When you first start planning your wedding, you will come up with approximately one million Pinterest projects that you absolutely must have at your wedding. Unfortunately, a lot of brides and grooms underestimate the time needed to complete DIY projects and end up with a bunch of half-finished crafts that do not live up to their expectations. Worse, they get fed up with the whole thing and don’t enjoy the process.
Here are five tips to avoiding DIY burnout before your wedding:
Prioritize It:
While planning your wedding may feel like a full-time job, you still have other things going on in your life– like a job and a social life. This means that you likely won’t have time to complete everything you’ve pinned in time for your big day. On top of that, you really don’t want to spend all your time DIY-ing for your wedding and not getting to enjoy life. Prioritize which projects are ‘must haves’ and which ones are ‘nice to haves’ and complete your must-have list first.
Plan it Out:
The biggest mistake people make when DIY-ing for their weddings is forgetting to plan. Before you begin a project, make sure you know what materials you need, and how to actually do the project. Neglecting to plan will result in a lot of wasted time and money and a lot of frustration on your part.
Price it Out:
While there is a common assumption that DIY- ing for your wedding is much cheaper than buying everything, that doesn’t mean they are without cost. Depending on the item, it may actually be cheaper to hire a professional both money-wise and time-wise. Price out both options for all projects and make your decision based on how long the project will take you, and whether or not paying a bit more for a professional is worth it!
Be Realistic About Your Abilities:
Let’s be honest, the last thing we want is for anything at our wedding to look like it was made in a kindergarten class (unless that’s your thing). When planning on DIY-ing anything for your wedding, we suggest making a test version to gauge if this project is actually in your wheelhouse both from a skills perspective, but also a time perspective. Learning early on what you will be able to DIY for your wedding and what you’ll need to source elsewhere.
Enlist Help:
Do you have a few DIY projects that are easy but fairly time-consuming? Call on your bridesmaids for a fun night of DIY! Supply them with wine, dinner, and a few classic movies (think Mean Girls and Bring It On) and get crafty! If you do decide to enlist their help – make sure that you aren’t going to micromanage the whole process or you may end up with fewer bridesmaids than you started with!
Deciding to include DIY elements in your wedding can be a great way to save money and add a personal touch to your big day. Making sure that you leave yourself enough time to actually do it yourself is key in avoiding burnout. Be realistic about your budget – both time and financial – before committing to DIY-ing anything! Happy Planning!
