There is something Pinterest doesn’t tell you about all those wonderful little DIY projects: They are time consuming.
I am a huge crafter. I love craft projects – so I figured out how to craft for a living and became an Event Designer. When I was planning my own wedding, I was bound and determined to save myself money and buy everything myself – make it myself and install it myself. Oh! How I wish someone would have told me:
- Crafts are expensive. If you are buying it at Michael’s, Joanne’s Fabric, Pearl, Hobby Lobby, etc., you are paying retail pricing. You could have rented it for the same (or close) cost from a décor company.
- Wholesale sometimes means getting more than you need. The price per unit is great, but you may end up with twice as much as you really need.
- Sometimes silk is not cheaper than live floral. If they are GOOD silks, they are likely the same price. If it’s going to save you $100 in the end, why not just get live flowers?
- Sometimes things don’t come together the way that you expect. Take it from me and all my DIY fails, do ONE first. Establish if you LOVE it enough to do it another 10-20 times. What were the real costs associated with the project? What were the material costs? How many of each item did you use in your piece? What as shipping? And, of course, how long did it take you to make it? If one centerpiece is taking you an hour to put together – you may have 20 hours of assembly ahead of you.
- Failures drive your costs up. Do NOT buy all your materials without making one first. Remember, keep track of how expensive that one was – and then times it by the number of projects you start/do that you don’t like. I literally had to go back to the drawing board numerous times for my centerpieces and cake topper. I spent around $300 on centerpiece mock-ups for myself. That’s $300 I could have spent with a professional. In the end, I spent about $300 on my centerpiece materials. I could have just had someone else take care of them for $600.00 and had something much nicer than what I wound up with.
- You will have a TON of stuff left over after the wedding? What are you doing to do with it? Store it? Sell it? Give it away? Just think about it before your living room is taken over for the next few months and your on-going crafts make dinner time at the dining table an impossibility.
- Just because your trying to make it yourself, doesn’t mean it’s free. Every trial, every mock-up, every vase… all of those are coming out of your décor budget. We said back in Chapter 2 – money doesn’t grow on trees. Unless you are taking this spending money out of your “entertainment” budget, it’s got to come from somewhere.
In the end, if all you are saving is $200 in delivery charges/installation, is it worth it? For me, it wasn’t – I wished I had just bit the bullet and hired a florist. Rather than my sad little votive arrangement with glass beads and fabric – I was so convinced it didn’t matter to me, but on the wedding day, I was so mad at myself I insisted on doing it myself. I did not feel pride. I did not feel “wow”. I looked at my hard work and said: “That’s it? All that work!”
