Many brides decide to incorporate DIY elements into their wedding to ensure that their personal style shines through and adds a touch of authenticity to their big day.  Whether it’s your paper goods or the Mr. and Mrs. Banner on your sweetheart table, there’s more than meets the eye when preparing to take on such a lofty goal of doing it yourself.  I’ve included some of the common mistakes and misconceptions associated with planning a DIY wedding below.

DIY doesn’t always mean cheap.

Many brides make the mistake of equating DIY with less expensive.  Not the case!  All the materials, not to mention completion time, adds up.  Make sure when you are creating your wedding budget that you account for all of the supplies needed to make that perfect DIY project a success!

Plan ahead.

You know the quote by Benjamin Franklin, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail,” well that should sum it up for you!  Don’t think you can just wing it the night before the wedding.  For my wedding, I decided to make the table numbers for my reception tables- Easy enough, right?  Wrong.  What I didn’t take into account was the fact that I had absolutely no idea how to use a Cricut machine before taking on this task.  Several YouTube tutorials later, a little bit of trial and error, and many, many ruined sheets of pretty scrapbook paper, I did get the hang of it.  But, the moral of the story is- Don’t wait until it’s too late!

Know your skill set.

Just because you love to garden or can “arrange” the Trader Joe’s blooms you picked up while on a grocery run, doesn’t mean you should take on making all of your floral arrangements for the wedding!  So many times brides think, my mom’s a great cook, she should cater the entire reception dinner or my 2nd cousin’s a killer seamstress- she can make my wedding gown.  Don’t delegate tasks unless you know that they will be completed to your liking.

Practice makes perfect.

You began planning your wedding a year in advance so you automatically think you’ll have plenty of time to learn calligraphy for your wedding… I hate to break it to you, but time flies in the blink of an eye.  If you’re taking on a new hobby or skill, make sure you have enough time to practice, practice, and practice some more.  There’s nothing worse than something that looks thrown together because you haven’t taken the time to master your art.  You want your guests to remember even the smallest of details.