Finding Wedding Ideas on Social Media: Instagram, Tik Tok, and Pinterest

One thing about the wedding industry is that trends and popular styles change quickly and frequently. From our experience, it's always a constant collaboration of what has been happening in home décor, personality, and custom touches. It is those last two that make it special - but the big question is where do you even start with finding inspiration?

Wedding Planning and Hashtags

Hashtags - Using hashtags for the wedding day has been a helpful tool for years now. In the show, we chat about the pros and cons and how often they are actually used. Key takeaway?
If you want to do hashtags, make sure your guests see the value - most people don't like to spam their own Instagram feeds with 50 photos a day so it makes it hard to get a good collection wihle using your hashtag. UNLESS - you do something really cool as Jenna talked about from her own wedding where guests could see their posts in live time during the event (so cool right?!).
Other great alternatives are out there to guarantee you have some beautiful photos from your guests like a shared drive, RFID buttons, live stream of people posting pictures.

Instagram: Wedding Inspiration and Trends ​

Let's be honest, there are always two sides to everything, right? With wedding planning, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and lost. So before you get lost scrolling for hours seeing the same thing, or nothing close to what you want to see here are a few tips for you.

Pros: Instagram trends tend to be more up-to-date, relevant, and unique. You're able to search by keywords, and specific areas or follow your favorite professionals to inspiration. You can also follow hashtags so that they will start to show up on your feed and over time change your discovery feed to more "on style". Another big plus is something we mentioned in the last episode - following local event design and rental companies so you not only get inspired but you have a local place who carries it already.

Cons: Instagram is not a chronological platform (right now - they keep trying), 8-9 hour life, things tend to get buried and you feel as if you’re scrolling for ever if you don’t catch it as soon as it’s posted. That makes the whole stumbling upon awesome inspiration a little more difficult and means you need to take the step listed in the pros to find all the great ideas.

Tik-Tok: Welcome to the Wedding “Side”

​The newest platform and full of a fun twist Tik Tok has way more than meets the eye. You’ll quickly see videos popping up saying “welcome to the ___ side of Tik Tok”. All this means is that the AI behind the platform has started to recognize you tend to look for that type of content. The whole goal right now is to get you on the “wedding planning” or “wedding inspiration” side of Tik Tok.

Pros: TikTok is bringing unfiltered, authentic personalities and inspirations to your phone feed and we love it! Couples can both show and tell you exactly what they did, where they found it and what not to do all in under 7 seconds. Professionals are giving you inspiration from set-ups and decor while also providing a sneak peek to behind the scenes. Clearly, from our podcast name we are big fans of that already! Just like instagram it’s easy to save ideas to different areas to keep organized.

Cons: While they still make updates and changes the platform can be really tricky to navigate and find content. Hashtags are less likely to help you find inspiration and sounds are so random with videos that you can’t always count on it being a helpful tool either. Most small businesses are just getting on the platform so it is more difficult to find and follow that type of profile.

Pinterest: Boards and More

Pros: Almost everyone has a Pinterest board - especially when it comes to wedding details. That means you have countless options to search through with lots of twists and unique spins. All it takes is simply popping in those right words and your screen is full of beautiful images! One thing we talked about in the episode is a under utilized way to use this to your advantage. Typically when you find an image you like you pin it to your wedding board and scroll down to see similar options. We have two quick tips for you though next time you find something you love.

• Click the image to open the website it came from where they may have much more than the one image, list out where they bought items and which vendors or professionals they used.
• Click on the profile that posted the pin - odds are they have an entire board dedicated to either the style or items. If you love it then follow the whole board. Who knows? Maybe they’ll add to it and save you lots of work. Or you can follow the profile itself and really get all the good information.

Cons: They say people’s strengths are also their biggest weaknesses and we guess the same is true for this. There is so much on there, that you run the risk of finding things that are 10 years old and outdated. Skip this by typing in more specific key words. For example if you are looking for a retro twist to light and airy try “disco balls and candles” or “reception decor white, ivory and retro”. Simply typing “candles wedding” will bring up tons of results - and most likely those images that have been around and saved a bunch of times rather than a new idea.

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Planning Tools:

Photos by Jenni Johnson Photography
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Podcast Episode: LISTEN HERE

​Read more tips on our collaboration over at Behind the Party Podcast


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