DIY : Confessions Of A DIY Bride – Haleigh Hutchinson – Medium
My Unfortunate Attempts at DIY Wedding Paper Design
To cut costs for their weddings brides, like myself, decide to DIY some aspects of their weddings. For some brides they DIY flowers; for me I attempted to DIY place cards, table numbers, and wedding programs. Oh, brides. Learn from my mistakes and leave it to the professionals! Here is why…
Table Numbers
We had a baseball themed reception. Each table was numbered in the middle of a pinstriped home plate. I spent many nights crying in front of my computer doing and re-doing these table numbers, so they would print accurately. I also spend a pretty penny buying and re-buying the correct paper and ink (goodbye, money) for all the times my amateur self messed them up. Did they turn out well in the end? Yes. Do I recommend you do them yourself as I did because of that? No.
Place Cards
When it came time for place cards, that is when I realized how deep I was in. Trying to format the small words and pictures onto hundreds of individual place cards is grueling. With the money and time spent re-doing disastrous place cards, I could’ve hired a wonderfully talented professional to save me my time, money, and sanity.
Wedding Programs
Then came the grand finale, the wedding programs. Formatting a Catholic wedding program is no easy feat. I needed the programs to have two columns on each page to fit all the needed words, be copied front and back, and avoid them printing upside-down or backwards. I then went to a copy store desperate for help with my sample. They said they could do it and over $500 later I had lopsided, strangely formatted, minuscule, unprofessional looking wedding programs. Yeesh. Looking back I can now laugh. But, when I found out how much the terrible DIY wedding programs cost, I thought I was going to faint. I could not help but laugh when watching my wedding video; the videographer pans the frame across the minuscule font on my haphazard programs.
Leave It To The Professionals, Trust Me
Professionals plan weddings and create perfect wedding decor every day. Wedding planning is stressful enough without the added stress of trying to be a professional calligrapher. Whether flowers, paper design, or photography, risking quality and cost by trying to do it yourself is not an efficient way to cut costs. Inevitably DIY projects will need re-do’s, putting more strain on the wedding budget. The better plan is talk to vendors, explain what your budget is, and ask them how to achieve your ideal look in the most cost cost-effective way. My bride friends, save yourselves the nights crying at your computer with undue DIY stress! Trust me, hire the professionals!
