Small budget and a BIG Pinterest board? You might be setting yourself up for disappointment.

Small budget and a BIG Pinterest board? You might be setting yourself up for disappointment.

One of the first things I ask my new clients to send me is their Pinterest Board. This is like a little magic look at what the couple has as an expectation for their special day. As much as I love using this site it also makes me very sad. There are so many options, so much to look at! So much to inspire to be like as a couple but unfortunately Pinterest is NOT reality for 99% of the couples getting married today. I hate to be the bearer of the bad news but its either you hear it from me now or you find out the hard way on your wedding day.... 

Your wedding is NOT going to look like your Pinterest Board. Your wedding is going to be amazing, It is going to be perfect. Perfectly yours. But it will NOT look like your Pinterest Board. 

OK drink that in, read it again. Now breathe. 

Unless you have a HUGE budget and Martha Stewart as a fairy godmother your Pinterest Dream Wedding Board is not going to come to life. 

Here are a few factors that will play into this: 

• 99% of the time those spectacular photos are not real weddings- they are staged, styled photoshoots. The pros who put that up had the luxury of waiting for the perfect weather to shoot that in and took that shot over and over again until they got it just right. What you can not see is the team of designers, stylists and other pros standing just off camera to fluff, fix and adjust between each photo just to get it all absolutely perfect. 
• Your budget simply won't allow for it. That crazy, cool sprawling centerpiece is simply not within your modest budget and there is no discount, or flower "switch-out" that can make it within your budget. There isn't a florist in the world who can create $1,000 centerpiece for $25 a table. It. Just. Isn't. Going. To. Happen. 
• Your venue, location, reception/ceremony site is nothing like the one you have pinned in your Pinterest Board entitiled- Dream Wedding. You can not actually hang things from the ceiling in your venue, you can't have actual flame in your venue and your venue is a ballroom in NY- not a barn in So Cal.

Now that I have burst your Pinterest bubble and you hate me think about this- who else is telling you the truth? I know it is hard to hear but I never want to have a couple believe something is possible when it simply is not. From the budget hurdle to venue constraints there are things which will make your wedding different, special and perfectly yours. Embrace it! Love it! You are marrying your partner in crime, you soulmate. That is what is important- not how close you can get your 'real wedding' to look like your Pinterest wedding. 

So often I want to just call Pinterest and ask them if they know what they are doing to people!?! They are giving them a false sense of reality and then when the couple realizes they can not actually afford all that they have pinned in their boards they are let down and nothing seems 'good enough'. That truly breaks my heart. Yes, I am a wedding planner but I am also realistic. Weddings are but one day, one very important day, but one day nonetheless in the trip known as you life which you will take with your new husband/wife. That is what is important. Stop comparing yourself to all of those other weddings and just plan yours. Don't set yourself up for unrealistic expectations only to have them crushed when the it comes down to the bottom line of how much things cost. 

This blog come out of a place of love. I have chatted with far too many couples who have an unrealistic expectation for their wedding day because of the ideas they have on their Pinterest Board. Ask them after their wedding what the day was actually like. They will tell you it was perfect- but nothing like what they had 'imagined' it would be like. 

Now keep pinning but pin cautiously. Do not walk into your florist or your cake maker with unrealistic expectations otherwise you will be very disappointed. Think clearly and logically and it will save you a lot of heartache in the long run. Trust me. 

Happy planning & thanks for reading! 
Talk soon,
​~Tiffany

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