DIY Snark

Kahlyla · October 2015

For me, DIYing was kind of a mixed bag, but it was a lot of fun, and yes, we did it ourselves. None of our bridal party members lived in town so we certainly didn't pawn anything off on them. I went out and picked up the flowers the day before, and the groom assembled the bouquets while I was getting ready the morning of. We did bulky flowers like hydrangeas with a few roses mixed in, and we didn't do boutonnieres. I had a few wrist corsages for mothers/grandmother made by the florist we ordered the bulk flowers from for a very modest fee, as that was something I had no idea how to do.

Our centerpieces were oversized IKEA vases filled with green apples, which meant we made them ourselves in advance and then took everything home and made centerpiece pie.

We kept several of the vases and now fill them with things like Christmas ornaments, and we gave some away as gifts, filled with e.g. baby things when a friend had a baby. So TONS of money/effort/time was saved on those in particular, and none of the elements went to waste or sit around collecting dust.

Invitations were another matter. I was very happy with the result and I learned some things, but I definitely didn't save any money compared with the cheaper or average invitation suites. They weren't crazy expensive by any means, but between the learning curve and having to scrap certain things, the ink, the paper itself and the postage, we probably didn't save any money and certainly not any time. But for someone who likes crafting, it was worth it just to learn some new tricks and skills. Table numbers were super easy and I loved them, and we didn't do programs at all.

As far as all DIY weddings looking Pinterest-y... I mean, Pinterest is basically ALL the things, lol. So even a DIY wedding where the couple drew from Pinterest for ideas and tutorials could look like anything. Certain trends are big now of course, but Pinterest can be a great tool for learning some skills that can be applied to any aesthetic, so it's really just what you make it. And I say this as someone who got married years before Pinterest, but I absolutely use it now for ideas for everything.

I do agree that if a couple is trying to DIY everything just because they think that's what's done now, or if they're wrangling all their WP members into doing the work for them, they should probably re-think things.

MissKittyDanger · October 2015

I attempted some DIY stuff, but I was lucky that some of our DIY fails were fixed by the venue!

We did a table chart. I couldn't find a frame I liked to put the bristol board in so I was just going to hang. Our venue had a frame and lovingly redid it so it would fit and look nice.

They had an arch and the night before we did some crepe paper around it with some extra flowers that matched what the girls carried, but due to stupid weather night before {winds!} the venue ended up redoing it. Same idea, but they obviously had experience so it looked the way we were trying to do it. We just got lucky!

julieanne912 · October 2015

ETA: Oops, meant to quote the ladies saying they weren't sure what to do with their stuff afterwards.

I've been slowly selling my stuff on Facebook wedding buy/sell/trade pages. It's a bit slow going, especially for the pricier items (linens mostly, since chocolate brown isn't a very popular color), but I was able to unload our giant 50"x50" escort card holder, and all of my signage (that I bought from the same page, another bride DIY'd them). I didn't make much on it, $55 total, but it's definitely GONE from my garage.

ryanandjoe4 · October 2015

julieanne912 said:

ETA: Oops, meant to quote the ladies saying they weren't sure what to do with their stuff afterwards.

I've been slowly selling my stuff on Facebook wedding buy/sell/trade pages. It's a bit slow going, especially for the pricier items (linens mostly, since chocolate brown isn't a very popular color), but I was able to unload our giant 50"x50" escort card holder, and all of my signage (that I bought from the same page, another bride DIY'd them). I didn't make much on it, $55 total, but it's definitely GONE from my garage.

I am stuck between re-purposing stuff and what to sell/get rid of.. I need to do it soon though because it is in the spot where firewood goes in the garage and that is now more important than wedding stuff...

spockforprez · October 2015

Re: Getting rid of stuff, yeah. Very early on in our engagement when I was considering straw bales for ceremony seating**, my mom was like, "Well, instead of doing that, your dad can make benches for everyone to sit on!"Now, my dad is definitely capable of making benches, and at this point we had 16+ months to do it. But what on EARTH would we have done with 20+ benches after the wedding?! Mom said, "We can sell them!" Sure, mom. NO.

Same reason I nixed doing bunting for the tent. I would have spent weeks sewing it, it would have taken hours to hang it, looked pretty for 4-5 hours, and then I'd have all this bunting I'd have to get rid of. I will have a bunch of mason jars with burlap and lace that were given to me, but there are probably a couple weddings coming up in my friend group where those can be used, or I'll do like the previous bride did and give them away.

**Almost always a bad idea, too many downsides. We are just making the reception chairs do double duty.

julieanne912 · October 2015

spockforprez said:

Re: Getting rid of stuff, yeah. Very early on in our engagement when I was considering straw bales for ceremony seating**, my mom was like, "Well, instead of doing that, your dad can make benches for everyone to sit on!"Now, my dad is definitely capable of making benches, and at this point we had 16+ months to do it. But what on EARTH would we have done with 20+ benches after the wedding?! Mom said, "We can sell them!" Sure, mom. NO.

Same reason I nixed doing bunting for the tent. I would have spent weeks sewing it, it would have taken hours to hang it, looked pretty for 4-5 hours, and then I'd have all this bunting I'd have to get rid of. I will have a bunch of mason jars with burlap and lace that were given to me, but there are probably a couple weddings coming up in my friend group where those can be used, or I'll do like the previous bride did and give them away.

**Almost always a bad idea, too many downsides. We are just making the reception chairs do double duty.

My mom sewed my bunting, and then I mailed it all back to her in a box and she's going to make a quilt for us out of it. Also, it's funny, it shows up in the pictures I posted on Facebook to try to sell the linens, and everyone is like OMG are the flags for sale??? I kind of wish they were only so we could get some money for them haha!

lovesclimbing · November 2015

Getting rid of stuff:

We didn't have a ton of DIY. We had pillar candles tied with purple ribbon on all the tables. I threw away the ribbon and still use the candles. Some of them, I've repurposed for the holidays by decorating them with other ribbon or sequin patterns.

We had glass bowls with floating tea lights and flower petals. Kept the tea lights, the glass bowls were returned to the aunt we borrowed them from.

The arch (rented) had some fake ivy and ribbon woven through it. I kept if for awhile and then threw them out when we moved.

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