DIY programs

monkeysip · February 2013

Hello ladies!

Did anyone print/make their own programs? I definitely want programs since almost none of my guests are Catholic, but this is one of those things we did not budget for, so we need to make them cheap.

Then again, I don't want them to look terrible. If you made them, what materials did you use? Any special instructions to make them look nice?

Also, how many did you print? We're expecting about 80 people, so what percentage will take a program?

I know I still have time, but I just want to start preparing myself for the cost and time of these since I still have a lot of other DIY tasks to do too.

Thanks!

swanrat · February 2013

I bought a kit from Michael's, and downloaded the template. It wasn't too much work!
We made enough for each guest to have one, and ended up with a bunch of extras.

bibliophile2010 · February 2013

I definitely did mine DIY. It was before the new translation, and of intermediate detail, but I'm happy to pass it along, if you would like.

I used Microsoft Word in the booklet setting (if you have more than 4 pages, it will print it correctly for you). There were 8 "pages," so two sheets of paper, front and back. I made the copies at Kinkos. Because I'm me, I wanted to "fancy them up," so I folded a sheet of white cardstock in half to be the cover. They were stamped with a grey cross, and the whole thing was "bound" with a piece of pink ribbon going the length of the programs.

I think I made 125 or so for about 150 guests. 100 probably would have been good.

agapecarrie · February 2013

I highly suggest booklet form. It's way easier, you can keep adding pages as needed.

I'm over 200 weddings now, and never, I mean, NEVER do people use them when they do the cutesy little tiered flippy pages.

professorscience · February 2013

I just printed simple 9x4 cards on Zazzle. One side had wedding party info, the other had the order of the mass. I wasn't able to add much except for the responses to the readings and the psalm, but they were super cheap and simple and elegant. Even my MIL, with very discerning tastes, said she loved them.

monkeysip · February 2013

@ Carrie

Oh yeah, definitely booklet form. I never would've even thought to do the tiered flip book thing.

@ Kristan

Our church calls it a program, but I'm not sure if they need it approved or not. I'll ask first!

And yes, please send what you have, if you don't mind! I'm PMing you my email

@ Biblio

I'm PMing you my email as well. Thanks for anything you can send me!

Basically, I just need some nice paper, my printer, and some ribbon, right? How did you bind the ribbon, by wholepunching pages? I'm not the craftiest person, haha.

monkeysip · February 2013

Also, maybe make 60 for 80 people? A lot of them are couples/families, so I know not necessarily every single one will take one.

monkeysip · February 2013

@ Prof

I'm just worried that I wouldn't be able to fit enough on a single card. I was hoping to put detailed responses, the readings, etc.

bibliophile2010 · February 2013

Monkey, YG email.

I literally just folded the whole thing in half and then tied a ribbon lengthwise around the fold with a knot at the end. It was really straightforward and, using cupons for Michael's/Hobby Lobby, pretty inexpensive.

monkeysip · February 2013

I gotcha... that makes sense! I do know how to bargain hunt and coupon at Michaels/Hobby lobby... so I'll be looking out!

MedStudent13 · February 2013

Kristan, did you include the lyrics to the songs? My church has the Breaking Bread books, but they pass them out at the beginning of every mass since there is noplace to keep them on the chairs. I just think it would be easiest if we had programs ready on every chair so we don't have someone to pass out the programs AND books.

bibliophile2010 · February 2013

We did have the lyrics, but we do not have books at our parish. I would ask your music director about it, though, as there may be copyright issues, especially if you have the books. I'm sure they have a recommended way of doing things for weddings and funerals.

agapecarrie · February 2013

I require lyrics in the programs. People at weddings won't pick up the books and turn to the songs. If its in the program within the outline, people would hopefully at least look at it.

We already pay a yearly license fee to print lyrics on songsheets since I have a songsheet for one of our Sunday masses.

If a parish doesn't have a license fee, there is a "technical" rule and spirit of the law rule.

The technical rule is that you can't print the lyrics. Even if they already pay for books.

My "rationalization" is that I've paid for more than enough copies of the books to be in the pews, so I've paid the copyrights for people to read the words, this just shorthands the process and makes it easier to access. This is a complete rationalization, however, a copy of the song HAS been paid for.

[Deleted User] · February 2013

We made ours! There are a lot of templates online and I loosely went off of it. I also used my friends program who had gotten married about 6 months before us as a guide. I can give you the websites if you want them. Just let me know.

pittpoint1119 · February 2013

I actually am going to Office Max or the UPS store. I am having one of those flip pages that has acknowledgements, Order of Ceremony and Thanks all on different pages.. I took an example to them both I had seen at a wedding a few years ago. I am not very DIY so the cost seemed reasonable for 250 of them 50 dollars for paper, hole punch etc.

erin5286 · February 2013

We made ours in the style of a tri-fold brochure, I organized it all in Word but then H converted it over into Adobe Editor(?) because that's what he uses at his office, but Word would've worked just fine.

We bought cardstock from OfficeMax specifically made for tri-fold brochures, it was already pre-scored so folding was a cinch. We printed one for just about every guest (I think 150 for 165 people) and had a TON left over. Some people told us that most people took one, but a few placed them back on the table as they left, and a lot of other followed once they saw others doing it.

We included some verbal responses, e.g. where to say "and with your spirit" since over half of our guests weren't Catholic. We included the words to one of our hymns because it wasn't included in our Church's hymnal, for the other one we just referenced the book and hymn number. It seemed to work fine, I thought it sounded like an equal amount of people joined in singing on both.

DIY programs

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