The Real Cost of Wedding DIY: Time, Space, and Sanity

We tackle a listener's Instagram question about DIY versus pre-made wedding decor, sharing our personal experiences and professional insights. Our honest discussion reveals the hidden costs, storage challenges, and post-wedding realities of the DIY approach while highlighting strategic ways to balance handmade and purchased elements.

• Grace used a 50-50 approach for her wedding, buying statement pieces while DIY-ing others
• Professional signage creates a cohesive look and reduces stress during wedding planning
• Consider your venue's natural beauty before overinvesting in decorative elements
• DIY projects require significant time, space, and mental bandwidth during planning
• Post-wedding storage becomes a challenge for purchased decor items
• Rental companies offer hassle-free alternatives that disappear after the event
• Pinterest fails are a real risk when DIY skills don't match wedding day expectations
• Choose your DIY battles wisely and know when to invest in professional help

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Transcript

Introducing the DIY Wedding Question

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey Queens , welcome back to another episode of the Daily Buzz . Today we are answering a listener's question from Instagram . This question is what are your thoughts on DIY brides versus splurging on decor that is already made ? Grace , let's talk about your decor too .

Speaker 2 0:17

Yes For my wedding . Honestly I would say probably 50-50 . Half of it I did DIY , the other half I just

Grace's 50-50 Wedding Decor Approach

Speaker 2 0:26

bought . I'm going to be completely honest , I'm not really a DIY kind of girly . I wish I was , and me personally the stress of already planning a wedding alone I didn't want to put even more added stress on myself to make stuff , build stuff , whatever . So I would definitely say , if you have the money to splurge on certain decor pieces , like we had , I spent money on , you know , our welcome sign . That is my favorite ever and we'll have that for a long time . So that was worth the splurge . But then , like our seating chart , I DIY'd it with a mirror and put the printed table seats on there , diy'd the centerpieces and everything else . A lot of the signage I just bought because I am not very artsy . So and it was easy too . I liked doing the signage part , like purchasing that , because I was able to make it cohesive and all the colors like matched and just went back to the same company .

Speaker 2 1:33

Etsy was probably my best friend during wedding planning and just buying stuff for the wedding decor . So , and thankfully

The Hidden Costs of DIY

Speaker 2 1:43

the venue I got married at it kind of speaks for itself . I didn't really want a lot of decor anyway . So I think , also just being mindful of what your venue looks like , we felt like the venue spoke for itself , so we didn't want to overdo it with the decor and it definitely saved us a lot of money . But signage and things like that I would just buy . I would not DIY . I feel like definitely seen some DIY projects that you know it didn't go that well and sometimes you're just crunched for time and you just have to go with it . So , and I'm very picky about that stuff , so I would say definitely splurge where you can on decor .

Speaker 1 2:23

I might be slightly burnt out from the DIY weddings . What I've noticed is people are trying to save a lot of money , so they go out and purchase things themselves and it takes up a lot of time and a lot of space in their homes . The every . I mean candles , candle vases , floral vases , and then purchasing the flowers in bulk off Costco or Sam's Club or having them shipped in as like a rental item . To ship back All of those pieces , there seems to be a lot more legwork when you're doing your DIY decor . More legwork when you're doing your DIY decor . I've also seen a lot of people try to return and so they are frantic on wedding day , thinking you know , as long as nothing breaks and it stays in great condition , then I can return it to Amazon or Timu or wherever they're getting their decor items from . So I've seen a lot of people DIY their decorations for the sake of saving money . I think that

Storage Problems and Post-Wedding Reality

Speaker 1 3:33

on wedding day when you go through rental companies , have somebody bring it all in . If that means the rental company sets up or the coordinator and their team set up and then the rental company comes back and takes it all , there is just less of a headache with it and then you're not having to think about where you're going to store all of the items .

Speaker 1 3:53

I actually just went . I was at Goodwill probably three weeks ago . We were looking for some vases for a birthday party and they were 99 cents and we bought like 50 of them . So we spent 50 bucks on all these vases and as we were in there collecting them , I was in shock because I know how much they go for as rentals . But now we have 50 vases stored and I'm like , oh , this is cool , what do we do with all of this ?

Speaker 1 4:20

So , storing it afterwards it can be irritating . If you don't have a plan with it . Definitely don't bank on returning all of it because it might not be able to be returned . Some of it might , but I think just the timing has a lot to do with it . Also , if you're getting married in a short time period , that's also going to be crunch for your decorations . And if you have more time , then you have more time to decide . But for smooth transitions , recently I have seen rental companies are kind of , you know , just renting it , having it come in and serve its purpose . Then it leaves and it's no longer your lingering headache of what to do with it , um , but I am also not a . I'm a minimalist when it comes to storage , so I don't like to have all of I don't like to have a lot of stuff .

Speaker 2 5:09

Yeah , no , I agree , I have all the vases from my wedding and we were joking the other day because we were moving , so we had some at my place , some at my parents' house and I'm just like , what are we going to do with all these ? And you know , my mom's posted them on Facebook marketplace , so we try to get them sold , but it just never works out . So , yeah , if you DIY a lot of stuff or you buy stuff that cannot be either returned or that you're not renting , then it's something that you're going to have to deal with after the wedding comes , which is just , you know , it's not the end of the world , but definitely , I think , something a lot of people don't think about is you're going to have all this leftover

Final Advice on Wedding Decor Choices

Speaker 2 5:47

decor . So you know .

Speaker 1 5:50

I do agree they can choose your battles . Signage should be custom , like customized signage . But if you have the eye for it , sure go ahead and DIY it . If you do not leave it to an expert that does otherwise , you don't want to have a Pinterest fail on your wedding day , yeah we do not want that and we don't want you guys to bite off more than you can chew .

Speaker 2 6:12

So that is your daily buzz .