What pinning can bring to a wedding: Joyful surprises, sweet temptations

Pinterest is a life-saver for brides these days.

You can find dresses, decor and desserts. I was so thankful I found Pinterest before my wedding. Even though our day was a small affair (15 people in New Orleans), I still found plenty of inspiration to personalize our day. I love weddings so much that despite the fact I’ve been married for a year and a half, I still pin to my wedding board. I’m a sucker for a pretty white dress.

Embroidered Hanky I have been blessed with a wonderful mother-in-law, Jean. She is the sweetest person. She was so helpful and wonderful during the planning of our wedding, I wanted to do something special for her. She’s a very sentimental person, so it needed to be something she would treasure. During my pinning frenzy pre-wedding, I found a pin that linked to a woman on Etsy who did personalized, embroidered handkerchiefs. (Etsy is a site that focuses on selling handmade or vintage items, crafts and supplies – another wonderful website to explore). I was able to choose the style of hanky, the color of the thread and write my own sentiment. It arrived at my door in less than a week, and I was thrilled at the results. More importantly, my mother-in-law loved it. Everyone was caught up in the heady excitement of being in New Orleans, and before the group headed down to the Washington Artillery Monument to witness my husband and I say our vows, I found a quiet moment to give Jean the hanky and a letter I wrote. It was successful since she cried – tears of joy. The keepsake is displayed prominently in her dining room to this day.

Brown Sugar Hair Straighter I have a lot wavy/curly hair. When I lived in Colorado, where there’s about 3 percent humidity (That might be a high estimate.) I never had a problem straightening my mane. Upon moving to Shreveport, I realized how truly curly (Did I say curly? I meant frizzy) my hair can get. Humidity is great for your skin – no one seems to have wrinkles here – but not so great for girls who prefer a straight “do” like me. Learning to tame the frizz has been a mission since Day 1 of living in Louisiana. When I came upon a pin promising stick straight hair (without using heat, nonetheless), I thought it was worth a try. I was wanting to have a maintenance-free hairstyle for our honeymoon. We stayed in New Orleans for several days after our friends and family left. I just wanted to look effortlessly un-frizzed while walking the streets of the French Quarter. The picture of the woman’s hair in the pin was stick straight and shiny as a polished tuba in a Second Line, so surely this would work for me. Everything is true on the Internet, right?

Uh, no. I consider myself a pretty smart woman and used to work in the beauty industry, so you think I would have known better. You were to mix hot water and brown sugar together in a bottle and spray it on your hair and let it dry naturally. This was a sticky, crunchy, disgusting mess. Not just a mess in my hair, but a mess on the floor, my shoulders – almost as though I had just opened up a bottle of hair spray and poured it everywhere. I’m sure if I had tried this out in NOLA, I would have been attacked by a flock of birds or swarm of bees or similar – all attracted to the super sweet syrup in my hair. Absolutely stay away from this one. As the old adage goes, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. That couldn’t be more accurate for this debacle! The other moral of this story is you should make sure to experiment with new ideas from pins at a time when it’s not crucial just in care it’s a disaster. This goes for hair, makeup, food; none of these are good to try for the first time when you’re on vacation, or having a party at your house. Make sure they’re winners beforehand. I’m so grateful I tried this sugar mess at home; I know it saved me at least a half a day of fixing my hair and losing out strolling hand in hand on cobblestone streets with my husband.

For now, I’ll stick to my flat iron and save up to get a Brazilian Blow Out some day. I’ll be keeping the brown sugar in the kitchen.