DIYers - How much did you really save if at all?

[newbie124]

I'm just curious of DIYing has really saved a lot of money for people (relative to the time spent to do the work)?

For instance, I'm considering having my sister or a friend come up with the design for our stationery, but every time I've done any crafty projects, I recall being amazed by how the cost of supplies can really add up! Then I see the really cute designs from sites like weddingpaperdivas and the prices don't look that bad, and it makes me wonder if doing all that labor to just to save $100-200 is really worth it (custom vs factory design issues aside) for a wedding that's ultimately going to cost probably 30k at least?

Also not sure what are others areas where DIY can really save money? I don't think I'm really into the idea of DIYing flower arrangements b/c I think you really have to be a professional and/or have the talent for that to make it look decent.

I can see where maybe purchasing candles and candle holders from places like IKEA could potentially save a good chunk of money, but what else is there? Even making 12 tablecloths could potentially add up w/ fabric costs. And then what do you do at the end of the night w/ 12 linens that don't fit any table you own?

I'm all for saving money and getting good deals. But I also don't want to spend long hours laboring over things that come out looking just OK and might have only saved me a few $100s but cost a lot in sweat and tears.

Can people provide some examples of where they've saved by DIYing, how much, and how many hours it took to complete?

 

[Independent Gal]

If you enjoy doing crafts OR you have a lot of time and not a lot of money, DIY is great. If you have plenty of money available and would not enjoy making things yourself, then DIY is silly.

I probably saved about $600 making the invitations myself, as compared with what it would have cost to invitations of a similar quality and complexity printed up professionally. But I wouldn''t have done it if I didn''t enjoy it.

Other DIY projects I ENJOYED that saved (or would have saved) a tonne : DIY veil - cost: $3 (but I decided to go with something else). DIY pillow cushion - cost of the fabric, about 25 cents.

But honestly? For me it is less about the money savings adn more about the sheer joy of making something with your own two hands.

 

[cara]

So on something like paper products, really the cheapest thing to do is buy a "kit" from Michael''s or Target and print them at home. Your invites will be on the simple side.

But if you want something nicer/cuter/more elaborate, DIY can really save money COMPARED to the cost of to paying someone else to do custom layout and assembly of your 10 piece pocketfold invitation with bows and response cards and directions and exploding confetti balls and cashmere invitation shrugs, etc.

Only DIY if you actually want the customization involved or fancier components and are trying to get exactly what you want for less than $10 per invite.

Most DIY invites don''t end up beating weddingpaperdivas on price alone... Just instead of a cute, standard 4-piece invite you might get pocketfolds and your personal design for the same price (and a couple weekends of your life spent cursing at paper cutters and printers).

 

[newbie124]

Date: 1/18/2008 5:57:40 PM
Author: Independent Gal
If you enjoy doing crafts OR you have a lot of time and not a lot of money, DIY is great. If you have plenty of money available and would not enjoy making things yourself, then DIY is silly.

I probably saved about $600 making the invitations myself, as compared with what it would have cost to invitations of a similar quality and complexity printed up professionally. But I wouldn''t have done it if I didn''t enjoy it.

Other DIY projects I ENJOYED that saved (or would have saved) a tonne : DIY veil - cost: $3 (but I decided to go with something else). DIY pillow cushion - cost of the fabric, about 25 cents.

But honestly? For me it is less about the money savings adn more about the sheer joy of making something with your own two hands.

OK, a veil is definitely something I would consider DIYing. If not personally, then at least ask my grandma or one of my aunt''s who can sew. B/c I think it''s ridiculous what salons charge for basically a piece of fabric and a comb...Plus I don''t want anything fancy...no ribbons, no beading, no lace. Any good resources for how to make one? Also, how come you ended up not using the one you made if you don''t mind my asking?

Yes, I like the feeling of satisfaction that comes when you''ve created something yourself AND it turns out brilliantly. However, don''t really enjoy those projects where you put a lot of work in and it turns out looking like a 2-year-old could have done better

I think my craft projects have a maybe 50:50 record so far, depending on what it is (I did learn how to sew a pillow cover not too long ago and that was one of my proudest achievements But it took in person step-by-step instructions to get me to the finished product...)

 

[Independent Gal]

Hiya Newbie,

Here are the instructions that I used: http://www.wegotgame.net/jen/veils.html
I bought some lovely soft tulle from a fabric store and a some plastic combs on sale at the drugstore. You can just as easily attach the veil to a fancy comb.

As for why I''m not using mine, I guess making the veil was a little TOO much fun.

I kept adding more and more embelishments and finally, FI was all "Uh...honey? No. Sorry, but no." I bought a brand new Justina McCaffrey one from someone on craigslist for $40, and decided to make a fascinator for WP2 instead of a veil. I haven''t started it yet though.

 

[Pandora II]

I''ve made my own cake - 4 tiers: 11", 9", 7" & 5".

I bought the best organic dried fruit I could find and added in extras like dried cranberries, ginger etc plus a marzipan waistband and loads of brandy to soak the fruit in overnight.

So far it has cost me c.$80. I''m estimating another $50 for the marzipan covering, icing and tier supports.

It took me a weekend to make the cakes - I made the xmas cake and my grandmother''s 85th birthday cake as well (included in my $80 costs). I really enjoyed doing it too. It will take me an afternoon in June to marzipan and an afternoon in July to ice them all.

I reckon a total cost of $120 and 3 days work for a 4 tier wedding cake is pretty good!

My favours are coming in at $80 for 130 and will take a weekend to do (herb & lavender bags hand-stamped with our monogram).

A friend of my mother''s and I are doing all the flowers - we have the venue for 2 days before the wedding so no time problems. She teaches flower-arranging and did my sister''s wedding. I''m really looking forward to learning some new things. Plus she is doing them for free, I just have to pay the wholesale cost of the flowers and help! I''ve set my budget at around the $1k mark - fingers crossed I''m not hugely under-estimating (everything in the UK is soooo expensive.)

I''m DIYing my Orders of Service - but having my invitations etc done professionally.

I am very lucky that I have more genuine offers of help than I actually need.

My take on DIY is that it is very worth it $$ wise - but only if you are going to enjoy doing it, and know that you have the ability to do it well enough for your own standards. eg. I have a degree in textiles, but would not dream of making my own dress, as I''m not good enough to do it as well as I want it to be.

 

[somethingshiny]

Newbie- My whole wedding was DIY by friends and family. If you have the talent in your family, use it!! My entire wedding (eight and a half years ago) was under $2500. (I think it was right around $2000 but I'm bleary.)

We had a church wedding with three attendants for each of us. Pew decorations, limo to our venue. Our reception was at the Lions Club and came with a bar tender. My mom tended bar at the time (not at the wedding) and we were able to buy alcohol for our nearly 200 guests for just a little above costs through her employer. A friend of the family was our photographer (although I admit the photos aren't superb.) Ladies I used to babysit for made the food (they were just beginning a catering company). Table service was included with our venue. My aunt made our cake, another aunt made my dress and my bridesmaids dresses and the flowers. The flowers from the church transformed into our centerpieces at the reception.

Oh, and FIL printed the invitations (he dabbles with a printing company)

SO, invites (rsvps), dress, flowers, church, pianist, limo, venue, table service, alcohol, food, cake, and decorations for under $2500 because of DIY. It works! (oh, and a DJ I knew from where I was working at the time. We don't do bands or quartets around here.)

My sis's wedding was also DIY. Aunt made the dress for her. My mom had become a floral designer and did the flowers. I made the cake and took the photos. It was an outdoor wedding so DH ran a sound system out of our disc changer and speakers and stuff all around the pavillion. We premade CD's to play during dinner, dances, etc. My mom and sis's MIL made the food, and borrowed table service from someone. (it was a small wedding. Under 100 guests) Oh, and two kegs. And, I believe her total was $700.

 

[Dutchgirlll]

Well, so far we saved a ton on our wedding invitations. We picked a design in the US, but it was way over my budget. They we''re $800 for 25 cards & envelopes !!!

So we got an example to take home and we totally remade the design to our own likings and got it letterpressed back home. Now we got 125 cards and 175 envelopes for $700. Sure the original design is more beautiful, but nobody knows and our cards turned out great.

My FMIL is great on the sewing machine and she will be making our FG dresses herself, so that will save us at least $400.

That''s bout it for now, but we''''l be doing a lot more DIY projects in time.

 

[bee*]

I''m making my own invitations also. I priced the ones I like (pocketfolds with inserts) over here and they were nearly €25 each so I ordered samples from the US and it looks like it''s going to cost me abot €2.50 per invite to make my own. So a lot better value.

I''m also going to do my own flowers. For our venue I want more candles than flowers as they dim the lights so I want lots of candles for that and I only want a simple bouquet. I''m hoping to spend less than €200 on flowers. I''m going to head into the flower market early a couple of days before our wedding. I''ll do a practice run at the same time this year just to see how it works out.

 

[Elmorton]

We DIYed a lot of little things, but it added up. By purchasing our own centerpieces (glass cylinders with floating candles and glass rocks) I saved about $500.

By DIYing our slideshow and iPod instead of DJ (I feel like this counts, since we had to do the playlists and compiling stuff), we saved about $400.

I DIYed favors for about $15 total - but the favor was a bookmark explaining that we''d made contributions to our favorite charities in honor of our guests, so no money really "saved" there, except that we didn''t ask the charities to provide us with a card (which both do, but we thought what''s the point? because then the charities have to use their money to print the cards instead of using the entire gift).

We DIYed the direction cards, menu cards, place cards, ceremony bulletin thingie (I don''t know WHY I can''t think of what those are called), rehearsal invites and STD cards - saving about $300-400 easy.

I also DIYed a table for our outdoor venue that was a taller height so we could stand and sign the marriage certificate - technically, about $5 saved because we didn''t have to rent a table, and now we have a nice little hallway table.

And there were some things that were money wasted on DIY. I tried to DIY bridesmaid jewelry and it was not so good. The invites that I started to DIY turned into menu cards and we ordered invites. I made a fake toss bouquet but ended up using real flowers because they''re prettier. Left a bunch of those centerpieces at home by accident. So...bottom line, we saved at least $1000, and I really enjoyed all of those little tasks (except for the place cards. YUCK).

Ooooh another tip - BORROW! Ask other people you know who have been recently married what they have left over - I threw almost everything out, but a lot of people keep their stuff. One of my girlfriends borrowed my table number frames, leftover mirrors from one of our friends, and a couple of other little things.

As to what you do with the stuff after - We also DIYed our decorations since we had an unconventional reception venue - so our Xmas tree had very pretty lights this year. And, should we throw a dance party any time soon, I have a "ball of light" (you know, those color disco ball things) to set the mood.

 

[somethingshiny]

Oh, I forgot something else that we DIYed. I worked at a jewelry manufacturing company and had them make my bridesmaids jewelry. I designed aquamarine stud earrings and aquamarine and silver necklaces. For the guys, I got black leather, gold faced, diamond accent Seiko watches for really good price.

 

[Pandora II]

That reminds me, it''s worth selling things on afterwards.

I am buying loads of fake ivy (about $400 worth), and various other bits and pieces like battery operated fairy lights and votive candles - one of my mother''s friends has a daughter getting married 6 months after me who has offered to buy it all off me.

So it''s a win-win for us both.

 

[newbie124]

Thanks for all the input and tips! Wow, I am seriously impressed by everyone''s craftiness/resourcefulness.

Btw, Pandora, kudos for making your own cake! I''m so tempted to do that b/c I think I could make a cake that would be just as tasty if not more so than a professional, but I don''t think I''d be able to handle the stress of getting that done right before the wedding.

Elmorton, how did the iPod work out for you guys instead of having a DJ? That''s something we''ve considered doing as well, but I''m just worried that we''d need someone to sort of "conduct" the crowd to get things going and keep people on the dance floor.

 

[newbie124]

Also, has anyone had success supplying their own centerpiece materials but getting a florist to do the arrangements? I''m curious if a lot of florists allow people to do that so that clients can at least save some money on supplies.

 

[Independent Gal]

Re the florist: we''re going to supply the peacock feathers. Doesn''t seem to be an issue. She also said that some clients supply their own vases to save money.

Re the DJ: in my humble opinion, there is nothing more annoying than a DJ who talks. I say, if you''re a DJ, do your spin-thang and stfu. The thing that would worry me might be lacking, iPod wise is the seamless mixing. It partly depends on what kind of music you want and how good you are at ordering the tunes.

That said, my DJ just cancelled on me. IPod''s don''t cancel. So, there''s that. (She provided a friend''s name as a backup though.)

 

[Elmorton]

We really didn't need anything to get the party started/continued -we're mid-20's and it was a crazy college reunion - so once the music started, I ran out to the floor with my MoH and everyone followed and nobody left. We had our friends request music via e-mail a couple weeks prior, so there were 3 hours of tunes that our friends wanted to hear, which I think helped dance floor retention. We did ask a couple of DH's friends to man the system and I won't lie, there were a couple of glitches, but we had 4 backups (2 ipods, cds, and a computer) and most people didn't realize that there was an issue at all. I've yet to be at a wedding where the DJ doesn't flub up at one point, so I wasn't upset. That stuff just happens. Our venue had a complete sound system (a theater) and DH and I used the mic to announce the bouquet/garter toss and my dad announced the bridal party entrance. I really, really, highly recommend doing it this way - it was so easy and a lot more personal.

ETA: I just read Indy's post above mine - yupp, talking DJs are EXACTLY why we had an iPod. We went to one wedding where the DJ encouraged the drunk groom to STRIP. Classy. Anyway, I would be worried about iPod if you had a friend DJing from your iPod and people requesting, but all our lists were set and timed. So, two fast songs, a slower one, a slow dance song, then fast again, etc. The old school rap was kept to the last 30 mins. There was a master list that was timed exactly how long the ceremony should run (appropriate time for cocktail hour, dinner, etc), and then we had separate playlists for each part that were a touch longer should we run off schedule. It was 100% seamless (with the exception of the glitch about 20 mins into dancing which was due to a shorted wire at the theater), no probs.

 

[Mandarine]

Well...you do save money, but it depends what you compare it against. Invitations can range from $2 to $20!!.

For me, I made the decision to DIY when I just didn''t see anything I liked in my price range. I have spent more than what I originally thought...mainly because I bought way too much stuff. So now I''m trying to get creative to use as much as I can!. I have enjoyed the process so much and it is just so gratifying to hear what my guest think about the stuff I designed and worked so hard on.

If you don''t like doing this kind of stuff and you would ONLY do it to save money, then I would say don''t do it because it is time consuming!...

Good luck

M~