Granted, some wedding tasks should really be left to the professionals (Seriously, you won’t regret having experts in charge of making your day go smoothly and beautifully!), there are some special projects and DIY’s you might be thinking of taking on for your wedding day. And if your heart is in it (read: it’s something you want to and will actually enjoy doing!), you have the time, and means, I say go for it!
However, as both a photographer who has seen a great variety of weddings and a former DIY bride, I do have some wedding DIY tips for you! The biggest wedding DIY tip I have for all you aspiring DIY brides and grooms out there is to try to focus on projects or items that you can use again AFTER your wedding! Think about it, you are going to put all that work into your projects for that one day and then it is pretty likely they will all sit inside some boxes in your basement or garage for years to come. Which is kind of a bummer, not to mention a waste of time and resources you could have used more wisely for your wedding.
(All photos from our own wedding by Kari Bedford Photography)
So, before you go DIY crazy or drag 30+ blue ball jars back from the flea market in Brooklyn to Chicago via foot, subway, and plane because you sussed out such a great deal (Guilty as charged!), consider some alternatives.
- First, consult your planner or event designer! This what they are there for! To make sure your day is as amazing as you had always hoped it would be! (If you are the uber crafty sort, Jayne Weddings or Crafty Broads might be the ladies for you!)
- Secondly, look into borrowing wedding details from friends and family. Wedding details with history and a story behind them make for a much more meaningful day. (Old wedding photos from your family, a wedding rushnyk made by your mother as in Meghan and Stephan’s Michigan wedding, or even some antiques you already have incorporated into your home decor might work nicely into your wedding vision!)
- Thirdly, think about renting some beautiful furniture or details for your wedding. In the end, you could end up with a truly gorgeous wedding for a fraction of the cost and time it would have taken you to hunt down those items! And usually, the inventory that the professionals can offer you is far better than anything you could search out for your big day. (Refind Joy will hook you up!) Extra bonus, no worries about where to store all those antiques you searched out just to use on your wedding day.
- Fourthly, hit up Etsy and the professionals! Sure, you can hand make absolutely every element of your DIY projects down to the paper used in your favor tags, but, sometimes you just want that handmade feel and unique touch to your wedding details, not the papercuts and mess to show for it. So, use artisans and those pro Etsy crafters as your back up! (Especially if you know you can’t possibly make a certain item as well as someone else already has! From one perfectionist to any others out there, why disappoint yourself, when there is already gorgeous stuff out there?!) I used tags found on Etsy and had CD sleeves made by Kraft & Jute for some of my own wedding details.
So, I urge you to definitely consider the (far more skilled and equipped) professional alternatives that can often make for much better details for your wedding, think about whether you will wholeheartedly enjoy doing some DIY projects, and absolutely pick projects that result in decor, etc. that you can use again! You will thank me later! Other than that, go for it and have fun! Because it is supposed to be fun, right?! (We all know that the DIY route is not always the cheaper route!) So, if it’s not fun, get out now! (And hire someone who will make it all look effortless and amazing, while you get a mani-pedi and sip some champagne.)