diy or Etsy?

We are doing most things DIY that we can.. that being said we’ve been buying our centrepieces from micheals and using the 45-50% off coupons to save! As well as ordering some things on Wish (I know it’s cheap but it’s just for one day) and everything works well together.

Thank you everyone for the thoughtful and helpful advice. I think I'm going to do what many of you have said and try the DIY route. I am also going to see if Etsy does have something things I am looking for and I hope to be able to start ordering them soon

View quoted message Thanks. I have been looking but the cost is a lot for something's I want to do. I did find lovely bridal party asking card and they are reasonable, but also cute.

View quoted message I see. I am looking to use more mason jars for my centerpieces. I saw a few on Etsy, but they cost alot. I know know I can get some at Walmart or elsewhere for cheaper

We did a bit of both. We ordered all the lanterns for our centerpieces off etsy but spray painted them a nice gold colour after and then added some decorations to them.

Other than that we did it DIY most of decorations based on inspo pics and it saved us a lot of money! there are some things that we just couldn't replicate ourselves but also couldn't justify spending so much money on it so we scrapped those ideas all together. It totally depends on how much time you have available for DIY and also what your budget is.

Depends on the things you're looking for! Like what items did you want to DIY/Etsy?

I looked on etsy a lot and decided to DIY a lot myself or..... check to see if it was cheaper on amazon LOL! As much as I love and would rather give the money to individual artists... I couldn't justify spending $40 on a ring bearer pillow when Amazon had them for under $10...

I think it really depends on a number of things:

1) Where you get material/ cost - some etsy shops can get material in bulk for cheaper which in turn makes it cheaper to buy from them. If you can get material for free though go for it.

2) Your skill level - if you are comfortable doing it go for it. But if you end up not liking it it could cost you more to redo/ get someone else to make in after.

3) Quanity - Some things are easier to buy in bulk than others. Also a bigger scope can mean more of your time so that is something to weigh too.

My FH and I are pretty much DIY'ing everything for our wedding, the rings, dress, his bow tie, ceremony furniture, decor, invites... etc. Not regretting any of it and generally saving money. Probably the only thing that we spent more on by DIY'ing is the invites.

Like others mentioned, it definitely depends what you're looking for on Etsy - somethings (like our invitations/centerpieces) are manageable but other things (like silk flower petals, hair accessories) I found what I wanted on Etsy and didn't want to attempt the DIY.

I find DIY takes time, but you have more than 2 years until your wedding so you can definitely tackle some of these projects now while you have time!

Depends on what you are looking at... some things are cheaper and some are not. A lot of the super crafty things are not HARD to make, they just take a lot of TIME. I made almost everything for my wedding and can definitely see the convenience of just buying it and being done with it if you do not have a lot of spare time. It was definitely a struggle to get everything done for me!

I realized Etsy was generally inexpensive but the shipping isn’t.

make sure you check off the box that searches for items in the city/province you live in. That really brings the shipping down.

i used Etsy for my MOH and BM gift and I’m also ordered lace cupcake wrappers which are amazing.

As Becky has said, some things are cheaper, and some are not.

You really have to do your research and look into pricing. Keep in mind where the product is coming for and the shipping costs as well.

I wanted to get our guest book from Etsy (Wooden sign with our names and wedding date on it), Many of the ones that I found on Etsy were $100 plus depending on size, type of wood etc. I showed what I wanted to my FH and he goes " I can do that for you for cheaper" so he is going to get a nice piece of wood, stain it, and I am going to stencil or get my sister in law to help me design something for it!

HI Amelia!

Welcome to the wedding wire community I did bit of both- There are somethings that are def cheaper- I bought 5 pack of hangers from home sense for 10 bucks and had someone with nice writing write the title, date, their name. It depends on what you want from Etsy. Honestly I wish I would have bought a circut board and I could have done soo much myself in regards to signs, shirts, even can use it to write nicely on invites. If your crafty I would highly recommend it!

What type of items are you thinking of buying off etsy?

There is a great person I have dealt with off Etsy- shes from Stoney Creek and does cligraphy workshops. This would be great if want to DIY yourself and learn all the tricks