We live in a Pinterest-driven world these days, don’t you think? Just about every bride Pins her favorite wedding ideas; every woman with a pulse Pins outfit ideas; every mom Pins crafts for her children, recipes for her family, decor ideas for her home. Or at least it can feel that way sometimes. I’ve even got “Pin It” buttons on every photo on this blog.

I’ve joked to some of my Pinterest-loving brides that I just missed out on the greatest wedding planning tool ever invented, because Pinterest came along a few months after I got married. Well, I was wrong; Pinterest was invented in December 2009, literally the month after I got married. So I didn’t have any idea boards or mood boards or inspiration boards. Just a folder on my computer’s desktop with a slew of my favorite bridesmaid dresses and a half-dozen right-click-saved pictures from the web. It’s true — I missed out. But at the same time, I’m okay with that. I might not have had a handy tool for planning my wedding, but I did plan my wedding (or the majority of it, anyway) around what matters most to me.

A quick confession: I’m a little intimidated by Pinterest. There are so many pictures and so many boards, and I don’t have time to maintain busy boards of my own, much less keep up with other Pinners’ boards. But that is what Pinterest can make us all feel like we have to do. Keep up. In our cooking and our personal styling and our home decor. And in wedding planning. So keep this one bit of advice in mind as you’re planning.

You are planning your wedding for yourself and your loved ones. Not for other Pinners. Not for Facebook. Not for wedding blogs. You’re planning it to celebrate your love. Not to hold your breath to see if the photos of your decor get shared around the web hundreds of times. You’re planning it to kick off the start of your new life. Not to set a record for the number of likes you receive on Facebook.

But it can feel that way sometimes. Pin just one more DIY project for the wedding. Bookmark just one more wedding blog. And all the while, you’re feeding perhaps-unacknowledged fears that your wedding won’t measure up — to your friend’s last month, or to the latest wedding the popped up in your news feed.

I’m telling you today that it doesn’t matter. In twenty years, you won’t care. Your kids are highly unlikely to be impressed by how many Pinterest projects you incorporated into your wedding day. They’re just going to want to know what made the day special to your family. Was it the tear-soaked vows you recited to each other? Was it the surprise choreography of your first dance? Was it the sweet handwritten notes you had tucked into every guest’s place setting?

Pinterest projects are great, don’t get me wrong. But they aren’t the heart and soul of your wedding. You are — your family is — your love. So don’t let planning a Pin-worthy wedding sidetrack you from soaking in what really matters most to you. Plan ways to celebrate your love rather than simply ways to dress your wedding day. Down the road, you’ll thank yourself for the wonderfully fond memories.

~ Laura