DIY Bride – Avoiding Pitfalls

Howdy LoveBirds! If you have been following along this week; you will have noticed that I opened up the discussion of being a ‘DIY Bride’ in my last post.  I didn’t truly feel that I could even begin to scratch the surface necessary to cover DIY Bride’s in one post, so I decided to turn it into this week’s series.

I wanted to discuss the pitfalls of being a DIY Bride and ways for you to avoid them. So let’s get right to it!

1) Plan and Prepare!

As with the rest of your wedding, plan and prepare all of your DIY projects. Round up print outs of projects, create shopping lists of what you’ll need for each project, insert them into your wedding binder (if you have one) and schedule a block of time for you to complete each project.

 

2) Minimize Your Spending

And not just your dollars! In my last post I raved about DIY manicures because I was able to save money and schedule the time to do them when most nail salons would be closed. DIY projects can be a double edged sword on spending and time management. To maximize your DIY Bride projects, MINIMIZE! You can minimize your spending by looking for sales, utilizing coupons, or even getting mileage out of left over stock from old projects. Minimize your time as well (see step one), I was once told that when you calendar something you should ‘make it sacred’ and do not put it aside, focus your attention to it once it’s time. I loved that tip! Don’t blow off the block of time you have scheduled for your projects, especially when your wedding is looming and you have other projects still scheduled to be completed.

 

3) Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help

So you scheduled your time, you started your project, and now it is taking wayyyy longer than you hoped or even expected it too, bummer! Reach out to one of the members of your bridal party and ask them to step in, on the same token, don’t be a Bridezilla stomping around and demanding of her bridal party while feigning illness on the couch (anyone else remember that episode of Bridezilla? apalling!)

As far as help goes, also have a plan in place for set up on the day of your wedding, if you are using a Wedding Planner (yes DIY Bride’s also use wedding planners) this should  be part of your package; if you are not using a wedding planner ask if your venue provides a Day-0f-Coordinator (some venues include this at no extra charge), you can also ask another wedding go-er, maybe a friendly neighbor or aunt; with less responsibility if they wouldn’t mind helping you out.

Bridezilla – Photo Credit

4) Know Your Own Limitations

Some projects can become all consuming even if you have planned and prepped. Sometimes even the craftiest of us can get in over our heads. If you are overwhelmed and asking yourself how on earth you got into this mess and what possessed you to think you could put together 100 mason jar centerpieces, menus, favors, candy bar, table numbers, escort cards and welcome bags, you may need to rethink. Is there something you can cut back on? Is there a faster alternative to what you had planned with the crafts already on hand?

 

5) Pinterest Can Be Your Friend

I sort of unassumingly bashed Pinterest in my last post. Sorry Pinterest! It’s all love! Pinterest can be a great source of inspiration as well as education from endless resources. There are countless articles on wedding favors and wedding planning tips for DIY Bride’s. Again, print out what you need and see step 1)

 

6) You Don’t Have to DIY Everything

This also ties in with 4)  I went to the wedding of a friend of mine a couple of years back. He called me up as a sort of an impromptu ‘Save The Date’, within the conversation he also proudly proclaimed that his Bride-To-Be would be making their cake. I thought they had both lost their marbles, but I just kindly said ‘Oh Wow, that’ll be great’ or something generic along those lines. Boy oh Boy did I eat my humble pie on that one! The cake she baked turned out amazing and she had planed for it to be delivered to their venue on the day of. I also had to remind myself that she was a chef by trade, so baking her own wedding cake came naturally to her. If you’re not much of a baker, your own wedding might not be the place to start. There is nothing wrong with hiring a baker or a florist and filling in the rest of your day with your own DIY projects.

DIY Bride – Photo Credit

Have you ever had a DIY project gone awry? Sound off in the comments!