I love noth­ing more than a hand­made wed­ding; plac­ing a sig­na­ture on your event through thought­ful, cre­ative touches. How­ever, what can seem like a fan­tas­tic idea 6 months before the wed­ding could be ner­vous break­down mate­r­ial 2 weeks before the big day.  I do under­stand the appeal, espe­cially because most brides these days grew up with Martha Stew­art and other famously crafty women, mak­ing it all look so easy.  Now with the inter­net there are end­less blogs, and web­sites on the var­i­ous ways in which you can craft your way to the altar.  Let’s put it this way… if you were not crafty before you got engaged, now is not the time to buy your first glue gun.

With the aver­age wed­ding bud­get shrink­ing in 2009 and Amer­i­cans being drawn to more inti­mate and per­sonal affairs, the DIY trend is on the rise.  You can save a for­tune if you are will­ing to cre­ate items your­self, and if you know what you are doing.  The flip side of that is you could also spend more than you would have if you had left to the pros and end up with a less appeal­ing fin­ished prod­uct.  I can’t help but recall all of the years that I attempted home­made Christ­mas cookie bas­kets.  First of all, keep in mind I am at a pro­fes­sional level in the kitchen and there really is no task too big for me… but some­thing hap­pens when you try and bake 45 dozen cook­ies.  You for­get about a batch and they burn. You real­ize that your kitchen is too small and a sin­gle oven is not enough to pull off this endeavor. You real­ize that you did not leave enough time to fin­ish this project… And when did flour, choco­late and nuts get so freakin expen­sive? Stressed, cov­ered in flour and your poor kitchen in sham­bles, your pull it off; only to find out that half of all of the cook­ies you baked were thrown out by the recip­i­ents. After many dis­heart­en­ing attempts at cookie bas­kets I have opted to just give a killer bot­tle of wine, or a bas­ket com­prised of items I pur­chased pre-made.  Even bet­ter, drop ship the pre-made bas­kets and wine.  San­ity is price­less. Keep that in mind as you are plan­ning your wed­ding; in fact make it your mantra, repeat it before bed and say it to your­self in the mir­ror before you start your day… “San­ity is priceless”.

Yup, as you can imag­ine I do not always take my own advice and very often bite off more than I would like to chew.  So instead of telling more night­mar­ish Christ­mas cookie sto­ries, I am going to give you some won­der­ful tips on how to add a DIY sig­na­ture touch to your wed­ding, and still keep your san­ity.  Okay… some of your san­ity.  Who needs to be totally sane anyway?

Tip #1

Only choose to take on DIY projects that are in line with skill sets that you already have.  If you are a graphic designer, or stud­ied graphic design in school, you could eas­ily take on the project of design­ing all of your own wed­ding sta­tion­ary.  How­ever, it is not the time to sew your brides­maid dresses, or learn the art of calligraphy.

Tip #2

Try to only take on projects which can be done way, way, way ahead of time.  You should try not to leave any of your DIY projects for the last two months before your wed­ding.  Your to-do list is going to boom the last 6 weeks before your wed­ding and you will have far less time before your big day than you antic­i­pate.  Inevitably some­thing on your to-do list will have to be blown-off and it mostly likely will be one of your DIY projects.

Tip #3

Ask for help, or accept help when offered.  Only ask peo­ple which you can trust will have fol­low through and pro­duce a good end result.  Keep Tip #1 in mind when enlist­ing the help of oth­ers, and only ask peo­ple to help with items that they are skilled at cre­at­ing.  Be mind­ful of other people’s time and enlist their help with small projects, noth­ing that can’t be com­pleted within a cou­ple hours over the week­end.  Give them plenty of notice and please, please reward them with an amaz­ingly thought­ful gift or other token of appre­ci­a­tion. And always, always pay for the raw materials!

Tip #4

Before you start any­thing, or get your heart set on a project, real­is­ti­cally price it out and esti­mate the time involved.  Then add 20% more time and money for goof-ups.  If you are com­fort­able with both esti­mates go for it.

Tip #5

Buy extra mate­ri­als… even if you are a pro, you’ll need to have extra mate­ri­als on hand.  Just in case some­thing goes awry.

Tip #6

We have all heard the tip of host­ing a DIY party, but more often than not the party turns into more of a party and less of a work­shop.  Instead invite 2 or 3 very crafty friends over to help, get take out and open a bot­tle of sparkling wine.  You will accom­plish a lot more this way, and not end-up host­ing a party instead of assem­bling your wed­ding favors.

Tip #7

Have a back-up plan.  Wed­dings are all about back-up plans and DIY projects are no excep­tion.  Always have a Plan B, incase what­ever you are try­ing to make does not turn out to your standards.

Tip #8

Don’t feel like you have to cre­ate every­thing from scratch.  Uti­lize par­tially made items or add your own spe­cial touch to ready­made items.  Some­times just adding a fin­ish­ing touch to a sim­ple store bought item is the only effort needed.

Tip #9

Only take on small, eas­ily man­aged projects.  Again, what is your mantra?

Tip #10

Focus on your pri­or­i­ties and real­ize every­thing extra is just that, extra.  The most impor­tant thing is that you enjoy your day.  Your guests will for­get about the 150 lit­tle tiny details that you killed your­self over within a week, but you only get one wed­ding day… make enjoy­ing it your num­ber one priority.

Happy Plan­ning,

Melia Spring

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