If you’re a fan of craft projects, are handy with a glue gun, or are just looking to save some money, you can DIY lots of parts of your wedding, without sacrificing the quality. Doing DIY projects is a great way to make your wedding really personal. But what parts of your wedding to-do list can you make DIY?
Eight Things To DIY For Your Wedding
Invites
DIY wedding invites are very easy to do. Use a template to create a design, or edit an existing design to create beautiful invites for a fraction of the cost of having them designed for you. DIY invites like this still look great, despite the much lower cost. Most of these sites offer all wedding stationery, so you can order RSVP cards, orders of service, menus, place cards, and thank you cards, all to match each other.
Welcome bags
If you have a lot of guests travelling from out of town, a welcome bag can be a lovely way to welcome them to town. If you’ve booked a block of hotel rooms for your guests, make a little welcome pack to leave in their rooms. You could put in some local snacks, sweets, chapstick, or a small candle. Some people like to pack kits for the morning after, with painkillers, and other hangover cures. You could also include things like a map of the local area, or vouchers for local restaurants. Buy some pretty gift bags, and the bags are easy to fill yourself.
Gifts for the wedding party
If you’re good at crafts, then you could make some lovely, personalised gifts for your wedding party that they will treasure after the wedding. If you can embroider, you could add your bridesmaids’ names to dressing gowns for them to wear while you’re getting ready. Make them jewellery, or knit things like mug cosies to use on their coffee.
The bouquet
Fresh flowers are very expensive, so many brides are turning to alternatives for their bouquets. If you’re skilled with a glue gun, you could make a unique and beautiful bouquet made with buttons, pin badges, broaches, or shells. Brides have turned all sorts of things into something beautiful that nobody else has.
Signage
You’ll need some signage around your wedding to guide your guests. You can add signs to direct them to the dancefloor or to the guestbook. Some couples like to give their flower girls fun signs instead of the more traditional baskets. Signs are easy to make yourself. Design them online and have them printed, or buy some chalkboards and ask the friend with nicest handwriting to write up your signs for you.
Decor
If you’re getting married close to home, you can make a lot of the decorations yourself and have the venue put them out on the day. For destination weddings, you’ll be able to make less, as you’ll have to factor in shipping space and cost. Depending on your skills, you can make a lot of decor pieces from centrepieces to things to hang up. You could make paper lanterns, origami decorations, candleholders, dream-catchers, and lots of other items to make your wedding beautiful and personal.
Favours
Personal wedding favours are more memorable than more traditional ones. If you bake or make sweets, you could give those as favours. Does someone in the family keep bees? Then give mini points of honey as favours. If you’re marrying near Christmas, you could hand-paint small ornaments. Other popular options include origami paper cranes, cake pops, and cookies. Food is a particularly good option, as people will usually eat the favours during the reception, rather than forgetting to pick up a gift you spent ages making.
Photo albums Professional photo albums through your photographer can be very expensive. Most photography packages offer an option to get all your pictures in a digital format, so you can print off your own pictures and create your own albums. With a creative eye and some scrapbooking supplies, you can make something very beautiful to showcase your favourite photos of the wedding day. You could make personalised albums for different members of the wedding party, such as gathering all the bridesmaid photos for your bridesmaids or putting together the best family pictures for your mum.
If you are going to take on any kind of DIY project for your wedding, make sure you have the skills and the time you will need to complete it. Don’t take on something too difficult or time-consuming, or you’ll only end up stressed out.
