Everything is becoming more and more expensive, including marriage. An average wedding costs around 15,000 euros, but that can of course be cheaper! With a little creativity you can significantly reduce the costs of your wedding. By making your wedding a real do-it-yourself wedding, you will soon spend much less money! It is already quite a trend in America, but it is also starting to emerge in the Netherlands: the do-it-yourself wedding. The principle is simple: By doing as many things as possible yourself, you can keep the costs of your wedding as low as possible. In addition, you can make the wedding as original as you want!
Craft yourself
There are a lot of things you can put together yourself. If you are not that creative yourself, you can ask family members or friends to help. What can you make yourself?
The wedding card
You can make a wedding card yourself. Are you creative on the computer? Then you can probably make a very nice card yourself. Nowadays there are special programs that already contain standard designs to which you only have to add an image and text.
Tip: You can of course have the wedding cards printed at the printer, but there are websites (Albelli and Vistaprint are very well-known) where you can have the cards printed much cheaper. The better-known stores such as HEMA and Kruidvat also have a good printing service.
Are you not very good with the computer, but do you enjoy making the cards yourself? Then of course you can always use paper, scissors and glue. There are many great ideas available on the internet.
Tip: Take a look around the hobby department of a store. For example, the Action has booklets with scrapbook paper. The prints printed on this paper are often very chic. Make a card from craft cardboard and cover one area or strip with the scrapbook paper. Buy a roll of beautiful ribbon and make a bow from it, which you stick on the card. You complete the card with a self-written text, photo and possibly some decoration materials. Now you have created a simple, yet very chic card!
Are you giving the wedding a special theme or is a special color of clothing desired? Then it is nice to incorporate this into the wedding cards.
The thank yous
Would you like to give a thank you note at the end of the day? You can also make these yourself! Take a look around stores like Action and Blokker. There you will often find small gadgets that you can decorate yourself with a card on which you can write a text. You can also put sweets in the shape of hearts in beautiful bags and tie a card to them. It takes some time to make the favors, but you will save a lot of money.
The decorations
You can also partially or completely decorate the wedding location and the party room yourself. The most obvious decorations are of course balloons and flowers.
It’s a nice idea to make your own garlands. You can print out photos of yourself (the bridal couple) or have them printed and pasted on paper. You can do it very simply by sticking the photos on an A4 sheet of paper, but you can make it as beautiful as you want. Hang the parts of the streamers on a wire and they are ready to hang!
The food
There are many options to provide your own food. You may have family members or friends who would like to help with baking and cooking and perhaps even provide food on the day.
The wedding cake
It is great fun to make the wedding cake yourself. Nowadays you can easily buy the necessary materials and products to make your dream cake yourself. There are many ideas, as well as many methods and tips, on the internet and in books. Would you like to learn some techniques in practice? You can follow a cake workshop in many places in the Netherlands. There are many different workshops available, including special workshops for wedding cakes.
Idea: Cupcakes are also totally hip! Make one cake, which can be used for cutting, and otherwise just make cupcakes. You can go in many different directions with this and they look very festive on a special cupcake stand or etagère!
Make your own evening meal
Don’t feel like having an expensive dinner in a restaurant? Then make your own buffet. You can of course also choose to make snacks, for example tappas. You can prepare most snacks a day or a few days in advance. If possible and if the weather is nice on the day of the wedding, you can also opt for a barbecue. There are probably some guests who want to fry the meat, but there are also plenty of young people who would like to earn some extra money by helping out at your wedding.
The clothing
You naturally want to look your best on your wedding day. A beautiful wedding dress is often very expensive, but here too there are ways to make it cheaper.
Make it yourself
If you are handy with a sewing machine, you can choose to make the wedding dress yourself. If you’re not handy with a sewing machine, there might be someone in your area who would be willing to make you a nice dress (for a friendly price of course). Another idea is to put an advertisement on the Internet or hang an advertisement in a fashion school. There are always people who enjoy making a beautiful wedding dress that is exactly according to your wishes!
Pimp your wedding dress
You can also buy a very simple dress and dress it up yourself. If you look carefully, you can find very nice belts, ribbons, straps with beautiful stones and other things. With a little creativity you can have your own original wedding dress that doesn’t cost too much money.
Tip: You can often find beautiful fabrics and accessories on the market for little money.
Goodie bags
Something that is very nice to give to the guests at the start of the bridal day is a goodie bag. Buy nice gift bags and fill them with nice things that the guests can use that day. Some ideas:
- A disposable camera: Provide guests with a disposable camera that they can use to take photos throughout the day. At the end of the day, everyone hands in his or her camera, after which you have it printed. There are printing services that also provide the photos digitally on a CD-ROM.
- A pack of tissues: tissues always come in handy during emotional moments!
- A roll of peppermint: if guests have to wait a while or want a fresh taste in their mouth, peppermints are always good.
- A bottle of water: is the wedding day in the summer? When it is very hot, a bottle of water is very welcome for most guests.
- A jar of bubbles, confetti or rice: during most weddings something is sprinkled over the bridal couple. Also put this in the goodie bag, so that everyone has it at hand when the litter is needed.
So you see: you can make many things for your wedding yourself. In addition, you usually spend much less money if you make and arrange things yourself, instead of having it done by professionals. You also give the wedding a personal touch. But remember: You have to enjoy doing things yourself! If it just causes stress, it is best to call in the help of professionals.