A thankful ex-bride's ode to Pinterest
(I skipped #weddingwednesdays for a couple of weeks! Huhu. Ako ay susubok bumawi with this post.)
A few years back, Mocs introduced Pinterest to me. (“Introduced” is putting it mildly. I think the exact words were “Daliiiii gawa ka tapos follow mo ‘ko. Daliiii.”) It is the blackhole-of-a-website (it can suck you in for HOURS) that allows you to create pinboards, or curated spaces, of your interests by pinning/ choosing your favorite ideas, forever safekeeping it for easy reference. Like many swiftly-transfomed Pinterest addicts, I got into the groove of pinning my favorite photos and websites of things I love: music, tv and movies, preschool lessons, recipes, Harry Potter, make-up and nail polish… you get the idea. But to hopeful romantic daydreamers like me, its most potent lure was its wedding feed.
Imagine, no more flipping through bridal magazines and jumping from one website to another! Hellooo, craycray girls!
Full disclosure: I raked in pin after pin after pin waaaay before Jeb and I got engaged. My Pinterest wedding board was originally named Assumera Files. It’s not as if he didn’t know about it, I showed him pins from time to time, and he just nodded and smiled when I did (probably fighting the urge to run away from me). After he proposed, one of the first things he told me was “Pwede mo nang palitan ‘yung pangalan ng Pinterest board mo!” (Pihado ko, hintay na hintay rin siyang asarin ako no’n. Salamat ha.) And so I did: it then became Mrs. JCG for his initials. (Click to the jump if you’d like to check it out!)
At that point, the board already had 400+pins. (Heeey it wasn’t that bad!) Tippy of googlygooeys, in one of our early meetings for the invitations, wisely gave me a very important wedding pinning strategy: start pruning your board as early as you can. Sure, while you’re still brainstorming, be open to different ideas. But once you’ve already decided on the key elements of your wedding, delete pins that contradict those elements, however pretty they are. The reality is, you can only have one wedding, and the more solid the idea behind it is, the more it will reflect who you are as a couple.
Oh what pegs to pin, to pin?
- Theme/ color palette
- Styling inspiration (from attire to shoes make-up to hair-do… it’s all there!)
- Venue dress-up
- Music/playlists
- Wedding favors/ souvenirs
- Photo poses/lay-outs
Of course, because they are just pegs, don’t kill yourself by copying the pins to their very last detail. Keep their big idea, yes, but still put your personal stamp on it. For example, because there was really an explosion of Gatsby/Roaring 20s-themed events in 2013/2014, Jeb and I made sure that the element of music was prominent in our choices. (I also insisted in mixing the Downton Abbey touches kasi nga, MATTHEW AND MARY FOREVEEER huhuhu.)
The Pinterest board also helped a lot when we were coordinating with suppliers and members of the entourage. Because all our ideas were in one place, it was easy for them to get our wedding vision.
Here are just some of our many Pinterest pegs that saw the light on #jebjojieday!
- Our wedding colors: coral, navy, blush, and gold
- I was smitten by Jenny Packham gowns at the time, and my friend Richie Torres brought to life the prettiest thing I’ve ever worn! This dress has her (yes, she’s a girl) own story to tell, and someday soon, I will share it.
- Jeb was confident that he can rock his own version of Leo! (Siyempre kakampi ako sa kanya, asawa ko ‘yan e.)
- Coral and navy gowns for the ladies! My girls looked beautiful in their gowns too! (Ayan rin ang salarin ng pagpi-Pinterest ko: si Mother Mocs, first lady from the left!)
- Instead of cloth swags for the aisles, Jeb and I chose flowers and candles in lanterns. Our flowers were in small buckets wrapped in music pieces!
- (Shorter and sweeter) Thank you cards + place cards, also by googlygooeys! (iG photo courtesy of Kateshkyloo!)
- And finally, stringed lights lovin’. Those little glowing bulbs helped create one of my favorite photos of that day. (Again, raks on, Catilo photography!) This was during our first dance, and Jeb was singing to me because, uh, we didn’t dance well. When I look at this photo, I remember how I felt at the moment: also blazing, brightly lit up from within.
And so, thank you thank you thank you, Pinterest, for all the wedding inspiration! Together, we proved that time spent on Pinterest is time well spent! High-fiiiiiive!
Now, on to homemaking and babybump pinning, shall we?