Maine & NH Wedding Photographer // The Pinterest Wedding Lie – And Why You Don’t Need a Perfect Day to Have the Best One

Let’s talk about the big, perfectly styled elephant in the room: Pinterest weddings and stylized shoots.

You’ve seen them — those drool-worthy flat lays, ceremony sites where not one chair is out of line, brides with dresses that somehow stay wrinkle-free while laying in a field, and florals so lush they look like they were plucked straight out of a Vogue editorial. And hey, they’re gorgeous, no argument there. But here’s the truth bomb: they’re fake. Not like catfishing your date fake, but more like this-isn’t-actually-a-wedding fake.

Styled shoots are curated by pros. We're talking a dream team of planners, florists, makeup artists, photographers (hey, that’s me), and models—not real couples. They take all day to shoot. Not on a realistic wedding timeline.Nobody’s running late. Nobody’s drunk uncle is knocking over the donut wall. No one’s bustling a gown in the bathroom while panic-eating a granola bar. It’s a perfectly controlled environment, with perfect light, and zero pressure.

And Pinterest? That’s the highlight reel of styled shoots and the absolute top 1% of wedding budget unicorns. Yet somehow, couples see those images and think, “That’s what my wedding should look like.” And that’s where the scammy part kicks in.

You start thinking your wedding needs to be a styled shoot. You stress over napkin folds and hand-lettered everything and whether your florals are lush enough. You start comparing your very real, very human wedding day to an airbrushed fantasy—and that’s just not fair to you.

Let me say this loud and clear:

You do not need a Pinterest-perfect wedding to have a badass, unforgettable, deeply meaningful one.

Real weddings are messy. They’re emotional. They’re full of imperfect, beautiful moments that you cannot stage. Like your dad crying during the ceremony. Your partner's laugh when they flub their vows. That sweaty dance floor chaos when "Mr. Brightside" comes on. You know what never happens at a styled shoot? Real joy. Real love. Real chaos. And that’s what makes a wedding freaking awesome.

So here’s your permission slip to let go. Let go of the pressure to recreate someone else’s staged fantasy. Embrace the weird, the wild, the real. Your wedding doesn’t need to look like a magazine spread. It just needs to feel like you.

And trust me—when you look back on your photos, you won’t be wishing for more Pinterest. You’ll be grateful for the real stuff. The stuff that makes your day yours.

Now go enjoy your messy, beautiful, wild love story. And I’ll be right there capturing it. Wrinkled dress, crooked boutonnière, wind-blown hair and all.

Because that’s the good shit.

Oh—and just so you know—everything I post or share on my website is 100% a real wedding. No staged shoots. No pretend couples. Just raw, honest, messy-beautiful love. I’m all about authenticity, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.