wonders that Pinterest is throwing at you, then you need to plan accordingly as if you and your FI are the only ones who will be doing them.  If you need additional help to get it all done, then that was poor planning on your part, not the responsibility of your wedding party to help you do it.  This goes for all other wedding planning tasks.


    • People keep on living their lives and no one will think your wedding is as important as you.  As such, getting married is not an excuse to treat your friends poorly by monopolizing their time with your party planning tasks and talk and them not being as excited for your wedding as you is not a sign that they are being a shitty friend to you.  Yes, getting married is exciting, but diversify your interests and treat people like their friendship matters to you outside of your wedding, too, because when that day is all said and done you still have a relationship to maintain.

    I don't think it's so much Pinterest is evil, as people can get too wrapped up in the pretty pictures and idealized fiction it presents that they develop tunnel vision, losing sight of the realities of the situation.

    ^^What She Said!

    I have nothing personal against Pinterest, I use it myself for Drink Recipes and Gardening Tips. Their Wedding stuff makes me laugh though. Most of it is an Etiquette nightmare waiting to happen or stuff that you cannot possibly do on your own unless you are creatively inclined. 

    We have had several Speshul Snowflakes lately that have obviously come straight from Pinterest and cannot understand why no one here will validate their bad ideas!
  • jacques27jacques27 member
    First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited June 2015
    ^^What She Said!

    I have nothing personal against Pinterest, I use it myself for Drink Recipes and Gardening Tips. Their Wedding stuff makes me laugh though. Most of it is an Etiquette nightmare waiting to happen or stuff that you cannot possibly do on your own unless you are creatively inclined. 

    We have had several Speshul Snowflakes lately that have obviously come straight from Pinterest and cannot understand why no one here will validate their bad ideas!
    Oh, yeah.  I forgot about that aspect of it, too (probably because I was on Pinterest for like five minutes and then gave up).  But yeah, it seems to foster this weird need for people to have themes and take what should be a nice party for people to eat, drink, and socialize into this whole new level of creative one-upping and trying to show off every aspect of your life in every element of the ceremony and reception like it's a pageant instead of a wedding.  It's like getting married and just having a good time with your loved ones isn't enough anymore; you have to prove you're the speshulist snowflake in all the land.  Just like everything else - moderation is key.
  • ashncoal said:
    Even Pinterest crafts that are "easy" are not so! My FMIL threw me a BEAUTIFUL shower this past weekend and she had a very difficult time in making a craft that many on Pinterest said was easy!

    In the end she got some done, but she delcared never again! Pinterest is pretty to look at but difficult in practice!


    You should check out this site:    CLICK






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
  • Pinterest will lie to you, it will show you pretty, stylised pictures of what could be with great lighting, a group of fairy folk and all the time and money in the world. 

    Pinterest gives you lists upon lists of things that your Bridesmaids, groomsmen, photographers, people wandering by etc, should be doing for you leading up to your wedding day. They are wrong.

    Pinterest wants you to spend your money, it wants you to fantasize and then, spend, spend, spend! Why do you think you see the same posts over and over again?

    So please Brides, for the sake of your friendships and your marriages, please take Pinterest with a grain of salt and if you can't, stay off it.
    Ain't that the truth.
  • Ugh, one of my work friends did all of these adorable things for teacher appreciation that she found on Pinterest:  Smarties something one day, Extra (gum) another [For an "EXTRA" special teacher or some such], a whole week of this.  My kids' teachers got a handwritten note and a gift card, and I'm hoping in the end they appreciated it more than the pile of crap that my attempts at these projects would have turned out to be.  I suck at crafts, but I'm really good at buying gift cards.  ;)
  • lyndausvi said:

    You should check out this site:    CLICK


    THIS made my night, thank you!
    Wedding Countdown Ticker


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  • I love pinterest. How else would I know that I need succulents in my bouquet?
  • Eh, I think it's just having a filter.

    That adorable "tiny rustic wedding" shoot probably cost $10,000 for the flowers, so that's not an option...but the helpful tutorial on how to tie one of those universal dresses is great. You know?

    Personally I think it's all about the search option. Google sometimes doesn't cut it when you need visual aids. I use Pinterest all the time when I know what I'm looking for, and a realistic expectation of my budget. 


    I do agree that some of the crazy viral posts suck. No one should have to "propose" to their BMs or take butt pictures. 
  • I can't imagine asking anyone else to help with my craft projects!  Pretty sure they'd think I was crazy...and rightfully so!  However, I have definitely completed some cool wedding decorations off Pinterest.  Mostly because I find crafting to be a productive stress reliever.
  • I got lost in Pinterest when we first got engaged.  And then that turned into being overwhelmed with everything I "had" to do to make our wedding perfect, then I got depressed. It didn't help that I have zero personal experience around weddings.  I've only been to 2 and I've never been in one.  

    I got myself off Pinterest and haven't looked back.  Way. Less. Stressful.

    I think Pinterest can be a useful tool for people who know how to use it correctly and not get carried away, but I'm not that person.  
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  • edited June 2015
    Pinterest is the Say Yes To The Dress of the Internet for brides.

    It's a great resource for ideas and for learning if you're clueless (oh so that's what a mermaid dress is vs oh those colors do look pretty together in a bouquet).

    But in the wrong hands you get a girl with a hand me down budget thinking she should buy one of those awful and expensive Pnina dresses and who refuses cheaper flowers to create a similar dream floral arrangement.

    I have zero style, none.  I pin things I think are pretty and my stylish friends help me understand what actually goes together and what doesn't.

    ETA:  I'm guilty of enjoying both just like a bad romance movie on a Sunday, but I don't actually believe I'm going to marry the Senator of my dreams while cleaning his hotel room haha.
    image
  • Hey now, where am I gonna get my giggles if not for Pintrest. There be shit there that's tackier than a Kardashian wedding.

    I pin things. But more in the I like this kind of look, ick that look is awful, huh that might be interesting. ....

    I did decide my flowers are just going to be whatever looks pretty in the grocery store that morning. Because what I like is stupidly easy to recreate at home, I've tried.
  • FosmohFosmoh member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
    I fully admit i'm a Pinterest addict.  however it's incredibly rare when i'll actually TRY anything on Pinterest haha.

    I can spend a good hour pinning and feel like i've accomplished something with my time lol.
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