Things to Consider When it Comes to DIY Wedding Decor

One of the most common searched questions in google, in terms of weddings, relates to the pricing of a wedding, and how one can save. Most couples turn to some do it yourself items or buy second-hand to try to not rack up such a high bill by renting or buying brand new.

Between buying used items from Facebook buy and Sell groups, bridal swap events, or making your own items, you could save quite a bit of money! There is nothing more special than homemade, one of a kind items, that fit your vision and theme perfectly. Although this can be a great idea for some couples, not all will have success with it, and there are some things you will need to consider.

Photo by Carrie J Photography

Photo by Carrie J Photography

Creativity:

Creating your own decor can give your wedding a special personal touch. However, not everyone is crafty and you run the risk of purchasing all the supplies you may need and then being disappointed with how it turns out. You just have to think about the quality of the items you are able to make vs. what you could have from a decor company, will you be happy with how your work turns out?
Another thing to think about is your time, as making all these different aspects for your wedding can be very time consuming. If you work full time, your evenings and weekends will now be consumed with making stuff for your wedding, leaving you with little time for rest or relaxation.

Setting up:

The more items you supply, the more you have to bring to the venue the day of. Some venues allow access the day before which means you would be able to drop it all off ahead of time, but that is not the case for most venues. This means with all the getting ready and organized the morning of, you will also need to assign people to deliver and set up all the items you are providing. Items could include vases, slabs of wood, candles, backdrops, floral arrangements, pillars, favours, card box, etc. Depending on the amount of items, you really have to consider if you have enough manpower to get it to the venue, AND have them set it all up the way you want it to be.

Tear down:

At the end of the night, is another thing that needs to be considered. Will you have the same set of hands helping at the end of the wedding? Packing up all of your DIY and personal items, and loading it up into vehicles to be taken home that night. Most venues do not allow you to leave ANYTHING there overnight, as soon as the evening ends, everything needs to go home with you. If you can’t guarantee you will have enough sober hands to help at the end of the night, this can cause some headaches for you when all you want to do is go home and get some sleep after the busy day!

** In terms of set up and tear down, most wedding coordinators and decor companies do offer a setup and teardown service, so please keep that in mind! If you do hire someone to set everything up, you just need to make sure you are making a detailed map and instructions on how and where you want the items placed. **

40 items that are in our wedding planner's emergency kit

Dragana Paramentic

A professional wedding planner will have an emergency kit which will help to fix most wedding day emergencies that arise. We use our kit at every single wedding, whether it is sewing a button, a dress, providing tylenol or securing a seating chart with velcro strips. We try to anticipate every situation.

Here is what we carry in our kit

Beautiful Life Studios

A Travel Steamer

Zipties of varying colours and sizes

Fishing wire

Flashlight

Microfibre cleaning cloth

Goo Gone

Food Service Plastic Gloves (powder and latex free)

Cake Cutting set

Envelopes for vendor payments

Fake gold wedding bands

Ceremony Signing Pens (silver & gold)

Fake wedding rings

Judy Nguyen Photography

Emergency Floral arrangement kit

Floral Clippers

Sewing kit

Variety of safety pins

Candle lighters (x4)

Scissors (many pairs)

Tape : Duct, painters, double sided, regular scotch tape

Sharpies : Black, gold, silver

Pens : for the guest book

Chalk : White to mask dress mishaps

Medicine : Tylenol, Advil, Tums, Gravol, Immodium.

F29 Studio

Emergency Stain removers : Tide stick, Shout Wipes

Shoe laces – Black for men’s shoes

Dress socks for men

Small Packs of Kleenex

Tools : Hammer, screwdrivers, pliers, staple remover

Revel Photography

Static Guard

Sunscreen

Fake Rose Petals (for the flower girls)

Bobby Pins

Hairspray

Air freshener

Feminine Hygiene Products

Batteries

LED Candles

Chewing gum/tic tacs

Windex

Paper Towel

Clear Umbrellas

We carry many more items than this, but this gives you an idea of how prepared we are. If you are looking for a coordinator, please reach out and tell us a little about your wedding.

Happy Planning

Perfect Planners are a full service wedding and event planning company, located in Oakville, Ontario.

info@perfectplannersweddings.com