DIY Wedding - How to Design and Create you own Wedding

It is no secret that I love to make and create! So it was only natural to apply this passion to our wedding. Creating our own DIY wedding was a great experience and certainly challenging. There are a heap of advantages to having a DIY wedding 

 1. Budget - For those of us who do not want to spend our life's saving on a wedding, a DIY wedding can be super cost efficient. We saved a heap of money!

2. Unique - It gives you the opportunity to have a unique wedding with a heap of personality.

3.  Pride and Experience - It was a great experience and I am proud to have pulled it off!

So, in the coming month I will be sharing my experiences and tips! 
Today I am starting with collecting inspiration and deciding on themes

The following list/reminders helped with the decision making process throughout the DIY wedding planning and reduced headaches

- How much are you going to DIY -

I would have loved to DIY everything, but that was unrealistic for me. (e.g. I wanted to make our cake but it just was not possible, so I had it made in a local bakery, but I made the stand (stay tuned to see our cake!))

- Season - 

Consider the time of the year when planning. Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn. e.g. you don't want a long sleeved wedding dress in the summer.
(We had our ceremony under this tree in the Australian summer)

- Colour scheme - 

Choose a colour (red, pink, green, yellow etc) or a colour theme (e.g. pastels, bright colours, metallic) 

(We had pastels with peppermint green and apricot as the main colours)

- Formality - 

Formal, semi formal, informal/casual 
(Our wedding was casual, which suited the backyard theme)

 - Venue type -

Garden, Backyard, Beach, Hall, Barn, Restaurant, Country, city, tent

(We had a garden, backyard wedding)

- Add your own personality/quirks - 
Put some effort into injecting your personality into the wedding

e.g. Music, hobbys,interests  
(We took our cameras with us for the photos, I sewed our clothes, had cotton spool name tags, crocheted our cake toppers,created our playlist etc.)

- Inspired by an era - 

Period, Deco, Nouveau, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, modern
(The Art Deco period inspired my dress, jewellery & make up)

- Verbs - 
Choose some relevant descriptive terms:

eclectic, quirky, fancy, elegant, rustic, classic, romantic, party, rock, punk, natural, ecological, ethical, vintage, indie, local, organic 

(I chose these verbs Eclectic/romantic/ethical/local/vintage/party)

- The dreaded budget - 

Every decision needs to be made with the budget in mind! 

(Ours was low!)

- Be practical -

Think practically, try not to get carried away. The reality is that you can not achieve every fantastic thought/inspiration. You have learn to edit and have a relaxed attitude! What ever happens, happens.

-Be organised -

Create a timeline (find some basic one's on the internet), create excel spreadsheets to help you organise, assign roles/jobs for the big day

- Avoid internet saturation and be confident - 

If you are struggling to make decisions, step away from pinterest and wedding blogs. Be confident and trust you decisions

- Think about your journey -

Think about your journey together as a couple and the current stage in your life. How can you incorporate this into you wedding. 

(We had a photo wall which reflected our journey and the people in our lives. The music was also a reflection of our journey together)

- Mood board and keep on track -

Use all of this information to create a mood board and keep checking back at your theme ideas. It is easy to get carried away. Make a decision and stick with it. Or have a solid reason to change!

Posts still to come...

- How to set up your garden/backyard wedding

- Making your wedding dress

- Making the grooms suit

-  Crocheting the cake toppers

- Making the bridesmaid dress

- Creating your invites

- Choosing your flowers

- Choosing your jewellery

-Choosing a phtographer