The DIY Wedding Planner Guide

Want to DIY your wedding, but don’t know where to start? Overwhelmed by all the details of planning the big day? This guide will help you stay on track from beginning to end.

Congratulations on your engagement! Weddings are a joyous occasion you’ll always remember, but the overwhelming number of details involved in planning can often cause anxiety and frustration. This guide will help you celebrate your big day while minimizing stress. Learn how to DIY your plans for a beautiful, affordable wedding.

Setting Your Budget

The first step toward staying on budget is to, of course, determine what your budget is. Here are some things to consider:

· Are you and your S.O. footing the entire bill, or will others contribute?

· Do you prefer a big ceremony with everyone you know, or a more intimate celebration? While a smaller wedding will help to cut costs, it also means fewer people to assist with decorating and cleanup, but on-demand help can fill this gap while helping you stay on budget.

· How much do you and your S.O. feel comfortable setting aside for the event?

· What is your timeline? Longer engagements mean you’ll have more time to set money aside specifically for the wedding.

· Remember that estimates are just that, and you’ll want to reserve some money for unexpected costs.

· Setup, cleanup, and breakdown fees aren’t always included depending on the vendor and suppliers you choose. Look up pre-priced local help for setup, decorating, cleaning, and junk removal to account for those jobs in the budget.

Making a Guest List

Whether due to venue limitations or a simple desire to stick to a specific number of guests, you might have to whittle down your list from everyone you’ve ever met. You and your S.O. will want to tackle this task together.

Set aside time to sit down and write your list starting with the people you want most to attend. For many couples this includes immediate family, grandparents, and best friends. Next, determine which extended family to invite. This might include everyone from your last family reunion or only those closely related, like first cousins, aunts, and uncles depending on your preferences. You may also widen your circle of friends.

If you have a set number of guests you want to stick to, consider dividing this number in half so you and your S.O. invite the same number of people. If your list goes beyond your number, you’ll need to consider eliminating some of the “maybes.”

Sending Invitations

With so much to do, stuffing envelopes and mailing out invitations probably isn’t at the top of your list. Save time with affordable hourly help for addressing, preparing invitations, and mailing them out.

Unique Wedding Registry Ideas

A wedding registry helps guests get what you really need instead of three identical toasters. You can also opt for less tangible, but equally important gifts.

If you’re looking to save money on your wedding, you can ask guests to contribute to the budget instead of giving presents. Online crowd-funding can digitize the process so there’s no cash or checks to keep track of.

You can also ask guests to cover some of the services needed for the wedding, such as landscaping help for a backyard wedding, event setup, and cleanup services. Guests can even book these services for you right from their mobile phones.

Choosing a Venue

You may already have a venue in mind before making your guest list, or you might look for a place to accommodate your friends and family. Your venue will also likely relate to your wedding theme if you have one. Keep in mind that the larger and more popular a venue, the higher the price.

Some affordable venue options include:

· A local church, especially if you or your S.O are members.

· Your home or a friend/family member’s home.

· A local park or city-owned property.

· Your own beautiful backyard.

Choosing Your Vendors

How many vendors you choose can depend on several factors including whether you use an all-inclusive wedding planning service or you work with multiple vendors. If you’re reading this DIY wedding planner guide, you’re probably looking to handle most of the planning yourself. Hiring local vendors for your wedding cake, catering, and entertainment can help keep costs down while supporting your local community. You’ll want to read reviews of your vendors, meet with them to discuss your needs, and receive estimates up front in order to stay on budget.

Finding pre-priced services with built-in star ratings and reviews saves time waiting for estimates and negotiating prices. As mentioned earlier, not all vendors provide setup and cleanup services, or they may charge additional fees for these services. The good news is that you can find affordable, flat-rate local help for event setup, cleanup, and breakdown services in major cities across the U.S.

You may end up scheduling several vendors back-to-back the day of the wedding as there’s so much to do. For smaller tasks like setting the tables, placing name cards, and post-reception cleanup, use services that let you choose the time so you can schedule between meetings with other vendors.

Backyard Wedding Décor Ideas

A backyard wedding is a great way to celebrate your marriage with friends and family while saving money. You can have your wedding in a space that’s important to you while cutting costs. Here are some DIY backyard wedding décor ideas to try:

· Upgrade the garden — A gorgeous garden not only offers colorful, green décor, but adds value and enjoyment that lasts well beyond the wedding day. Have flowers planted for natural pops of color. Spruce things up by weeding, adding mulch, and trimming the shrubs or hedges.

· Use potted plants — Don’t want to spend tons of money on flowers that will quickly wilt away? Incorporating potted plants is a great way to add green décor to your wedding with plants that can easily be repurposed later. This is also a good solution if conditions are too hot or unfavorable for planting. You can line the aisle with potted plants, use them to enhance the background, or arrange them as table decorations. Flowers are of course an option, but other ideas include cacti and succulents. Add hanging plants to draw the eye upward and bring visual balance to your space.

· Incorporate the pool — If you have a pool, you can incorporate it into your wedding décor. Rather than see it as space to avoid or ignore, the pool can actually enhance the look of your wedding. You can create an elegant waterscape in a few easy steps. Add floating elements such as roses, lanterns, and biodegradable floating balloons. Lights placed along the edge of the pool will reflect off the water, doubling the impact. You can even have a bridge installed over the pool. In a unique custom Takl chore, a Provider dismantled such a bridge as part of the post-wedding cleanup. Don’t worry about what you’ll do with it after. A Provider can haul it away!

· Light the way — Planning an evening outdoor wedding? Add flameless tea candles along the aisle, paper lanterns that double as art, or strings of light across an arch. Solar pathway lights illuminate the yard and garden and can be used around seating, the aisle, and anywhere else you like. Vertical strings of lights in the trees add an ephemeral effect. The lighting you choose can cast different shapes and colors to fit with your wedding theme. Good lighting not only helps set the aesthetic tone of your wedding, but lets guests dance and dine late into the evening.

· Build a gazebo — A gazebo can make a wonderful addition to any yard or garden. If you already have one, a pressure washing or fresh coat of paint can make an older gazebo look as good as new. If you don’t have one yet, find local help to have it built in just a few hours. Next, hang a few curtains, flowers, and lights to create a gorgeous addition to your wedding.

DIY Décor for Indoor and Outdoor Weddings

· Stylishly eclectic seating — Why buy hundreds of fold-up chairs you’ll never use again (unless you want to host the world’s largest game of musical chairs)? You can make use of the chairs in your home, borrowed from friends and family, and picked up secondhand for a bargain, all without worrying whether they match.

The secret to making eclectic seating look stylish? It’s all in how you arrange them. Space out your mismatched chairs in ways that create visual interest, but not chaos. Create patterns such as where you sprinkle in pops of color or how you arrange chairs with curved backs versus those with straight. You can even throw in some pews and benches. Don’t be afraid to mix woods and metals, either.

If you find a great deal on some chairs, go ahead and get them, even if they aren’t a matching set. You can book same-day pickup and delivery with Takl.

· Add an arch — Arches are an affordable way to designate entrances, line the aisle, or create a beautiful backdrop for exchanging vows. Have an arch assembled and decorated ahead of the big day.

· Roll out an aisle runner — You can easily create visual balance by including an aisle runner. Add an aisle runner to an outdoor wedding to create symmetry and determine the borders of your décor. You can also use an aisle runner indoors to draw the eye to the front of the room.

Creating a Budget-Friendly Reception

· Fancify the tent — Tents are commonly used for outdoor receptions. Not only does this provide protection from the sun and rain, but it also serves to create a designated zone for the after party separate from the ceremony. Adding pendants, lanterns, or strings of light add instant glamor to the space.

· Decorate for dining — Have all the tables and chairs arranged so that there’s room for mingling, dining, and dancing. From the tables and chairs themselves to dinnerware, placement cards, and centerpieces, setting everything up can take a lot of work, so don’t be afraid to find some helping hands. Plants and candles act as graceful centerpieces. Consider adding pumpkins in the fall and wintry lighting for the colder months.

· Say cheese — Setting up a photo booth is an easy and affordable way to let your guests make fun memories. Have some curtains and lights hung and set out a few signs and props. Voila! All that’s left is to say cheese and smile for the selfie.

Post-wedding Cleanup

While the couple doesn’t usually have to worry about cleanup, even the help of friends and family might not be enough to take care of everything. Finding help for cleanup, especially for the larger items that need to be broken down and hauled away, saves time and saves the hassle of finding a truck or other means of clearing everything out.

Say Thank You to Your Guests

If you’d like to thank your guests while they’re in town for the wedding, you can have gift baskets or small favors delivered to their hotel. You can even choose the time you want to have packages delivered with on-demand delivery.

The wedding and honeymoon can feel like a whirlwind. Then you get home and there’s a big stack of thank you notes waiting for you. This can seem like an overwhelming task, especially when you’re tired from planning and travel.

Enlist some help for writing those thank-you cards. You can ask someone with superior penmanship to write for you or, if you prefer to do that part yourself, just find help for addressing, stuffing envelopes, adding stamps, and mailing everything out.

Stay on Budget with Affordable Help

Wedding planners, decorators, and other professionals can cost a pretty penny. Most couples choose to save money by doing the work themselves or enlisting friends and family. When you need an extra set of hands at an affordable price, you can find fast help on Takl. Takl lets you choose a background-checked Provider for hundreds of small tasks like hanging décor, cleaning, and even custom jobs like setting up an event. The app shows you the prices up front so that you can stay on budget.

We know you’ve got a lot of appointments on the books, especially so close to the big day. With Takl, you choose the time that works for you. You can even find help the same day you need it.

Get started creating your dream wedding with a little help from Takl! Visit Takl.com to learn more.