I’ll continually be adding a new set of Do It! and Don’t Do It 
so keep checking back for new topics.
These days DIY is all the rage and that is especially true when it comes to weddings and saving money. With all of the tools available these days and of course the ease of the internet what budget conscious bride wouldn’t do it herself? I was a budget conscious bride. The average cost of a wedding nationwide is $27, 852 and these days more than 1/3 of weddings are being paid for entirely by the bride and groom. With numbers like those staring you in the face I can understand why the DIY craze is so big. I am the first to proudly admit that I was working with a budget of less than the national average. As a bride who survived a DIY wedding I’m here to share with you a few tips on what to do yourself (Do It!) and what to break down and just pay for (Don’t Do It , or you’ll be sorry).
Do It!
Veil
Have you stepped in to a bridal salon lately and seen the cost of a veil? At most of the stores I looked at they started (started!) at $150. I cannot tell you how easy it is to make your own veil. Actually I can tell you and I will!
I have two suggestions for making your own veil. The first involves knowing how to sew just a little bit. I highly recommend going to Amazon.com and buying the book Veiled in Beauty. I reviewed several books on making veils before finally deciding on this one. I made the two-tier veil on page 59 and it was very simple. The book includes instructions on making all kinds of veils from blusher (short) to cathedral (extra long). Someone who wants a cathedral length veil could save a ton of money by buying this book and making their own rather than purchasing it at a bridal salon. All that the two-tiered veil required was purchasing a few yards of illusion, which is similar to tulle but lighter, a veil comb at my local fabric store, cutting out a circle pattern per the instructions in the book, and finishing the edges on a sewing machine. To dress it up I purchased mini pearls and mini crystals and glued them to the veil. Total cost of the veil including the book was under $40 and I got tons of compliments on it. Besides the satisfaction you get when your wedding guests compliment you on what a gorgeous veil you have, maybe some day you’ll even be able to hand it down to your own daughter.
I came by my second suggestion through several friends who purchased their veils from http://www.veilshop.com/. If you don’t know how to sew but still want to save money veilshop.com has great choices. Be sure to order their free swatch booklet so you can see and touch the material before you buy.
Don’t Do It
Flower Girl Dresses
I made my own flower girl dresses and if I had it to do over again (which I’m sure I won’t!) I wouldn’t do it. When I started looking at flower girl dresses I was overwhelmed with how absolutely adorable they all were! Then I looked at the price tag, most of the dresses I liked were from $130-$150. I immediately thought no problem I’ll do it myself. How hard can it be to make a little girls dress? One little girls dress may not be so hard but three was hard!
I started by ordering a gorgeous fuchsia colored dupioni silk at http://www.fabric.com/, if you’re ever looking for fabric look here first. I always buy dupioni silk from here (perfect for making your own curtains) because you can’t beat the price and now that they are carrying the Amy Butler line of cottons I’ll be buying that there as well. I only paid about $105 for all the dupioni silk needed for three flower girl dresses, but that’s where the happy story ends.
Then the sewing began. I always tell people one of the hardest parts of sewing is the preparation. First you have to press all of your material and after cutting out all of your pattern pieces you really should press those too. Then you lay and pin all of your pattern pieces out on your fabric, after deciphering the pattern markings of course. Next there’s the fabric marking and cutting. I would say that the preparations alone took me 4-5 hours. When you’re sewing one of the biggest costs is your time, and I’m sure most of you are working full-time just as I was. Most of my spare time was on Friday nights or weekends so guess what I spent most of my Friday and Saturday nights before the wedding doing? I remember several Saturday nights spent bent over my sewing table hand sewing pearl buttons down the back of the dress. I also had the challenge of one of the flower girls living out of state so we didn’t have a chance to try her dress on her until the day before the wedding, when she tried it on I closed my eyes and crossed my fingers. It was a little big but luckily she didn’t care.
In the end the dresses only ended up costing me about $50 each. But the amount of time and energy (and frustration!) that was spent on making those dresses while also planning all other aspects of the wedding made it absolutely not worth it at all. What I would have done differently, since my wedding was in March, was have taken advantage of all the gorgeous Christmas dresses that were on sale in January. I may not have been able to dress my flower girls in fuchsia dupioni silk but most likely I would have been able to find three great dresses for under $50 and the saving of my time and energy would have far outweighed my need to have fuchsia dresses.
