There are many, many (MANY) decisions you have to make when planning for a wedding. But there’s one in particular that you’ll have to continually make over and over again: do you want to do this yourself or have someone else do it? With apologies to those of you hoping for a quick and easy solution here, there is no universal right or wrong answer to that question. Some couples do everything themselves, some don’t do anything themselves. Most, however, go with some mixture of DIY and paying professionals to take care of things.
That’s because even if you want to save money and/or make your wedding feel as personal as possible, some things are just way too complex or outside your comfort zone. What these things are may vary a bit from bride to bride, but there are a handful of items every bride can try doing herself…and a handful almost no bride should try doing herself. Trust us.
Do This
- You can save some precious budget space that you can make better use of elsewhere while adding a personal flair by handling the wedding favors on your own. Start by picking out some of your favorite sweets, maybe a family recipe or two or some items from a favorite local bakery. Pick out some colored boxes or bags and pack in some soaps/lotions, something nature-y like tree saplings or even include charity cards. Really, whatever fits your personality and your wedding’s theme.
- Who knows how you want to look and will look best better than you? No one, of course. So if you’re confident in your own makeup skills, why not skip the stylist and do it yourself from the comfort of your home or hotel room? If you’re not positive that the look you want will come across well in photos, do a few trial runs, then share the results with your friends and ask for feedback.
- Did you know that invitations, programs and save-the-dates can quickly become very expensive? You can easily spend hundreds or even thousands on all the paper and postage. Is your money really best spent on this bit of ephemera? If you have the budget, it might be, but for others, this is a great DIY option. Pick up some stock paper in the color of your wedding at the local craft or paper store and print your own invitations from home.
- An even larger expense is the wedding ceremony décor. It can and will cost you big time if you want to pay for professional arrangements. These days, the actual ceremony tends to be pretty quick for most people, with the emphasis placed on the reception. If you want to make the most of your reception, then put together some hanging baskets or vases with flowers for your ceremony yourself and use the money you save to make the reception all the more magical.
Don’t Do This
- It’s your wedding, and you’ve been running around taking care of everything you can from the most grand of plans to the smallest of details. So why shouldn’t you just run everything? Mostly because you won’t have a second to yourself to relax and enjoy your wedding. Do yourself a favor and hire a wedding coordinator to do the worrying so you can spend more time enjoying your big day.
- Unless you’re a truly incredible baker, don’t try to make your own cake. The cake is too big and too important to risk messing it up, which is as easy as adding just a little too much or too little vanilla. Not to mention that transporting a giant wedding cake in the backseat of your Honda is not the easiest thing to do. This will end poorly. Don’t try it.
- Staying on the topic of food, you shouldn’t even think about catering your own wedding even if your culinary delights are praised by everyone you know. Weddings require huge amounts of people being fed, and that’s a logistical nightmare for anyone who doesn’t have a professional kitchen and team of chefs, waiters, etc.
- After it’s all over, one of the best ways to remember your big day is looking back over all your beautiful photographs. Of course, they won’t quite have the same impact if they’re a series of (increasingly drunken) cell phone snaps. Hire a professional photographer with high-grade cameras and an eye for great shots to help keep your wedding memories vivid and beautiful over the decades.
Cubic Zirconia Jewelry
While you can pick out your own jewelry, you should probably also leave the making of it to professionals. At Birkat Elyon, all of our cubic zirconia jewelry is made using the “Russian Formula.” What does that mean? Simply put, it means your cubic zirconia jewelry looks just like real diamonds but costs a fraction of the price. See for yourself!