Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
Many couples say they felt fireworks when they fell in love, but few can say pyrotechnics exploded during their wedding reception.
Britni and Karl Eggers can claim both. When the St. Louis couple married under a white tent in May 2005 in Liberty, much of their wedding and reception was homemade. But the polished outdoor affair didn’t seem homespun, especially the finale. The 10-minute fireworks display took Karl and Britni’s sister, uncle, and father, Harry Lee Boggess, most of the day before the wedding to prepare.
“My dad had a fireworks company,” Britni explains. “Yes, it was called Crazy Harry’s. But he did all kinds of things for our wedding.”
Britni and Karl decided to play off of the Chinese origin of fireworks for their wedding theme. As graphic designers, they found that many of their wedding’s elements, from the invitations to the reception decor to the band (the groom and his bandmates entertained the guests), lent themselves to a do-it-your-self effort.
Britni’s father, a talented handyman, built a lattice backdrop for the ceremony and rigged up electricity and Chinese lanterns for the reception tent. And friends pitched in to shoot a Polaroid photo of each guest or couple on arrival, on which they could write a message to the newlyweds. Britni later used Shutterfly (shutterfly.com) to create a guestbook from scans of the photos.
Like many couples, Britni and Karl wanted to avoid starting their married life in debt. Other couples go DIY not necessarily to save costs, but because they have special expertise or want to make sure certain aspects of their wedding are exactly as they envision. But while it’s certainly possible to do everything yourself, not every part of a wedding lends itself equally to a DIY approach. How do you determine what to do yourself and what to hire out?
A big factor is the size of the wedding, says planning guru Sarah Grus: “Smaller, intimate weddings of approximately 50 or fewer people are more favorable to do-it-yourselfers. They are more manageable for doing the centerpieces, invitations, escort cards, programs, menu cards, music, and even food, as long as you have someone to handle setting up everything the day of the wedding.”
For those looking to save money or add a personal touch to their reception, for instance, a candy-bar dessert station featuring the couple’s fave confections can work well—and it can be created up to a month ahead of the wedding. On the paper end of things, many couples go with money-saving online printing services like Vistaprint (vistaprint.com) or PrintingForLess.com for save-the-date cards, invitations, response cards, and envelopes.
And you don’t have to stop there, says Allison Hockett, co-author of The St. Louis Wedding Book (stlweddingbook.com). You could have a friend become an ordained minister online and perform your ceremony. Or you could even take cake-decorating and flower-arranging classes to do your own cake and flowers, she says. (Picking up a new skill you can use again in your future life together is a good way to remember why you’re planning a wedding in the first place!)
So where should couples draw the line? The experts agree: Without a doubt, hire a professional photographer for your big day.
“If you are going to splurge in any area, this is the one,” Hockett says. “I had an amateur photographer that did my photography. I won’t name names, but my pictures weren’t the best.”
DIY stationery also has its pitfalls. Grus recalls a bride who decided to create her own programs and menu cards and the near-disaster that followed. After recruiting her sister and then two friends to help just days before the wedding, the bride ran out of materials to make the cards, made multiple trips to the printer, stopped and started the project to attend prewedding events, and ultimately didn’t finish everything until 1 a.m. on her wedding day. In the end, Grus says the bride spent three to four times more than if she had given the whole job over to her invitation vendor.
Grus believes wedding flowers are also best left to professionals, due to their delicacy and the complexity of care needed. “The week before the wedding should be spent relaxing, getting a mani or pedi, and spending time with out-of-town guests or bridesmaids,” she suggests.
But sometimes DIY can save the day. Newlywed Jaclyn Davis of Dogtown says the handmade touches at her vintage country–style wedding kept things together, while adding uniqueness and sentiment to the proceedings.
For decoration, she filled blue Mason jars and old vases from her grandmother’s basement with loose bulk white flowers she bought from a florist and grocery store. Her favors were bags of kettle corn, which she and her husband, Tyson, love.
The day of the outdoor wedding at Twin Oaks Vineyard in Farmington turned unexpectedly windy, buffeting the reception tables’ white tablecloths. Jaclyn had her father dash to the store for a ball of twine, which she used to tie the tablecloths to the table legs in poufs.
“It ended up working out great, and it looked so much better,” she recalls. “Plus, it really fit in with the theme.”
Shera Dalin is a freelance journalist, believer in DIY weddings, and the author of The Art of Barter: How to Trade For Almost Anything.
