How to chose your wedding decorations without scrolling social media

Too much wedding inspiration is making couples feel overwhelmed about their wedding design

A topic that I've been thinking a lot about lately is why so many couples are really struggling to chose their decorations for styling their wedding venue, and also why sticking with the decision once they've made it, is equally challenging for them. I've been styling weddings since 2021 and when I chat to my couples on calls, the main struggle they share, is not the lack of wedding inspiration, but more like they've seen too much of it! Does this sound familiar?

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 I think a massive player in why it becomes so difficult for them, is the endless options and possibilities available at their finger tips, as they scroll endlessly through instagram feeds, facebook groups, tik tok videos and Pinterest. I mean it's no wonder they start to feel overwhelmed and confused. Inspiration is everywhere, and only growing in abundance. They are simply overloaded. It's like being on a constant drip, feeding your brain an infinite supply of ideas every single time you go online. But is it actually helping couples?

Is consuming too many wedding ideas confusing couples wedding design?

Yes it is! When couples consume way too much wedding content as they search for ideas, instead of it inspiring you, and making you feel more excited and motivated, it can start to actually drain you. Have you noticed that? Scrolling makes you feel exhausted doesn't it? I mean it's like the robot Johnny Five from the 90's movie Short Circuit, when he says "Input, Input!!"  Like we NEED to digest as much information as possible to be fully up to date! You're properly too young to remember him, so you may have to google that one! Lol. It's worth it for a laugh! 

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But the fact is it's literally having the opposite affects on you that you're seeking. The ideas you've seen might be really good ideas, but these endless possibilities will leave you feeling more confused about what to actually choose. Also, if you're not careful you may easily start to lose sight of what it is you're actually trying to achieve for yourselves, because while you're busy looking at what everyone else has done or what they are choosing for their wedding day, you start to forget what's important to the both of you. You forget about adding your own story, including your own values & your own personalities, because you start to take your eye off the ball. You forget to take your space and budget into account, which will help you make realistic choices. All this starts to get drowned out with the noise of social media. Then couples are left wondering why their aesthetics don't feel personal enough to them. 

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Choose decor that aligns with your real life instead of online noise

Now don't get me wrong, it's great that there's all this wedding inspiration out there for you, but if choosing decorations for your venue feels difficult, it might be wise to ask yourself, is what you're seeing helping you decide, or making it feel impossible to choose? If it's making you change your mind every time you see a new idea and you feel so confused with your plan, it's time for some tough love, as my advice is to go back to the drawing board.

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You need to create a design that reflects your real life together. Instead of feeling swayed by the latest trend that's going viral on your favourite social app, think about how you can weave in your shared interests, your personal values, favourite locations, your personal style, and the season you love most, into your design. Once you focus your attention back on yourselves, you will feel more focused and way more happy with your design choices moving forward.

Stop comparing your wedding decor to the latest wedding industry trends

Now I'm someone who uses social media for my work, and I do like using Pinterest. But these days I focus more on creating the wedding content for these platforms, rather than consuming any wedding content on them myself. If you're wondering why, it's because the more content I consume, the more I lose sight of myself and what's important to me, because all I seem to feel is distracted and I compare myself to others when I see their wedding content on socials.

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I'm sharing this because this is exactly how I imagine couples planning their wedding are feeling too, when they see an abundance of wedding ideas on tap from other couples, styled shoots, wedding suppliers and wedding blogs. Suddenly without even thinking about it, it all becomes a comparison game, 'Oh that's what they're doing, I need to do that'. ' That's trending, that's what I need to have' and so on. The more time you spend consuming other peoples ideas, you're own initial ideas start to get drowned out among all the noise. 

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Recently I was on a call with one of my brides and she was sharing how her wedding design had massively evolved from the very beginning planning stages. It was classic scenario! She was heavily influenced at the start with what she saw trending in the wedding industry, as she desperately wanted the popular disco ball trend, that we all fondly remember! It was all the rage when she started planning. But went on to tell me how glad she was when she completely changed her mind half way through, as everyone was choosing disco themes. She didn't want her wedding to look like everyone else's, and went on to create something more personal and authentic that aligned with their real life as a couple. 

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This just proves that being swayed by current wedding trends puts couples at risk of changing their mind the closer their wedding day approaches. You can start to second guess everything, which means you'll feel more anxious and it can leave you scrambling to make decisions in a panic. Wasting your time, energy and possibly your money too!

How to narrow down your decor choices and avoid social media influence

When I was thinking about this dilemma couples are experiencing, I started to think about when I got married myself, because I didn't seem to have this issue with choosing my decor, that couples are experiencing so much now. So I asked myself these questions, "why did I enjoy it so much?" "what was it I did and didn't do that made it such an enjoyable part of wedding planning for me?" If you're thinking, "oh you're just one of the lucky ones who enjoyed choosing their decor" I can confirm it wasn't luck at all, it was because I kept my approach simple.

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Let me share a little story with you, to prove it is possible to choose decor without scrolling social media. I'm going back about 12 years when I was choosing my own decorations for my tipi wedding venue, I remember only using one photo from a magazine to inspire my whole wedding design. I know, amazing isn't it! This one photo single handedly was enough to spark my imagination, because it summed up what I wanted our own decor to look like and what I wanted it to feel like inside. I didn't copy it, I just used it as inspo. I didn't let my self get distracted by scrolling on social media and I didn't get lost down a Pinterest rabbit hole either, because I blocked out all of that noise from the get go. 

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Instead I chose to focus on a more personal approach, taking inspiration from our lifestyle together. I chose a colour palette that created the relaxed atmosphere we desired. I chose a setting that aligned with us as people, I chose decor that helped tell our love story. I included stationery that provided hints of our personalities and I included pieces that shared our passions. All this without looking at what others were doing. 

Replace scrolling for wedding ideas with targeted wedding searches instead

The thing is, I'm not saying it's bad to look for inspiration on these platforms, I mean I post on some of them myself, so that would be very conflicting. But what I am saying is that, instead of mindlessly get caught up in doom scrolling, be more intentional by searching instead. Once you have a solid foundation in place with what your key priorities are, what atmosphere you're trying to create, what you want the guests experience to be like and what you're happy spending, you can tailor your searches much better to suit your space and budget. 

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Once you know what you're trying to achieve with styling your venue, and what aesthetics you are naturally drawn to, instead of looking at everything, you can find ideas that actually align. So for example, you can follow a wedding stylist who's aesthetics feels like you. You can read a wedding blog where their topics share your values, and they share ideas that actually appeal to you, instead of looking at everything that's being served up in the algorithm.

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Committing to your wedding decor means trusting your design choices

As well as couples finding it hard to choose decorations, they also struggle to commit to the choice once they have made the decision. This is hard for a number of reasons, because couples tend to worry they'll get it wrong, or they'll see a better option down the line or they feel anxious they're choices won't look right in the finished article. When they know they need to pin point their design, suddenly they feel super stuck, as every choice is now loaded with meaning. When you get to this stage, you need to trust yourself enough to stop searching for ideas, stop scrolling feeds and definitely stop worrying about what others are doing.

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It's worth remembering that your wedding design doesn't have to feel original to the whole internet it just needs to feel real to the people in the room who you're sharing your day with, because that's what really matters. 

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I hope you found this topic helpful, it's something I'm super passionate about helping couples navigate, in this growing content world in the wedding industry. Free feel to leave a comment below, I'd love continue the conversation with you and hear what you thought about it all.

Need help with setting the scene to your love story?

One of the things I help couples do is bring clarity to their wedding design so they can stop second guessing everything. I aim to fill them with confidence as they'll be able to clearly visualise all their decor choices together, re-assuring them that it all makes sense why it's there.

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Most of my couples have the beginnings of great ideas, they just have too many options to choose from, which is where they get really stuck. If you're struggling to work out what belongs together and what doesn't, you might feel like it's time for some support.

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You can check out my styling services page here in your wedding is based in Lincolnshire UK, I offer a few different packages or I can create something completely bespoke for you, depending on your needs. I'll be waiting in the wings to step into action!

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If you would like to take a peek at my portfolio to see what's possible when we work together on your wedding design you can find that here. There's a mixture of real weddings, styled shoots and wedding open days as well as me experimenting with ideas in my studio. Enjoy!

Becca & Luke ~ Tying the knot at Scrivelsby Walled Garden, Horncastle

" Oh my goodness we have just looked through the style guide and LOVED it. It has all the vibes we want! Honestly there was so many elements we loved, it made me so excited to see it all come to life!  Thank you for putting so much time and passion into our wedding, it makes us so happy. "

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