Had Pinterest and Lover.ly and all of these other cool sites been around when I was planning my wedding, I guarantee I would have turned to them for ideas: decorations, gowns, shoes, nail color, napkin style, you name it. (Heck, I even pin pretty wedding-y stuff now.) I mean, inspiration can only be a good thing, right?
Actually, some wedding experts exercise extreme caution when it comes to "Pinterest brides"—women who want their weddings to be exactly like their inspiration boards. One example: photographer Corey Ann, who writes on her blog:
"The main reason that I am quite frustrated with Pinterest right now is that it sets up unreal expectations for wedding photography.... Last year was the first year I was sent Pinterest boards with requests from clients to rec-reate the images exactly as they were for their wedding.... Every time I would ask that they use these images for inspiration and not re-creations, but sometimes I would lose the battle. I want you to have the images from your wedding day that you dream about but ideally I’d like them to be about you."
And FStoppers quotes photographers Troy and Aimee Grover, who second the emotion: "There are so many aspects that go into composing a photograph, most importantly the lighting, environment and the subjects. Sometimes, the most amazing photographs happen by chance and can’t be re-created. Unpredictability is one of the things we find most inspiring and exciting about photography."
Maybe it's sort of like when you go to your hairstylist with a photo of a model sporting a super-trendy pixie cut that works for the model—and her cheekbones and her super-long neck—with the thought that you will look just as good. And then your experienced hairstylist suggests gently that the cut may not be the right thing to highlight your own unique features, but you insist—and 30 minutes later, with way less hair, you are holding back tears because OMG what have I done? (This may or may not be a real, traumatic example from my own life. Ahem.)
In other words, according to some photographers: If you're going to have inspiration boards, awesome. It can be a fantastic way to home in on the things that you might really want to make your wedding personalized and special. But use the boards for actual inspiration...don't demand re-creation.
What do you think? Do you agree with the photographers' sentiments?