Do-it-yourself weddings

DIY weddings can be loads of fun and make a huge impact if done right, not to mention saving you heaps of money. The difficulty is knowing what to DIY and what to outsource. You need to play on your strengths and acknowledge your “not so strengths”.

Flowers and decorations

Tissue paper flowers

More tissue paper flowes

If floral arranging is your bag, then do your own flowers. You could even have a working bee to get this done the day before the wedding if you don't mind the last minute pressure. However there are other cool alternatives.

How about making your flowers out of tissue paper, it’s so blissfully quirky and will blow your guests away. They can also be made months in advance which will relieve some of the on-the-day stress, it will also save you a fortune without looking like a cost cutting measure. I found these in Martha Stewart Weddings Spring 2006 and am seriously considering doing this myself.

Paper butterflies

Another alternative would be to make tonnes of paper butterflies out of different coloured papers that suspend above the room by fishing line. Quite an impact!

Origami flowers

Origami flowers for the tables are a fabulous idea but I made one of these and it took me AGES! I’m sure this gets easier after the first 100 though :)

My wedding

I’ve decided that for my own wedding in May I’m going to embrace the DIY theme, bearhug it actually. It may take a lot more time to prepare but my guests will hopefully appreciate the effort and I get to have a wedding that doesn’t feel like it’s templated.

Handcut placecards - Martha Stewart 2006

I’m running with a theme of paper and birds. The flowers are likely to be made of tissue paper al-la Martha Stewart Spring 2006 (if I’m dextrous enough to manage it) and I’ve found these handcut placecards (also in Martha 2006) that are ADORABLE!

Birdseed bonboniere by Nature Favors

And the piece-de-resistance will be these birdseed bomboniere by Nature Favors that I found on Etsy, this I will outsource, but the little Bride and Groom tags I will tackle myself.

Wrens stationery available at Anouk Invitations

All this ought to be all tied up with the Wrens illustrated stationery design, of which I’ll use the invitations, menus and thankyou cards.