Should You Send Your Wedding Photographer Your Pinterest board?

We all love Pinterest, am I right? I know I do! When I first discovered Pinterest, I found that I could easily scroll for hours. It was so addicting!

Pinterest is a visual search engine. So, while typing terms into Google will result in a wordy list of links, those same search terms entered into Pinterest, will yield a gorgeous list of pictures. Where would you go if you were searching for bridal shower ideas? Or a new recipe combining the chicken & broccoli you already have in your refrigerator? Or inspiration for renovating your dining room? Don’t lie! You know you’d head over to Pinterest before Google!

Pinterest is an incredibly powerful tool. Our lives are different because of it. After a simple search, we are delivered literally millions of ideas & inspiration – from new food ideas, to decoration & design advice, to event planning genius – it’s all right there. And, all of those ideas are easily saved & cataloged for future reference! No more bloated “bookmarks” to manage (remember those days?)

But, I’m sure you already know all of that. I doubt that anyone reading this needs sold on the merits of Pinterest!

Here’s my question for you:
Do you have a Pinterest board dedicated to your wedding?

It doesn’t matter if you’re 15 years old & you haven’t even met your future spouse yet, or 20 years old & dating someone you think is “the one”, or 25 years old with an actual wedding countdown ticking away on your phone. No matter what category you fall into, I’m sure you have a wedding Pinterest board (it’s okay to admit it, everyone does)!

When you finally fall into the last category, meaning he’s popped the question & you’re officially ushered into wedding-planning mode, where is the first place you go? Pinterest, of course! You begin to sort thru all of your ideas (and let’s be honest, probably create a new board called “The REAL Wedding” & re-pin ideas that are rooted in reality instead of that beach-side-Hawaii-wedding you pinned a bunch of beautiful photos from).

We could talk about wedding vendors in general & their relationship with Pinterest, but because I’m a wedding photographer, I want to really hone this to talk about your wedding photography vs. your Pinterest board of wedding images. After all, no matter what images you are pinning, whether they are photos of bouquets, cakes, dresses, or shoes, they all are one thing: photos – taken by a photographer!

Here’s the million dollar question:
Should you send your wedding photographer your Pinterest board?

Instead of answering that question with a straight up yes or no, I want to list some pros & cons to both sides of that coin. There honestly are some good things that can come out of showing your wedding photographer your Pinterest ideas, but also some bad things & I want to share both!

Advantages to sending your wedding photographer your Pinterest board:

• If you are having a unique moment in your ceremony or reception that your photographer might not have seen before, sometimes it can be helpful to let them see how you got the idea.
  Note: If you’ve hired an experienced photographer, they’ve probably seen (or at least heard of) most of the “unique” ideas that people find on Pinterest, but there are always new trends surfacing!
• Pinterest does inspire creativity! I won’t lie to you! I love looking at wedding images on Pinterest! New ideas, new poses, new lighting techniques can all be super inspiring as I prepare for a wedding day. And I guarantee, I haven’t seen all of the gorgeous wedding images Pinterest has to offer, so sometimes sharing can inspire a lot of new ideas!

Disadvantages to sending your wedding photographer your Pinterest board:

• While sharing can inspire creativity, the flip side of that is: if you have a list of photos from Pinterest that you must have, you begin to back your photographer into a corner. Suddenly, she goes from having creative freedom over the day to having a detailed Pinterest shot list that she must follow. Instead of looking for the candid and authentically beautiful moments that simply unfold naturally, she’s worried about setting up & posing the perfect Pinterest photo.
• No matter what, you cannot replicate the conditions of the perfect Pinterest photo. Even if your florist puts today the exact bouquet, there is physically no possible way to recreate that exact image. Why put that stress on your wedding photographer to do the impossible?

Do’s & Don’ts of sending your wedding photographer your Pinterest boards:

If there is a certain image or two that you are absolutely obsessed with & you absolutely cannot live without, please DO share that image (or two) with your wedding photographer. I guarantee, your photographer cannot read your mind. I can also (almost) guarantee, that even if you think that you’ll remember to tell your photographer on your wedding day, you’ll likely forget. There is so much going on & so many other things to remember! So, if you really want a photo of you & all of your bridesmaids, in your matching floral robes, all piled up on the bed popping a bottle of champagne, feel free to share that with your photographer!

Please DO NOT send your photographer your unending, scroll-for-hours, wedding boards that encompass every single idea you’ve ever seen & loved. There is nothing more confusing to a photographer than receiving one (or worse, multiple) boards from a bride, that are filled to overflowing with clashing ideas. There are rustic chic photos pinned, princess ball gowns, cathedral length veils, babies breath bouquets, mermaid dresses, teal accents, blank & pink color themes, elegant floral landscapes, and DIY centerpieces. It’s all so confusing! Sure, these photos are all beautiful, but they tell your photographer absolutely nothing about what you’ve actually planned for your wedding day.

The secret behind most of the picture-perfect Pinterest photos you are pinning:
They’re not real.

Your wedding day is going to be real & raw. Emotions will overflow from unexpected places & people. The most beautiful moments will not be posed or planned in any way, shape, or form. The best wedding photographers know this about the wedding day & are prepared to capture everything as it unfolds – to tell a beautiful story about a beautiful day.

Ready for a truth bomb?
Most of the wedding images you find on Pinterest are not from real weddings.

Just like when you watch House Hunters – they’re not actually picking a house right then & there (spoiler alert: they’ve already picked the house, have moved forward with the buying process on it, and sometimes even own it before the show is filmed). And just like on Fixer Upper – all that gorgeous furniture the couple walks in to see, are simply staging pieces that will all be carted back out once the cameras stop rolling. Most of the Pinterest wedding photos are from styled shoots. What are styled shoots? A styled shoot is when a team of wedding vendors comes together to showcase the very best of their best work – in the best possible light, the best possible weather scenario, and the best most beautiful models. So, the stationary is the caligrapher’s best works. The florals are the very best the florist has to offer. The decor is the very best & most lavish the rental company has. The models are stunning (and just that: models). And the photographer is given pretty much unlimited & relaxed time to capture these pieces in the best lighting and scenarios.

It’s a win-win for everyone involved. The vendors get beautiful images of their work in order to showcase it and bring in more work. And the photographer gets beautiful images of luxury wedding decor to display and bring in more work. Styled shoots aren’t bad. In fact, they are a ton of fun & a huge help to wedding vendors.

However, many of the gorgeous images you find on Pinterest are from styled shoots. They’re the best of the best (and not from real wedding days). That’s fine! But I want you to be aware of that fact & not be disappointed on your wedding day, when it doesn’t look like your Pinterest board.

So, should you send your wedding photographer your Pinterest board?

I would say “Yes”, but under several circumstances:
1. That you limit the number of images you send, please don’t send an overwhelming amount!
2. That you simply share the photos as inspiration, not as a requirement to be taken.
3. Along those same lines, please do not set your heart on copying any specific photo.

The bottom line is this: do you trust your wedding photographer? I hope so! If you do, give them the creative freedom to not only capture your day authentically & naturally but to possibly create that new viral Pinterest image that everyone else will pin & want to copy – something I promise will not happen if you burden your photographer with a long list of Pinterest re-creations.