Diy decor or hire a professional?

Since I have close to 2 years I'll try some diy projects. I have terrible hay fever so any flowers I have will be the silk kind I'm afraid which gives me lots of time to try.

hurricane lamp with glass tealight holder DIY

Some projects were diy and half rental cutting down costs.

Rentals:

Backdrop

vases and floral balls shown. Money box was another item that isn't shown

I used to plan parties, so I say if you’re on a strict budget then I recommend just getting some bolts of cheap fabric (like tulle, or organza, sheer chiffon) off of Amazon and drape it wherever you can. Fabric is cheap and large amounts of it can transform even the ugliest of places into something out of a fairy tale, and doesn’t take forever to drape. (If you’re not satisfied with AMazon.ca head to the Amazon.com, there are lots of sellers that will ship to Canada and I found better deals there). That being said, I’m going with a decorator because the quote they gave me for what I wanted seemed reasonable and he does all the set up and take down and it meant that was something I didn’t have to worry about. But there were things they quoted me for renting which I went out and bought myself for cheaper.

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it's just too much, can't justify all that moolah going to decorations!

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I totally agree! I myself enjoy seeing things that have been diy'd more than the fancy expensive centrepieces (which are still gorgeous). But it's always impressive to me what people are able to come up with and create on their own!

We don't have a huge budget, but we also don't want to do DIY our décor. Our compromise was just less décor that we paid a professional to do. If you feel confident in your ability to DIY your décor (or some aspects of it), then go right ahead! There's nothngi wrong with saving money and adding a personal touch to everything.

We are DIY-ing everything except the basics that the venue provides like linens. I am excited and nervous and hope I don’t get overwhelmed lol but a couple of my friends will be a big help and my fiancé is a hands on tradesman so he can help with some stuff too like making signs. We’re going to just buy everything so we can sell stuff after and get a couple of bucks back.

We found a venue that doesn't need a lot of decorations so we are keeping it simple for decorations.

For the ceremony we are doing a DIY archway that has vines and wisteria hanging from it and we have DIY chair decorations which are just bundles of the same things as the vine but hanging off the chair ends.

The reception will have photos of us spread around, our centerpieces which are just lanterns spray painted gold with some fairy lights in them and then some vines around it.

I think the more DIY things you can do (given time and money) the better. Everyone I have talked to about it loves that they have been able to make everything personalized by DIYing it, I personally think it really adds to intimate feel of it all knowing that I worked so hard on everything. It has also been a great project for my fiance and I to sit down a couple times a week and just work on wedding decorations.

Plus like you said the markup is insane!

We are DIYing and outright buying everything ourselves.

The cost of rentals was just as much or more, than buying in a lot of cases for me.

I watched the wedding buy and sell pages as well in my area for some items.

I also like the idea of being able to resell and recoup some of my investment.

If you are crafty I say go for it. My mother was cynical and told me things were going to look cheap. Well she saw all my signage, marquee letters, paper flowers and back drop and etc... and she was like woahh this actually looks great.

My only comment... make sure you have enough time. Some projects took wayyyy longer than I anticipated.

As for set up.. do you get the venue the day before? Or only the day of?

And if it's the day of.. just ask some friends or family to help out. Stuff will get done faster than you think with enough hands.

View quoted message I hear you, one company i spoke with said her minimum to send a contract was $2000

View quoted message GIRL! The money the decor people make!! Makes me feel like I’m in the wrong business 😂😂

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My sentiments exactly! We definitely have a certain vision in mind in terms of what kind of florals and décor we want and how we want it all to look on our wedding day but neither of us have the time or the skills to execute it. We hired an event designer a few weeks ago so we're excited to have her expertise on board! If I had the DIY skills, I would love to do it since it would definitely save us thousands of dollars, but thankfully our budget abled us to go this route. A lot of DIY projects turn out just as good (and in some cases, even better) than what a professional would do for you, plus you have more control! So if you have the time + skills, go for it!

If you’re good at DIY and have the time - I would totally DIY.

Im not creative at all, so I hired a decor professional and it’s expensive. I just don’t have the time nor the talent to do it myself. If I did, I would definitely do as much DIY as possible

I'm all about Diy but to make sure you are getting the best bang for your buck reasearch like crazy the cost of materials you'll need to make an item vs the cost of renting. Also take into consideration if you buy the materials to make things ie centerpieces, table linens what will you do with them afterwards.

View quoted message Yea for sure life can kind of change things out of nowhere! My cousin is getting married about a month after but she’s in the middle of doing her thesis so diying stuff was kind of out of the question!

View quoted message Sorry just getting the hang of this app on my phone, my reply was to your post, but I think it just popped up as another comment!

That’s amazing! Yea the cost is atrocious and as much as I want the best for my wedding day, it just isn’t a priority, I’d rather make sure I’m not in debt and have money for our mortgage! I’m doing similar stuff, diy for all the centrepieces and seating chart and signs. I’m planning on ordering florals thru Costco as well. I’m just stuck on the backdrop for the head table, not sure what I can do, there is a floor to ceiling curtain that will be behind the table. Our coordinator at our venue wasn’t too worried about decor, as long as we don’t put holes in the wall he’s ok with it. Another worry is prep and set up, I can do it but it all takes time!!

Bit of both! We hired a decorator to do our flowers and the backdrop, but we are doing a BUNCH of DIYs too!

Most of decor is DIY, we aren't hiring a professional decorator but our venue provides all linens/part of our centerpieces and our DJ provides uplighting!

I planned on DIYing everything but I got a new job about 3 months into our planning process that required more of my time, so that idea went out the window. Luckily, we found an amazing florist/decorator, who is just starting her business. She gave us an amazing deal, since we also hired her to be our day of coordinator. Also, we want very minimal decor, so that helped with the price.

I have done a lot of DIY- all the center pieces, decor and photo booth. I couldn't afford a professional, would have loved one though! If its not in your budget, its not in your budget, doesn't mean everything won't look beautiful!

Our venue includes a lot of decor for the ceremony and centerpieces. We are only DIY a couple things like our guest book, wine box, and seating chart. Other than that our venue provides everything else so thankfully that is one additional cost that we don't have to worry about!

I'm DIYing any of my decorations.. I won't be paying for a professional. We aren't doing flowers and we don't need too much decorating so we're kinda lucky.

Hi Jessica,

I did a fair bit of DIY for my wedding. We had 30 tables so i was not willing to shell out 8-10k for florals as I was quoted by many florists. I purchased mason jars and sprayed them gold, did my own calligraphy for the table numbers, and ordered all my florals with my membership to a wholesale. Cost me $800 for premium roses. Prior to picking up my florals, I watched youtube videos on how to prep and maintain the flowers. Took a day to prep and do all my florals arranging but totally saved a huge chunk of our money and put it towards something else.

At another wedding I went to, they had some friends help make paper flower bouquets and for centerpieces they got ikea lanterns and stuck fairy lights inside. Check out pinterest for more ideas if making real floral centerpieces is too much of a hassle.