Wanna do Diy!!

What items do you want to DIY?

View Quoted Comment Card box, bouquets etc

Think carefully about any DIY project you are doing for cost. Often, it doesn't save money at all, by the time you factor in materials for testing plus materials you mess up. Even when it does, you may find yourself spending a lot of effort (because DIY always requires more effort than you think it will), and those savings amount to working for 50 cents an hour. Plus, DIY often results in adding things to your wedding you wouldn't bother with if you have to buy them, meaning it actually costs you extra rather than saving.

DIY is better for really big projects where the savings are considerable, or for personalizing your wedding in ways that just aren't commercially available. But even then, think hard about your own artistic abilities, lest it end up looking like a third grade art project.

That's not to diminish DIY. We did a lot of it. But you're better off starting off with, "I really want X, which is not in my budget; maybe I can DIY it," than, "I want to DIY."

Are you a naturally crafty person? If not, you may save yourself time, money, and a headache by just purchasing what you're looking for. I enjoy crafting and have a few things done for my wedding, but there's at least one project that may have been better being outsourced. I'm doing my pockets to hold my invitation suite and while the cost of the materials wasn't a lot (under $20 as I waited for a cardstock sale at Joanns), I've already spent about 10 hours cutting the pockets, and I'm only halfway finished. Even though it's something I enjoy, there have been moments when I almost wish I had purchased these instead of making them. I also own a Cricut, which has been instrumental in my crafting for the wedding; I don't think I would be doing much DIY without it.

If you're a crafter by nature and are looking forward to putting in some hours on your projects, what kind of vibe/feel do you want (rustic, vintage, modern, etc.)? That may help people give you better input on ideas.

View Quoted Comment Yea I am a crafty person but I dont have alot of crafty stuff so I think I'll just buy my stuff lol

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That would be my concern; getting all the things you need for each project could end up costing more than just purchasing the item outright. I bet you'll find areas where you can DIY that may be more cost effective than others!

I DIY'd my bouquets, boutonnieres, and centerpieces. I decided from the start to avoid using real flowers and It saved me sooooo much money and I love how they turned out. I kept everything simple, which is what we wanted. We're also doing our own table numbers. My FH cut wood circles from a pine tree branch that fell in our yars and his brother has a burner, so he's burning the numbers into them. 🥰

We did a few dyi type projects and my suggestion is to make a list of what you want to dyi, price out materials and leave yourself plenty of time. My mother-in-law insisted on making our flower girl dresses and we spent more on materials than we would have just buying the dresses because I just wanted to buy like $20 dresses from Amazon. She also procrastinated really badly and the dresses weren't 100% done until the day before the wedding. She also made our favors with the help of my two sister-in-laws. Our favors were cake pops so she made the cakes then the next day took them to my sister-in-law's house and they spent the day making turning them into cake pops. My mom and grandmother decorated the rehearsal dinner room which my mom bought all of the decor for. They spent 2-3 hours decorating it. My husband made our card box which looked like a mini house. It was very time consuming because he had to measure, cut, glue and paint. He finished it about a week before the wedding, but the morning of the wedding we touched it up with some extra paint we had. We also bought a template to make our escort cards which looked like hockey/baseball tickets. Each guest had one rather than each couple. Each ticket had a photo and we used different photos for them so I had to change add a photo to each plus the first and last of each person, what table they were sitting at, what side of the room and the seat number which I put as any because we only assigned tables not seats. I also bought a template from Etsy for our programs that I had custom made by the seller and I spent a lot of time going back and forth with the designer on what I wanted. We had the programs and escort cards printed at Office Depot, but I had to decide on the type of material, thickness and sizes. We also designed our own save the dates and had them printed through VistaPrint. We designed some of our own signs and had them printed through VistaPrint as well. I did a lot of research to figure out the best places to buy templates and get things printed since we don't own a printer.

I did bouquets semi diy by going to michaels and finding bouquets there that were already made but I combined some of them to make my own

I am diy-omg our centerpieces (flowers off of amazon and glass vases from g&g webstore), our signage (table numbers, seating chart, hashtag sings, etc), invitations (friend designing and printing at staples), and card box (got boxes from michaels).


Still debating on if i will do my own flowers or not. I searched fifty flowers and bought the cheapest option of the flower i wanted. It really comes down to how much time i think i will have to put the bouquets together or not and pricing i get back from wegmans
Ultimately i think you should figure out what you might wanna diy and how much time it will take to complete. I made sure to create spreadsheets and sourced the items heavily on the internet to see if it was worth it or not. We are definitely going to be saving a lot of money in the long run!

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I priced out wedding signs and a cricut machine. It was cheaper for me to buy the machine and make the signs myself than buy them. I also lucked out and got paid to do 20 wine glasses for a 50th birthday. It ended up covering half the cost of the machine.

I'm also doing my own centerpieces. The thing to remember is storing it. I'm 260ish days away and I've got boxes in my APT taking up space full of centerpieces.

Yeah I'm pretty much doing the same as you are I'm always been really crafty so I'm taking advantage of it I'm going to Goodwill and buying some stuff from Goodwill in transforming into something beautiful and then I end up going to like the dollar stores Family Dollar getting all my craft stuff from there and I've been watching videos I'm how to decorate my wedding cake I seen one video how you add marshmallow to the Fonda so keep in touch I'm kind of curious how things will work out for you and congratulations on your guys's day

Oh yes!!!! I’m saving big bucks doing DIY and with help from family, friends and coworkers who are chipping in things as gifts to us. I am planning the menu for early evening dinner. I did my bouquet and his boutonnière (just him and myself in our wedding). Destination beach wedding through a company known for their beautiful seaside ceremonies. Reception the following month in the city. I am doing the decor with color theme for tables, centerpieces, tables and chairs, specialty lighting, photo backdrop, interactive ‘marriage advice’ and ‘date night suggestions’ boxes, glass gift card box, edible wedding favors, and dessert table. Yes, YouTube, Dollar Tree and Pinterest are my best friends!! :-)

We're planning to go the DIY route to save some $ too! I've been searching online quite a bit lately. I've found many places online for supplies which are very reasonable in comparison to those local hobby shops!