Recent wedding trends have leaned heavily towards a DIY attitude. The idea of managing to throw together an Instagram-worthy wedding with just a few hundred dollars and a little help from your friends does sound appealing, but unfortunately, the reality tends to be a lot more stressful. It is perfectly reasonable to spend a little time creating custom favors for your bridesmaids, but trying to DIY the whole wedding will just end in plenty of anxiety and some grumpy friends. When you are planning a wedding, things will go a lot more smoothly if you do not DIY the following items.
Wedding Decor
Thanks to Pinterest, almost everyone is loaded with ideas for DIYing wedding decor. It is true that you can do some basic things like venue signage or photo backdrops on your own, but the bigger things should be left to the professionals. Never underestimate just how much decor you need for a wedding. What might seem like a simple project will be a lot more time-consuming and stressful when you have to repeat it hundreds of times. You might save a few dollars by gluing lace and adding gold paint to 90 candle holders yourself, but that probably is not worth the hours of work it will take you.
It is especially important to avoid trying to DIY your floral arrangements. The problem with doing these yourself is that they are very last-minute. Doing them the night before the ceremony can mean that you end up with wilted greenery and browning blossoms on the day of the event. Even very simple designs, like placing a single flower in a glass at each table, take a lot of time as you have to unpack vases, fill them with water, and trim flowers to the right height. You need a professional who can deal with this issue while you are busy getting ready and spending time with your wedding party.
Image source: Upsidedown Lilies
The Honeymoon
The honeymoon might not happen the same day as the wedding, but it is still worth mentioning because a DIY approach to your honeymoon might end up negatively impacting your wedding. A surprisingly high number of arguments between couples before their wedding focus on the honeymoon. When couples are already busy and overwhelmed from dealing with the wedding, the last thing they should be doing is spending hours combing through reviews for hotels and trying to find the best prices for airline tickets.
Enlisting the help of a talented travel agent can make it a lot easier. Instead of stressing about your honeymoon for days, all you need to do is talk about travel goals with the agent and then get all your travel arrangements made for you. Many people worry that this service will cost a lot, but the reality is that travel agents get you special deals on travel and may not even charge you fees.
The Cake
As wedding cake trends move away from elaborately frosted and decorated designs, more and more people are starting to consider making their own cake. It might sound easy to bake a few tins of your family’s favorite recipe and top them with some fresh flowers and berries, but the reality is a lot more terrifying. Because they serve so many people, wedding cakes take a lot of effort to get right.
Trying to bake a larger than average cake in a home oven can lead to a cake that is flat and dense. It has to cool thoroughly and have time for the frosting to set, so baking a cake is a day-long process that you probably will not have time for right before the wedding. Of course, most brides think about getting a close relative to do it, but keep in mind that your relative may not have the time or expertise to do the tough task, especially if they are part of the wedding party. The only time you should even consider going DIY for a wedding cake is if you have a very accomodating relative who is already a professional pastry chef.
The Food
No matter how much you love cooking in your day-to-day life, don’t cook it all yourself for your wedding. The last week before your wedding will be an incredibly rapid blur of things to do, so adding the idea of cooking on top of all that is a bad idea. Cooking for small groups might be easy, but as professional chefs know, scaling up a recipe to feed more than 10 people can be tricky.
You can run into all sorts of issues like a longer preparation time, a lack of large equipment, recipes that do not work as well when quadrupled, and items that take far longer to cook. Trying to cook it all yourself for a wedding will lead to a lot of fatigue and stress that you do not need right before your big day.
Professional caterers will also save you a lot of stress the day of the wedding because they have the equipment and staff needed to make sure everything is served at the right temperature and offered to the guests at the correct time. Plus, chances are that the food will be much better than anything you could make yourself!
Image source: Vega Direct
Transportation
The driving is an aspect of wedding planning that many people do not even think about. However, it is helpful to go ahead and plan out how you will be getting to the wedding and leaving in advance. This is very important for both you and your wedding party. Hiring a chauffeur service ensures that everyone gets to the wedding on time, and it can also provide you with a welcome space to relax on the way to the wedding.
After your reception, you might end up too tired or a little too tipsy to drive anywhere yourself. Having someone to drive you to your honeymoon suite or airport will let you sit back and just enjoy spending time with your new spouse. In addition to making your big day more convenient, professional drivers also give you a little extra time to spend appreciating your partner, your family, and your friends.
The Clothes
It is common for prospective brides and grooms to get sticker shock after learning about costs for wedding attire. In this sort of situation, it might be tempting to think that you can talk your grandma who used to sew quilts into making a dress for you. Even something incredibly simple can be a bad idea to DIY.
Wedding clothes tend to be fairly tailored, so they require a talented sewer who is capable of dealing with heavy fabrics and molding them to your form. Keep in mind that the special linings, embroidery, beading, and other embellishments on wedding clothes can also be a little tricky to manage for an amateur sewer. If cost is your concern, know that you can find some very affordable options. That being said, this is something you need to remember for the rest of your life, you wouldn’t want to think about your wedding dress as a frustrating DIY thing you were afraid to bend over in because it would break the seam or stitching. Trying to do it yourself tends to lead to a lot of poor results and drama with the family members involved. See for yourself some of the most beautiful wedding gown designs available!
Skipping the DIY aspect and using the professionals for these parts of your wedding will help your big day to live up to your expectations. When you are willing to invest a little more in your wedding, you will be able to sit back, relax, and enjoy the experience. In the long run, all the time and energy saved will definitely make hiring people worth it. The end result will be a wedding that is easy to plan, looks sensational, and makes you and all your guests happy.
