Planning your dream wedding is no doubt a very exciting prospect but it can quickly become stressful without some guidance. Knowing which aspects are fun and worthwhile DIY tasks and those that are best left to the wedding planning experts will help avoid any pre-wedding disasters!
1. Prioritise your wedding plans
Think about what is important to you as a couple, what are the necessities at your wedding and are they things that you can put together yourself or will they require the help of a professional supplier. For example if you are artistically inclined then it may be important to put the personal touches on your invitations yourself. If you are self-confessed foodies then you may want to consider an edible wedding favour such as a favourite home-baked treat, jam or preserve, lovingly made by the bride or groom. You may know you can’t bear to be without live music at the reception seeing as you met at a music concert, these are the things that should appear higher on your list of must-haves.
2. Set the wedding budget
Once you have prioritised the details according to their importance the next step is to set a budget. For any DIY wedding consider how much you are willing to spend on these things and then price the materials required. Unless you have a large budget and plenty of time up your sleeve, the parts you choose to put together yourself should aim to save you money while not taking up enormous amounts of time. Or equally, you may decide that the extra cost to achieve that hand-made uniqueness that is on trend currently is worth it!
3. Gather inspiration from other weddings
Trawl through bridal magazines, online wedding sites and Pinterest to find inspiration on your chosen style. There are so many ideas from around the world all available for free on sites such as Pinterest. Just make sure you don’t confuse yourself with the myriad of images out there and stay on track by refining your searches to your style of wedding only. Keep your inspiration well-organised using the Pinterest boards feature or if you like to do things manually – a ring binder split into sections for your magazine cut-outs and printed images.
4. Engage talented friends and family to help with your DIY wedding
If you have a talented Aunty who is a cake maker or a cousin that is a graphic designer then consider asking them to help with those aspects of your wedding. Not only can enlisting friends and family to help save money in your wedding budget it makes those friends and family feel valued and privileged to be entrusted with those aspects of your big day. Don’t overlook anyone when considering the talents of your loved ones. That family friend who is a builder could thriftily knock you together some rustic looking wedding signage for the venue from old offcuts of timber!
5. Seek advice from the wedding planning professionals
Knowing when to call in the experts will save unnecessary stress especially if it concerns an area of your planning that you are not too familiar with. Professional wedding planners have many trusted suppliers they can put you in contact with and will often offer advice for a minimal fee to get your DIY wedding planning back on track, allowing you to maintain full control of your wedding vision. You will find that what you spend on wedding planning services will save you in time which is a precious commodity, but it will also often save you money in other aspects of your wedding budget.
