To keep with the topic of Pinterest (one of my favorite wedding planning tools), let’s transition to a specific content category: wedding dresses.

I found my wedding dress on Pinterest. No joke!

I (like many of you) dreamed about my wedding dress well before he asked the big question. For years, I watched the tv show “Say Yes to the Dress” and I even cut out a few of my favorite dresses from bridal magazines. But what I ended up walking down the aisle in, ended up being completely different than my initial vision (in the best way possible.)

I spent hours looking at dresses online. I started with many of the big retailer websites so I could see what was available, but then I looked to Pinterest for more inspiration. This helped me get a better idea of budget, styles available, and material choices, but it also showed me how much was available. It can be quite daunting, but I was able to take a step back and just look at my research as inspiration. (Try not to get SO set on a specific dress or style because you never know how they will look!)

I started a wedding board specific to wedding dresses and started pinning away. I invited my sister/Maid of Honor so she could comment on the dresses. (One of her most hysterical comments was “Say no to peplum!” but that’s a story for another day.)

By the end of my pinning, I had almost 40 dresses and bridal veil styles selected. What I didn’t realize at the time was that it would be an invaluable tool when I actually went wedding dress shopping. My dad and I went on Valentine’s Day together to look for my dream dress at David’s Bridal. I walked in with my iPad and when the consultant asked what I had in mind, I pulled up my Pinterest board. Here was why this was SO helpful:

1. It’s HARD to describe exactly what you envision, especially if you don’t know all of the technical dress terms of cut and style. This visual story telling will help set up the consultant for success and will decrease chances for miscommunication.
2. It’s likely that you will fall in love with multiple styles (at least in theory) and it’s helpful for the consultant to see your variety in taste and how far you’re willing to push your own bounderies.
3. Don’t forget to pin some dresses from the actual store’s website, so it’s easier to find exact styles. If you can’t find the store options on Pinterest, save the images from their website and pin them yourself.
4. It’s important to let the consultant know that you are open, and not too set on anything you have pinned. The last thing you want them to feel like is that you’ve pinned (get it?) them into a corner with no room to exhaust their own expertise.
5. Don’t question the consultant too much or act like you know it all. I recommend asking them to pull a “wild card” for you, because you never know!

What was interesting was that the dress I selected was LITERALLY the last dress that I pinned. It was a designer gown (a little over my budget, of course) that I randomly found through some random navigation online (you know how you go, I don’t know how I ended up on this person’s board, but I like it.)

Oh, and did I mention that it was blush colored? I had never even considered color before then, but this guided my discussion with the consultant so I was able to lead with “I’m open to color.” I ended up selecting that exact blush dress, and married the man of my dreams in it. Thanks Pinterest, David’s Bridal, and Vera Wang! Happy pinning and happy dress shopping…I hope you now see how the two can go hand in hand!

With love,

Girl with a diamond ring

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