A DIY Wedding Part 1

Happy Summer!

This is the second post in the mini wedding series.  I'm a little excited about this one because I get to show you all one of the best day of my life.  My Wedding!  It was about 85-90% DIY.  Meaning I was the coordinator, I ran the rehearsal, and I did all the projects from the invitations to the flowers (but had some amazing help with them).  I have to admit when I first started out with the idea of a DIY wedding I was a little bit scared, but mostly excited.  I knew that in the end I would have a great event to show people, and I could say that "I did that!"  During the process I was a bit stressed out, ok...maybe more than a bit, but it all came together.  And in the end I was happy, and it was the best day ever.

I feel like some people think that just because other individuals and celebrities are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on their weddings, means that they have to spend a lot to get the wedding they want.  And that doesn't just apply to weddings.  I believe that any event no matter how big or small can be achieved, even on a smaller budget.  Because really why is there a need to spend $100k on a wedding?  I heard that Kim Kardashian's wedding registry is CRAZY!  And that she registered for an item that costs $7,500.  That one item is almost as much as what my wedding cost.

So here is a glimpse of my "big day," and a look at the projects I worked on to keep my wedding under $10k.  Today you'll see the Invites, Paper Goods, and Flowers.

The Invites

handmade single pocket fold on the right

I took on the challenge of making my own invites for the wedding.  I designed the invites, enclosures, and monogram myself!  I knew that I wanted pocket fold invites, and nothing less.  So I searched for the cheapest place, and found something I liked.  However, it was still more than I wanted to pay.  But I made a compromise!  I bought half my invites in pocket fold (about 40), and the other half I decided to make into a panel pocket fold.  I got enough matching paper in 8.5 x 11 inches, and got to cutting.  After all the cuts and glue dots were done, I had all my pocket folds!  Success.  I am normally a very disorganized person, but during this process that changed.  On the back of my RSVP's I numbered them according to the household on my list, so that if they forgot to list names I could call them.  I also separated the invites into categories depending on how many people were in each household (as shown below), because for each family I numbered each RSVP with the number of reserved seats.  It was a long process to get to this point, but was very helpful in the end.

my organized invites

The Paper Goods

So after making my invites, I was pretty much the layout Queen!  So I decided to take on the task of making my own programs, and seating arrangements.  For the programs I purchased 8.5 x 11 inch cardstock, and designed them so I could get 2 programs out of every sheet.  Another success!  I was able to fit all of the desired information on each half sheet.  I also took little elements from my invites and placed them on the program.

The seating was another issue.  I had to make sure that there was no drama!  So I had to have a seating chart.  Once I knew what tables everyone was assigned to, I got a pack of pre-scored and perforated seating cards.  I then laid out all the names in a template and printed.  Once that was done I placed either orange or purple embellishments on the cards so that our servers knew what our guests were having.  Below you can the finished cards.  They were all in alphabetical order, and behind them I had a sign that started with "Take A Seat."

The Flowers

I think that my flowers were my favorite project!  I was going to be charged by a florist between $20-29 for my 6 bridesmaids, and my bouquet.  That adds up, and fast!  So I looked online to see where I could get the cheapest flowers, and if anyone recommended them.  I found 2 places that would ship my flowers overnight so that they would be fresh.  It was recommended that they be delivered about 2-3 days before the event.  I had mine delivered on the Wednesday before my wedding.  When they arrived I freaked out a bit.  Because it did not look like 200+ stems I ordered!  But it was...in fact I had extra.  In the end, they were beautiful!  So for the same price the florist was going to charge me for 7 bouquets, I was able to do all 7 bouquets, a toss bouquet, 11 boutineers, and fill a few vases with the flowers I ordered.  Big Success!
And a few pictures of the finished product below.

Well that is all for today.  In the next post I'll be showing my projects for the Decorations and Favors, my Hair Accessory, and the Guestbook.

Stay Tuned!

Would you like me to post on how I did a certain project? Or maybe you had your own DIY event.  Let me know, I love comments!