Would my wedding have been different post-Pinterest?

Recently on social media I've been following a few people that have just got married, and it made me think about how different things were when I got married not that long ago in 2007. Although I'd been using the Internet for a decade, social media was barely off the ground. In fact our wedding was the reason that I signed up to Facebook, in order to view wedding photos that I had been tagged in. People did take photos and even videos on the day, but only a few were ever shared publicly.

These days I wonder whether there is a lot more pressure to make sure that you have a photogenic wedding that will look good in the inevitable photos. You know that your guests are going to be sharing photos, and that many more people are going to see the details of your wedding than those that were actually there. I know that I would have made a better effort with the table settings if I'd thought that they might end up on Instagram. As it was, I just used the ones provided by the venue as their purpose was purely functional, and I think that the room did look lovely!

There is so much more inspiration available now when it comes to planning a wedding. All I had was a stack of magazines that I picked up on Freecycle, and occasional visits to a mainly text based wedding forum. I saw very little visual inspiration. 

I think that if Pinterest had been around when I was wedding planning then things would have been very different. I'm quite a crafty person, and we saved money by making our own stationery - invitations, order of the day and thank you cards. But I didn't really know where to start - if I'd had a board of ideas to draw from I could have come up with something a lot more unique and spectacular!

I've also seen ideas on Pinterest that weren't even thought of when we were planning a wedding. Obviously times and fashions change (to my dismay I've not seen a chocolate fountain since my own wedding) but there are all sorts of amazing ideas that have gained in popularity since then and I'm sure that Pinterest has played a party - photo booths, personalised signs, illuminated letters, cakes made from cheeses, Polaroid guest books, Instagram selfie frames for guests, sweet buffets...

Even though I found planning our wedding very stressful and overwhelming, sometimes I do wish that I could have another go at it with a few new Pinterest inspired ideas!