This year’s hottest wedding trend: fighting back against “Pinterest-perfection”
Once a week or so, I’ll get an interview request from a journalist — and inevitably one of the questions they want to ask is “What are your trend predictions for next year?” I usually hedge these questions with a positive spin like, “Hopefully, a reduction in fear-based marketing” or “Less body-shaming directed at brides under the guise of beauty,” but this year I have a bigger prediction:
That couples are going to start pushing back against the idea of “Pinterest-perfect” weddings.
I made my Save The Dates with Vine: check out my 6-second STD
We wanted to let everyone know about our partnership ceremony date, but couldn’t be bothered with the time and expense to send paper Save the Dates. So we have made a Vine and Facebooked and emailed it to everyone. Here’s the result…
Pics or it didn’t happen: Celebration versus validation
Between making sure my makeup is “photo-worthy” to chronicling the planning progress (Offbeat Bride, you are my enabler!), the era of instant documentation and weddings is a match made in heaven. Who doesn’t want an excuse to show off pictures of their wedding day? Now you have a reason to take photos of the knitting project you’ve been toiling over for months. Who doesn’t love to get feedback from others fawning over your dress, décor, music, etc? But when does celebrating a day become validating an event?
“Not an effort to be unique, but an effort to be us”
The New York Times recently ran an article called Your Hand in Marriage, and Offbeat Bride got a nod for our DIY posts. That’s cool, but what really caught my eye was this quote from a bride named Lauren Ireland:
“I felt like there’s such a movement to homogeneous wedding styles with Pinterest and Etsy, which are wonderful tools but do seem to make things seem very similar,” she said.
Her wedding, she added, represented “not an effort to be unique, but an effort to be us.”
3 ways to chase down RSVPs from lazy guests
I’m five weeks out from my wedding, and I’m still missing about 30% of my RSVPs. We won’t get into why it’s so hard for people to send in a pre-addressed stamped card, send an email, type out a text, or make a phone call, but we all know it is. Lucky for you, I’ve learned a couple of things in the process of thinking about how to chase people down…
Put your wedding’s hashtag on the back of your place cards
You know what’s awesome? Your friends taking awesome photos of your wedding, and sharing their fun moments online, where you can see ’em. You know what’s not awesome? Missing those photos and tweets because you were distracted in the days surrounding your event.