Wedding Planning Decisions, This vs That with Kelly McWilliams

Wedding planning and social media: How to use TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest to plan your dream day

• Kelly A McWilliams • Season 5 • Episode 4

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Ever felt like planning a wedding is a Herculean task with social media throwing inspiration from every corner? Well, worry no more because we've got Julie Smith, an authority on social media and SEO, walking you through the maze of ideas flooding platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest. Julie shares why having a plan is imperative and how to avoid being overwhelmed by chaotic inspiration.

We also unravel the potency of Pinterest in wedding planning, even if you're just a sporadic user. Julie decodes how this platform can aid in picturing your dream wedding and communicating your vision to vendors.  We're sharing tips for how to better collaborate with your vendor team and staying on track. 

Finally, we spotlight the significance of reading wedding website articles (or watching YouTube videos) and the wealth of knowledge they hold. 

Your engagement and wedding planning can be a journey full of joy and less stress! 

Follow Julie on Instagram: 
https://www.instagram.com/gartergirl

Website:
https://thegartergirl.com

Places to go - People to see:

Kelly's Site: http://www.kellymcwilliams.com
Kelly's Blog: https://www.kellymcwilliams.com/blog
Instagram: @kellyamcwilliams


About Kelly:
Kelly knows how incredible a well planned wedding can be. Every moment counts and every decision plays a part. Wedding planning should be fun and as easy to do as possible. Besides planning weddings, Kelly travels the globe as an industry speaker. Kelly is a Martha Stewart Top Wedding Planner & this podcast won Brides magazine and WeddingWire's best podcast.

Need a little help planning your wedding?

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to this Versus that making wedding decisions with Kelly McWilliams. This podcast is for you if you're making a wedding decision and want to know what to consider before saying I do to all the things that will make your wedding experience a great one. I'm your host, kelly McWilliams, and I'm so glad to be a part of your wedding planning journey. In each episode, you can count on me and my expert wedding co-hosts to give you everything it takes to make the best decisions for the wedding that you're dreaming of. Remember how I said that this season we were going to have a bunch of episodes where there were things I never would have thought of. This is another one of them, because I have Julie Smith on with me, who is a guru of social media and SEO, and she's a colleague of mine in the sense that she's in the wedding industry and I didn't really think of. And she says Cal couples need to know how to plan and organize with social media. I was like they do. She goes, think about it. They can do the chaotic way or they can do it the organized way. I was like what are you talking about, julie? She's like well, think about it. What happens when you go to a cake meeting and they want your client wants to show them the cake artist pictures. What do they do? Oh, I'm like, yeah, you're right, they go through their phone and they can't remember if they saw pictures on Instagram or Pinterest or if they took a picture or something or whatever. Tiktok, and it's not organized. They're looking for like 10 minutes down at their phone instead of being like they're looking in the room or whatever. I'm getting ahead of myself. But in this episode, we're going to talk about the ways that you can be kind of a little bit more chaotic in your wedding planning when it comes to online inspiration and things like that and planning versus doing it in a well, a way that's not going to leave you overwhelmed, that is organized so that when you go to meet with your vendors or your family about things, you have things set in one place. That's going to make things so much easier for you, not only from the beginning, but at the end stages, because we're going to go through all of the things and it's only like a 40 minute episode. 30 to 40 minutes, I can't even recall. I'm so glad that Julie brought this up, just not something that thought we would ever have to talk about and I'm so glad that we did now. So welcome back, julie Smith.

Speaker 1:

She's also oh, I didn't really tell you about her she owns the garter girl. She does heirloom garters which, yes, I understand people are like really Kelly people. So you garter garters, yes, they do, and it's not so much that they do them for like the toss at the end of the wedding or whatever. That's gone by the wayside quite a bit. But a lot of people are having them made like out of their mom's dresses or whatever, and they still will wear it just to cherish it and it could be in like your flat lay pictures and things like that.

Speaker 1:

But she also has a bunch of other products for, like wedding day related, like headbands and scrunchies and like all kinds of little things that you could use on your wedding day. You can check her out at the garter girl dot com for all of those things. But today she's talking to us specifically about how to be more organized in your inspiration and your vision when it comes to social media, like with TikTok and Instagram, and we talk about wedding websites and all of these things. Okay, let's go find Julie, julie, julie, julie, julie, kelly, kelly.

Speaker 2:

Kelly.

Speaker 1:

Kelly, we're going to talk about something I don't think I ever thought about talking about before, like wedding planning through social media or online or what not. Like it's never really hard to me. It's happening though. Well, yeah, you're right, like, even like for me, wedding planner wise, I use it to plan weddings. Like I go look for things and see what's trending and all of that stuff and try to like not follow trends.

Speaker 2:

But how do you say, how are you saving and storing all that Well, screenshots, what are you doing?

Speaker 1:

That's the big question. That's the big question and I was hoping that's kind of where you were going with this, because I have my ways of doing things. So I'm excited that we're both going to talk about, like that's kind of where we were headed. But I hope that you'll also, because you know so much in particular, about Pinterest and Instagram and other things, that you'll also talk about some of those things that even I don't know about, because you know that I'm not fully aware of all things.

Speaker 2:

I mean, from a wedding planner perspective, I am but for but what you are aware of is the importance of keeping things organized and in one spot, and I think that's kind of the message here, and if we could just you know, spoiler alert jump right to the end. It's about keeping everything organized in one spot, and I think when you are getting information, inspiration, advice from 462 different channels, it can be really overwhelming. Yeah, and I'm on who's never, you know, plan a wedding before. It's like what do you do? So? Like, imagine you're one of your amazing clients and they're looking at you with like googly eyes, like what am I doing?

Speaker 1:

Every time I open up, you know, tiktok, to have some fun, I'm getting hit with this, that and the other and, like you know A lot, a lot, and, from my perspective, just when I'm with my clients, immediately, like every time, something comes up, like if we're in a meeting with like potential floors or a cake baker, and they're like, oh, I found this picture, and then I and exactly what you said. They're like I don't remember if it was Instagram or Pinterest, or maybe it was at a wedding I went to two weeks ago and they're looking all over their phone for this one thing where, back when you and I got married, we rolled up with magazines that we had like torn pages out of and like glued onto some paper. Remember, remember.

Speaker 2:

Hello yeah.

Speaker 1:

I don't even know if they make glue anymore. Do people use paper Like anyway?

Speaker 2:

And the problem is right now is like, let's say, you do go to Instagram and you're like it was totally from Instagram and you're going and you're scrolling and you're looking for it. While you're looking for what you thought you had, you're now finding new and more stuff. Oh yeah, overload, overwhelming, it's overload, it's too much. And I'm sure your listeners are probably going like they're like nodding along, like uh-huh, uh-huh, yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh, yeah. And this is how you get a Pinterest board, and you know it too, from your perspective, is like you get the Pinterest board and it's all over the map, yeah, and there's a thousand pictures on it, and it's a little boho, it's a little rock and roll, it's a little nautical, it's a little bit of everything, because it can be all so overwhelming, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And also, everyone starts in one place and evolves through their aesthetics and their design plans and what they think they want, especially when people get engaged, or before they get engaged, they think they know what they want based on what they've already experienced or what is shown to them.

Speaker 1:

Like this is what I'm seeing on Instagram right now. This is what I when I open Pinterest. So this must be what you do. You know and we've talked about this kind of thing before when we did our last podcast episode Like you don't have to do really anything, but like if that's what you're being shown, and then, as you're going through the process of planning, you're realizing, oh, I don't like boho really Really, I just like neutral colors but more of a romantic feel. Okay. So then, all of a sudden, your images are being changed and you gotta call those out and take out am I right? The ones that no longer exist. Like that's not me anymore. It's been two months.

Speaker 2:

Right, it never was me. It's just that I was getting fed this diet of boho. Let's use that for an example. And I think a lot of couples and you would know this, because your intimate experience with them is like the number one thing they come, they all kind of come in and say is like I don't want anything trendy, I don't want anything that I'm gonna hate in three months, six years, you know, I don't want anything that I'm gonna be embarrassed about with my kids when we're looking at this in the future. Right, they want these, you know. Yes, they want them to be personalized, but they would like their wedding to be timeless Timeless there we go, and I think, when you're looking at social media in particular, that's about the most untimeless thing.

Speaker 2:

It's very, very trendy, isn't that the truth? Because what it's showing you is what is trending. Therefore, it is trendy, and we see this a lot with, like you mentioned, the flowers and the cakes, and we see it a lot with photography styles. Right, like you know, a couple of years ago it was like the light and the air and everything had to be outdoor in a vineyard, and now we're seeing, like you know, maybe like this kind of transition back to like a more documentary style where it's like okay to do black and white and it's okay to be inside.

Speaker 1:

Or okay, for the colors to be true, to color Like that's there we go. I see it coming back, which I'm embracing.

Speaker 2:

We're not we're moving, yeah, away from those heavy filters and with flowers. Right, we're moving away from this like ultra, ultra lush, like very thick, you know, blush, burgundy, greens, lots of greenery. And to like a little more minimal right.

Speaker 2:

And there's a lot of reasons for why this is or isn't happening, and that's certainly not what we're gonna talk about today. But I think sometimes, when you're seeing what you're seeing on social media, right, whether it's TikTok, instagram, pinterest, whatever you are seeing stuff that's trending, and if your goal is for something timeless, you're gonna just have to like back the truck up and start from the beginning, because you are being influenced, right. You're being swayed, and it isn't based on anything that you and your partner like or that you're interested in. It's based on what other people like and what other people are interested in, and that is not a recipe for anything timeless.

Speaker 1:

No.

Speaker 2:

Or personal, to you so many good points.

Speaker 1:

So many good points. Yeah, we just went deep there. Yeah, I kind of like that we did.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I mean, I think you know, if we're talking like practicality, what do we do here? And I think the biggest tip is like you gotta just like, especially when you're first starting out, you gotta just stop and then you can't be influenced. You have to sit down with your partner and whatever vendors you've chosen at that point and be like what are our priorities? What do we want? How do we see this playing out? Not how did how is this playing out on Instagram right now? How is this playing out on? You know, the last couple of events that I went to? It's like how do we want this to go? And not necessarily from a design aesthetic, that's experience Just more from like yeah.

Speaker 2:

From you, and I think you start with the experience first, that's before you start with the design you know that's me all day long.

Speaker 1:

I make pretty weddings, but it's about for us. The people who hire us want to have the best time planning their wedding and they want everyone who comes to their wedding to have the best time and they want to feel like they had the best time, like, which is why so many of my clients would be like the band Can we just have them with a good band, you know, so we'll start with that versus.

Speaker 1:

you know there's some people that they're going to because the aesthetic is top of the list for them, which I totally understand. For us, though, our clients just want to plan a celebration and let everything else not fall by the wayside, but just elevate that part of it, like that's the accent to everything else. Julie, let's start by talking about how we can use social media to plan weddings organized versus not organized, which I think there's a few different ways. I would love to hear how you, what you would present to people as options to be organized. I think the I think we already said and highlighted what an organized wedding looks like. When you're using social media, it's just saving things everywhere and not collecting in specific ways, right?

Speaker 2:

It's really over. It can be a lot if we're talking straight practicality. I mean, I love this about Pinterest in particular, because they do have the board function and you can make them secret. It's right if you don't have everyone to know what you're doing and you can just save, save, save, save, save. Right, inspiration's free, so you can save as much as you want, and I do love that about Pinterest, but I'm not delusional, right? You're also on Instagram, you're on TikTok and you're finding ideas and inspiration everywhere else, so I would love to see everything go onto a Pinterest board, just because it is so organized, but that's not always possible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and not everyone uses Pinterest.

Speaker 2:

And I think, yeah, Right exactly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean I use it for the weirdest things. Sometimes Google images just doesn't have the chair that I need to find, and Pinterest is gonna have that chair that I need to find because my rental company doesn't have a clean shot of it.

Speaker 2:

So that's how I'm using it. Or you Google it and it comes up a picture from Pinterest.

Speaker 1:

Yes, oh, yeah, very often.

Speaker 2:

So true, so true.

Speaker 1:

And I just need to be able to remove the background so I can put it into my design deck for that client. But so I don't use it so much for inspiration, but our listeners, they're using it for inspiration Absolutely. Can you talk for just a moment or two meaning a minute to three minutes maybe, or whatever about how people very easily can use Pinterest? Many people, I don't even, because I'm not. I don't cook, so I don't go find it, use it for recipes and I don't shop that way, so I'm a non-Pinterest user.

Speaker 2:

Julie is what it comes out to.

Speaker 1:

So for anyone else who's listening, who is a non-Pinterest user, can you explain what it's for and how it can be used for wedding planning?

Speaker 2:

Yes, pinterest is awesome, so the reason why it started, why you're finding stuff on Google is because it was started by people who used to work at Google, right, and so they work really, really well together.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I did not know that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so if we think about searching on Google right, it's, when you type in anything, what comes back is words, right, it's text. Yeah, when you type in anything in Pinterest, what comes back is photos. Everything's very it's a visual search engine. So it's the same concept. It's just what you get back in your search results is visual photographs, videos, whatever, and so it makes it a lot easier to find what you're looking for if you're a visual person. So it helps with wedding planning, because it is everything is so visual, right, we wanna see the certain shade of blue, we wanna see what the cake's gonna look like, we wanna understand what a certain chair is gonna look like from all the angles, and on and on and on. So it makes it really helpful.

Speaker 2:

Now, pinterest also. So when you find something everything you can save things, and in order to save something, you have to put it on a board, and so your board can be wedding planning, right, and all of your ideas go on there. You can have boards for just, you know, your flowers, or boards for just your outfit, or you can have boards for just your menu, or things like that, so you can have as many boards as you want, or you can just kind of have one board and the main difference, I would think, between Pinterest and a lot of others is you can make them secret. So let's say you wanted to have a board for your outfit, but you didn't want everyone in the world to be able to see it because you don't want people to see your outfit before the wedding day. You can go ahead and make that secret. Yeah, so I like the Pinterest option because then you can send that to your wedding planner, for example, and say here's what.

Speaker 2:

I'm thinking in terms of the design, and your wedding planner can go oh my God, window into your soul. Yes, you're all over the place. Let's have a conversation about being overwhelmed, right? And so it's like, thank you so much for sharing. It's kind of like, oh my God, we see what's going on in their brain, and so I do love it from that perspective.

Speaker 1:

I do too.

Speaker 2:

And it also helps you narrow down. You can quickly and easily kind of narrow down and really dial in and hone in and make a mood board. The other thing that I love about a Pinterest board is that and you would know this more than me, kelly but when you are having an event, a wedding, how many vendors? It's like 40, 45, 50 different vendors, and in the past, when we were married, we had to be like hey, did you see that thing? That I, ooh, I'm not sure it was so hard to communicate your vision, the end goal, and it was so hard for vendors to meet the client's expectations, because you didn't always have a clear picture, right, what's boho chic to you means something different, boho chic to me. And so when you have a Pinterest board, you can send that to your 45 plus different vendors and they are like oh, I get it, expectation met, I see it, I know exactly the shade of cornflower boo they're going for. And, like we, everyone's on the same page, and it makes it really really easy as a vendor to meet your expectations as the client, right, and so for that part, I really like.

Speaker 2:

But to bring it all home, that's not always possible, right, because A, like you said, not everyone's on Pinterest. We're on Instagram, we're on TikTok, we're everywhere else and, like the you know phone gods, they know when we're doing things right and so, like you might not be using Instagram or TikTok to plan your wedding, but all of a sudden you open it up and there you get these beautiful floral arrangements or you get you know different cake designs in your feet and it's kind of hard and maybe you want to save these things. So, if you're not on Pinterest and you're not using, the best thing I can tell you to do is make a folder on your phone and drop everything in that folder. So, yes, instagram has the save function and yes, I think TikTok has saving. I'm not sure, but like, just don't even go there, screenshot it and drop it all into a folder. You see something at an event, take a picture of it, screenshot it, put it in a folder.

Speaker 1:

When you say folder, you mean like an album in the photo. There it is. That's what I mean an album.

Speaker 2:

Just make an album, and the reason why I like that is that you can share that album, just like you can share a Pinterest board with anybody, exactly, and you can even have it. So let's say you have a wedding planner and you can share that, and then they'll get updates when you add stuff to it.

Speaker 1:

Which I love Right, like when our clients like there's I have a few clients that are, you know they can tell like they're on their lunch break, because all of a sudden I will see on my phone there's a little red dot and it will say you know, catherine updated her folder and so I can go in there and see that she added like maybe two invitation suites that she found on Instagram and there's screenshots. Just like you said, just screen it, screenshot it.

Speaker 1:

But what's, wonderful about it that I have one thing that I love about using the photo stream. Well, if you have an iPhone, that's what they're called, but the sharing photo album on the phone is that, and I don't know if this is the same for what's the other kind of phone called.

Speaker 2:

Android.

Speaker 1:

But on iPhones, at the bottom you can add comments, you can give a thumbs up. So if, let's say, catherine puts on you know three different bouquets, I can go to the comment and say, hey, these are all really pretty. What is it that you like about this one? And is it on this that you like the size or the shape? Or is it that you like the blue to white ratio, kind of?

Speaker 1:

thing, so, and then you can have that little running dialogue and then, when you Add the florist to the conversation, all of that is there like don't look at the colors.

Speaker 1:

Oh, who was it? Who I was just with this weekend when I came to DC and Sarah, no, that was the way my client, ashley. So we had design meetings up there, but she had just sent me a couple days earlier Images from her bridal shower and she really loved the flowers, but the colors weren't what we're using at her wedding, but she loved those blooms. So I was able to share that with her florist and say, hey, ashley really likes these flowers, can use some of these bloom types in her flower color, because if I just put those pictures in that photo treatment hadn't said that she'd be like this is not creams and whites, this is, yeah, like all the colors.

Speaker 1:

now what we discussed, yeah yeah, so it's exactly it's about you know it. It allows that to happen, so I think it's a great. Yeah, I think it's a great place.

Speaker 2:

Love a shared folder yeah and listen if you are using Instagram or Pinterest, and they do have the comment feature, back and forth. But if that's not working for you and for your vendors, screenshot what you're seeing on Pinterest, drop it into your share folder. I think you that's that's. That's a okay too. I love it. I love a shared album, the um. I know we're kind of running towards the end of time here, but two points I wanted to make is that when you do, you just brought up a really great point. It's like when you do find something, decide what it is that you like about something. Yeah, right, is it? Do you like the color? Do you like that like little shade of blue in the background? And because everybody sees a photo differently, right, you might be seeing it for one reason and someone's like no, no, all I like is that shade of yellow in the back.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's it like there's a wedding cake and has candles it next to it and we think it's about the cake because it's in the sun and they're like no, I like that, there's color, color taper candles. Yeah, I never really get that. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So and you can leave comments to yourself like hey, love just the candles in the corner, or whatever and so and I think that that that can be, can be really great make sure you're asking when you're saving stuff, what is it that I like about this?

Speaker 2:

And do that fairly short order, because it's gonna start getting really overwhelming really quick. Yeah, and then once you, once you have kind of honed in on your, your, your mission or your vision or whatever it is, you got to start deleting like the crap, because you're gonna be able to to take you, and when you work with a wedding planner, they're gonna be able to do this for you. Right, they're gonna create that mood board so that when you do Communicate that final vision with those 40 plus vendors, it's all cohesive and it's not, like, you know, kind of all over the place. Yeah, it really is important that once you get towards the end, especially in those final months and weeks, that you really do have one Vision kind of cleaned up, tidy, narrowed down, and so that is really important, important to do. And then this is like my final piece of advice is that and this is really hard to do, but once you guys all get married, you're gonna know exactly what I'm talking about is once you start signing contracts with vendors.

Speaker 2:

You got to shut the inspiration down, mmm, but because?

Speaker 1:

planes are in place.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, once so far you will second, triple, quadruple, start guessing yourself and you'll drive yourself crazy, especially with how, in your face, a lot of the social media feeds are, and how you know you could just be talking to a friend about something and all of a sudden you open up your phone and you're hit with it. And so you whether it's like you pause your Pinterest account, you, you know, go inactive on on Social media for a couple weeks, or you just kind of say to yourself Nope, I'm done, I'm not doing. You just really have to make that conscious decision. I have this distinct memory and we were just doing it with magazines. At the time I, I Think I tried on like 50 different wedding dresses, and I live in a major city.

Speaker 2:

I went Everywhere up and down the East Coast trying on the wedding dresses. Right, I was like all the magazines, pulling all the things up and, and once I found my dress, like once I purchased it I remember my mom said okay, and now we're done. All those magazines, it's all going in the trash, we are done, no more. She's like you're gonna make yourself crazy. And she was right. Like Again, like you open up her Instagram feed and you're just like hit with all this stuff and now we just said, oh my gosh, I want to do this, I want to do that, and you're like a little squirrel all over the place, yeah, so what I like to say is like, once you start signing contracts, you have to be, you have to be done.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean there's and I agree to that For some things and not for others. I'll tell you why I think there are some. Okay, when you start wedding planning Before you're engaged, or once you get engaged, you start following all the people, right? Yeah, you're following five different wedding planners for DJ, six bands, 19 floors, the not 72 different photographers, the not wedding wire Sell me pretty carrots and cake, I mean. The list goes on and on. I Think you're right. You need to unplug from those. It's okay to unfollow like yeah.

Speaker 1:

But there's some people that really do put out great content for, like the experience that you have or Actual planning. Like there's this great guy here His name is legend, he's an aficion and he does the best reels like just saying, do this at your ceremony, don't let your photographer do that. Like that's that kind of stuff. Yes, like I feel like that's cool to keep, but let go of anything that there's nothing to be, nothing more to do with. You know, right, unfollow other people, that you know you don't need to look at all those other photographers anymore, but that you booked it happening. It's happening.

Speaker 2:

There's there's no reason you buy your wedding dress and we're done yes, and you know it says like you got to be. It comes down to confidence in your choices and when you're getting bombarded with that stuff it causes you to second, triple, quadruple guess and causes you to be non-confident. And then you're like, wait a minute, I felt so good in that, so happy yeah. Why am I all of a sudden thinking that maybe this one, this grass, is the grass, is not greener? No, anywhere else except for right where you're at, yeah and it, if you take nothing away, it's just that and is the second guessing, will, will, will happen unless you make a conscious effort to kind of shut it down. I agree with you. There's so much good advice. There's a lot of little last-minute tips and things that you can bring in.

Speaker 1:

Um but I just think that comes from just very Small amount of creators, but I think there's so many that in the beginning. You're going to because you're looking for the people you need to let go of all of the that's what floods your feet floods your feet.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I do want to touch into Instagram because I know that's where a Greater portion of my clients are looking for inspiration things and just talk about quickly for those who don't know how to be organized on Instagram. If you're not gonna go screenshot and put everything into a photo share, like we told you to do but we're telling you to do that, just so you know, but that's what you need.

Speaker 2:

That's what you need to be doing. But I think, yeah, instagram can be great for actually researching vendors. Oh it's, you don't have to save every idea.

Speaker 1:

No, no, but if you're going to save, so when you're like scrolling, a function. Yes, they've a group, and that's what I'm saying. They have a great save function.

Speaker 2:

I think the problem with that, though, is you save it and then it's all in there with your recipes and everything else.

Speaker 1:

It's not. Oh no, okay, you ready. Yes, so you go on to your phone and you, let's say you're scrolling and you're letting this Beautiful cake pops up. Oh, it's so pretty, I don't want to forget this cake. Okay, on the right hand side, underneath the picture. Is a little bookmark. You hit the bookmark yeah. You hit the bookmark yeah, and then at the top, bottom left of the photo it's gonna pop up and it's gonna say save to collection and you're gonna tap it when it.

Speaker 1:

And then it's gonna say new collection and you're gonna call it cakes and Then what that does it's kind of like a Pinterest board. There's a big difference between the two and I'm gonna explain what that is, but you can do mini boards For all the fun things that you find on Instagram. One thing I love about Instagram is that it takes you back to the person who made it or found it so like yeah or if it was someone, look like you can click through enough to get to where you can actually purchase the thing.

Speaker 1:

If it's a thing, yeah right, love that. So let's say, let's just say it's a wedding garter, okay.

Speaker 2:

Let's just say it's a wedding garter.

Speaker 1:

So or you have, like, uh, asking for a friend, you could do a board that is a wedding day things, and they come across your feed and they, they find these all the heirloom wedding garters and all the little, because you have all kinds of products that are cool for wedding day. So they could save it in their wedding day. Things Bookmark. But you can have, is I probably? I'm not kidding. You have 50 bookmarks like and they're all separate.

Speaker 1:

So when you open, you're saved in. Saved in the hamburger thing. Go to your save things. Mine pops open and it's a beautiful board that says cakes who case? Reality TV reels like.

Speaker 2:

We know there's no recipes.

Speaker 1:

No, there are recipes. Please, I'll tell you I don't cook, but I do give recipes to my husband to cook because he's a great cook. So I and I follow Martha Stewart and you know I'm like oh, that looks so good.

Speaker 2:

So I'll save it there.

Speaker 1:

So, or like I have a food one where I'm like if something comes across that I'm like that would be great for a cocktail hour. I have a whole one that's on bars.

Speaker 1:

I have one is on cocktails so like yesterday I had a tasting and something came up for cocktails and I remember like I opened up my Cocktail thing to scroll through there, but it's only cocktail stuff in there, so it is short. Here's the difference between Instagram book save bookmark saves and Pinterest. Pinterest, you can share with people the album on your phone. You can share with people Bookmarks on Instagram you cannot share with people and that's the heart.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah but if it's just for you to be able to come back to at some point, I think it's. I use it all the time for so many different things. Yeah so there is some value there in that. But if it's something that you're ready to share with other people, I fully agree with you. The photos share, photo stream thing is the best way to go, because everything that you found everywhere, including like if you're out shopping, like real life and you see something, sure that inspires you and you're wondering oh, I wonder if my floors could put flowers and something like this.

Speaker 1:

You can take a photo of it and put it in there and put that as your comment. Can we get vessels like this for our bases? And then your floors is come back and say no, because that would put the flowers at eye level and no one would see each other across the table. But what I can find for you is something similar that comes down six inches shorter. See how that works.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so I see how that works. Yeah, no, I love it and I think you know, I think it's good that you're having your spot on Instagram so you know exactly. That way, you can just see like, was it on Instagram, was it on Pinterest? Yeah, sure, yeah, like, you can have your spot and Instagram and always goes here on Pinterest, always goes here. Tic-tac, it always goes here. But if we're talking about stuff that I am realistically want to share with a vendor, I think it's got to go in it in a now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it's absolutely the way up. Absolutely good. I wish we still hadn't wanting magazines like we had when we married. I missed them.

Speaker 2:

Why I feel like it's so hard to communicate vision.

Speaker 1:

No, I still like reading them. Like I still like. I liked that those days where I was sitting on my couch and like flip through pages. I thought that was fun. Yeah, and I still think, I still read magazines and like flip through pages. Yeah you know, sometimes just real life is is nice to not like not be looking at a screen and I Think that's why I like reading books so much.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, agreed, I think I get my fill that way.

Speaker 1:

You know what else I we're getting so off track here and we're past our 30s mark. I still want to talk about it. Another thing that I think that people are not doing that I think we should draw the attention back to is reading the articles on the wedding websites. They are so good. There's so much great information there. You know, when we're going through Instagram and tick tock on all these things and Pinterest, it is all about the image and that there's like maybe eight words below, but you don't get any context from that.

Speaker 1:

Whereas I'll go back to Martha Stewart, I Contribute to their, to their articles quite often, and when they come to us, they're asking me as an expert, kel, what do you have to say about this? And they're going to six other experts, so you're getting expertise in a long format that it's gonna take the time to explain something to you, also give you pictures to back it up, but there's so much more information out there that could help you make decisions, which is what this whole podcast is about. That maybe you aren't even aware of, because you're not getting that in social media in the way that you know is that.

Speaker 2:

I Think it's just. We're like a little squirrels, right? If you don't give it to me, I'm on, I'm on to the next Marmaran you on to the next.

Speaker 1:

On the next, I'm next everyone's got a like Websites low it down like like style me pretty and Martha Stewart weddings. Is that considered social media, like if you go read their articles?

Speaker 2:

No, those would be websites, magazines, like a blog. A blog is a it's a digital magazine. Yeah, it's a digital magazine. I think about some of my besides the wedding garters. You know this, kelly, I've got like a whole other consulting business and we'll write blog posts for clients and I'm reading this stuff and I'm like this is gold. The amount of free information that they are giving out is beyond like. There's this one wedding dress shop I'm thinking about. If you're in LA, it's LaVella Bridal and she does I love her, yeah, the best, so sweet, so sweet, so kind, best haircut and so knowledgeable. And she has this YouTube channel and so she does the videos and they're always like they're so good, they're always under 10 minutes, let's put it that way. But then we take them, we turn around and we make a blog post and every week I'm like this is such good information. I really hope that people shopping for a wedding dress are finding this information because she's so good. So I think that was such a good point that you're putting out there.

Speaker 1:

Julie, we didn't tag this on there, but maybe can we talk about YouTube for a minute, because I have is there a lot on YouTube for YouTube.

Speaker 2:

What do you teach? There is a lot, but it's in the education front, so it's not the inspirational thing that you're thinking of.

Speaker 1:

It's not the Instagram inspiration, it's the education, because I feel like, but that I feel like that's what's missing. That's what I'm saying. Like, do people like? I wish people would go into the websites and read the actual articles, Whereas YouTube is, there's probably a. That's what I'm wondering, like, is there a lot of that? Like you just said the. Bella Bartle. She's up there and she's like talking about wedding dresses. Yeah, oh my God.

Speaker 2:

It's everything she walks you through, like the alterations process, the like she did this one last week about how to know when you've found the right wedding dress. I'm like this is gold. Like how do you know if the dress is like fitting you properly, like it is so, so good.

Speaker 1:

So I should change the title of this, or maybe we just need to have someone on who talks. Who can you know, talk about? Talk to YouTube, you know, like I, and now I want to go look and see what's up there.

Speaker 2:

Well, okay, let's, I can just nail you down right here. So YouTube is owned by Google. So when I was saying how Google is search with pictures, right, and Pinterest, sorry. Google is search with words, pinterest is search with photographs, youtube is search with videos, so it's a search engine.

Speaker 2:

So let's say, you want to, like, fix your washing machine, or how do you, you know, do something or build something, or how do you cook something? Or, in this case, like you know, why is this wedding dress cost so much? Right, you can go and you can find your answer on YouTube. So, if you're not a reader, youtube is where you need to be, because, like I said, we, for example, she did this whole thing about breaking down the price of a wedding dress, right, and why does this thing cost $10,000? And she literally goes through and shows you on the dress in a way that is really difficult to describe in a blog post, and so, in that case, if you're trying to learn something, like you were talking about your person who's inefficient, and you can really go in and you can educate that way through video.

Speaker 1:

And that's good for people who don't read.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I'm so glad this came up. I'm gonna have to do a little research.

Speaker 2:

You gotta read your YouTube is where you need to be yeah, but if you start on Google, it will pull up YouTube, yeah, so it's not like you have to go.

Speaker 1:

True, true.

Speaker 1:

But I mean I guess it's just on the level, like the podcast. Like in the beginning I was like, are people really gonna listen? Well, now I know they do and that it does actually help people, which was the goal in the beginning. Like, how can I help people so that they don't have to have to our phone calls with me to know if they wanna have a first look or not? You know, because there's so much I can explain, but there's somewhere I can send them all the time that. Here's my voice saying here's why you should or should not, and also here's a photographer who's got their perspective on it should or should not. So yeah, so there's the ones.

Speaker 1:

So YouTube you can do on your couch while your fiance is watching football or when you're somewhere else where you can watch things. And then podcasts is for when you're commuting, when you're sitting in the subway, when you're on the bus, when you're driving your car. That's all I do is listen to podcasts. In my car it gets a nice quiet time, so I have to listen to them. In the shower I do too.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I'm not the only one that's great yeah, because the way my shower is, I have this little ledge that doesn't get hit by water.

Speaker 1:

I just put one of those pop socket holders up in there, so, yeah, there I have them all over my house, because I listen to a lot of things. This was a really we went over 30 minutes, but I feel like we talked about so many things that-.

Speaker 2:

That was all. You, though, don't blame me for the last night. No, I'm not going to.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad we talked about it. And you'll have to tell her that we talked about her show. Is it a show on YouTube? Oh my gosh, she's amazing, I'm gonna think of a Is it a call to show?

Speaker 2:

Is wedding fashion expert? Look up wedding fashion expert. Her name's Nairie. She's amazing. Lavela is the dress shop. She's the head. She wears so many-.

Speaker 1:

I wonder if we met her at the same place. She?

Speaker 2:

wears so many different hats at Lavela's Rital. She's amazing, but go look her up on YouTube. I'm gonna think of a good topic and let's get her on your podcast.

Speaker 1:

I think we might have met her at the same time, probably.

Speaker 2:

Probably when I hunted her down in New York City, because she was the most fashionable girl there.

Speaker 1:

I mean all things, all things, okay. So our podcast is turning out to be a big shout out to her, but I love that for her. I love that for her. Everyone's gonna be like what's this person?

Speaker 2:

Wedding fashion expert. Okay, I know, wedding fashion expert Lavela Bridal.

Speaker 1:

Julie, Her name's Nairie. Thank you so so much. So I already told everyone I'll have all the links to everything and I'm so glad that we talked about this because it is not something that we have delved into. It's something that we do when it comes to wedding planning and we really should talk about. I almost should call it like I'll be being organized versus not being organized when it comes to I was just thinking.

Speaker 2:

The topic really is like less about social media and more about being organized with you Ending the overwhelmed. Yeah, being like how not to be, how not to be. So it's a lot, it's a lot, and you and I know this, cause we do this every day. I'm glad we do it every day, and so if I can just take a little bit of that overwhelm away from your listening, Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

I hope we can do that, thank you. Thank you, all right, so we'll have you back on again, or maybe we'll do a live on Instagram or something and have Nairie join us too.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that would be great Okay love you, friend.

Speaker 1:

Bye, okay, bye.

Speaker 1:

I'm so glad to be able to share my wedding experiences and expertise with you, and that my co-hosts are so giving it theirs. We truly do want you to have the best time at your wedding, and our hope is that this podcast is helping you to make your engagement time while planning your wedding that much easier. May I ask a favor of you? If this is the case, would you just take a moment to leave a review of this podcast on your listening platform? It helps people just like you to find the podcast and to also find out their answers so they can make decisions. I would also absolutely love for you to give this versus that podcast a shout out on your social media. You can find us at this versus that wedding podcast on Instagram, and if you would like me to help you with a specific question, a wedding decision, please by all means ask, send me a DM. I would love to hear from you and maybe, just maybe even have you as a wedding cast on a future episode. Have fun and you just do another great wedding.