Hands up all those engaged couples planning a wedding who haven’t yet ventured into the Pinterest world, whether it be planning a woodland wedding venue or luxury stately home affair?
Ummm, I’d take a guess that there aren’t too many of us nowdays who don’t have Pinterest boards for all sorts of stuff from home decor, fashion, cooking.... And of course... a wedding board! That includes us at Upthorpe Wood I hasten to add. We have a variety of different boards from Real Weddings boards to flowers, catering and inspiration boards... We can’t get enough of a truly great idea/photo!
So why friend or foe? Let’s start with the plus side. A wedding is going to be one of the biggest days of your life. There will be so much planning involved, it’s going to take over your life for the next year or so. But where do you begin with the planning? We all have a vague idea of how we’d like our big day to go, possibly the style, so where do we start?
For most of us, heading on over to Pinterest is up there, near The top of the wedding planning list. We need to be inspired into how our Wedding Day could look. We want to see suggestions and beautiful photos. We need to see amazing ideas and original things to include in our big day. It gives us inspiration as to bridesmaids colours, provokes thought regarding wedding themes, things we hadn’t previously thought about. It is, in my opinion, the quickest easiest way to obtain the maximum amount of wedding gorgeousness without even leaving home!
We all need to be wedding inspired and this is the perfect platform.
Take these... a quick selection of some of my faves, possible Upthorpe Wood inspiration. All totally possible at the wood... Can you feel a But coming?
Here’s where the Foe kicks in...
Finding beautiful photos is great, we fall in love with them and form a picture in our heads of exactly how we want our venue to look.
However, we’ve yet to meet a couple who don’t have some sort of budget, whether that be big or small, almost everyone is working to some sort of monetary limitations.
Soo many of the photos on Pinterest have been set and styled purely for that one shot. It hasn’t shown you the many professional suppliers who have taken part in creating such a scene. It hasn’t shown you the hours involved in the set up, possibly a full day!! It may have taken hours to get that perfect shot, where it all comes together.
We’ve been privileged to be part of many styled shoots in the woodland but it’s normally a full day of hard work and tons of suppliers, a great stylist and van loads of props involved.
To recreate many of these photos would totally blow budgets out of the water.
At Upthorpe we always advise couples to pick a couple of areas, maybe the Cartlodge, Barn and Ceremony Glade and concentrate on decorating. It would be impossible to decorate our entire 2 acre venue.
Choose spaces where guests will be spending lots of time and choose your inspiration carefully. Ask yourself,
Is it really possible to achieve the look? Doesn’t it fit in budget?
Is it necessary?
Next on the downside is originality. These photos are seen by thousand of couples, all busy Pinteresting. My advise would be to use Pinterest purely for inspiration.
BUT....
Be Original!!!
Pin a photo and think about your own style... roll with it.
Put your own swing on it.
Make these photos personal to you.
Why copy when you can adapt to make it your own?
If you don’t follow trends then your photos won’t look dated within a few years.
Friend or Foe.... we sit on the fence with this one, use for inspiration and it’s the best thing ever. Be both creative AND realistic, and it’s your best friend!
So... over to you. What do you think? Friend or Foe? Let us know.
If styling really isn’t your cup of tea there’s always the option of hiring in a stylist who can transform your vision, no fuss!
Ask us for our recommendations.
hello@upthorpewood.co.uk