DIY Wedding Ideas

Your wedding day is one of the most important and special days of your life, but with all that importance often comes a hefty price tag. One of the best ways to keep costs low but still have an amazing day is to try your hand at making some of your own wedding decor and accessories.

Spotlight's incredible selection of art and craft supplies ensures you'll have everything you need to make your own DIY wedding decor, but in the whole scheme of your wedding what is feasible to make - and what should you avoid making yourself? In this guide we'll go through some of the best wedding decor you can handmake, including step-by-step instructions you can follow and tweak to suit your wedding. We'll also highlight what you should not make yourself - sometimes, it's best to leave things to the professionals!

Quick Links

• Why Should I Make My Own DIY Wedding Decor?
• DIY Wedding Invitations & What You'll Need
• DIY Wedding Sign & What You'll Need
• Wedding Table Centrepiece Ideas To Make
• How To Make Wedding Favours
• What Not To Handmake For Your Wedding

Why Should I Make My Own DIY Wedding Decor?

While it may seem a little intimidating, making your own wedding invitations, decor and other tidbits can really help you save money, as well as ensuring your wedding has your own unique touch that your guests will love to see. Bringing your own personality to the decor is a big plus, and if you're naturally a crafty person you may find the process actually helps you relax during the lead-up to the big event! Even if it's making something small like your own table's centrepiece or a couple of simple wedding decorations for the entryway, we encourage you to try some wedding decorations DIY so you can enjoy your handmade efforts on the day!

DIY Wedding Invitations & What You'll Need

Let's be honest - if you've got over a hundred people coming to your wedding, creating DIY wedding invitations by hand will probably do your head in. You can use beautiful electronic e-vites or even a professional printing service for the majority of your invites, but if you still want to make some of your own, consider special handmade invites for family, close friends or the bridal party.

A paper-cutting machine, such as one from the Cricut brand, is one of the best ways to create professional-looking wedding invites on your own. We've got an amazing wedding invites project you should try if you own one!

If you don't have access to a paper-cutting machine, never fear! Here are some steps you can follow to create some gorgeous wedding invitations for your loved ones.

You will need:

• White cardstock
• Sparkly silver cardstock
• Backing cardstock of your choice (we love the look of a vintage, floral design)
• Matte gold or deep yellow cardstock
• Cutting tools
• Craft glue
• Floral sticker embellishments
• Black calligraphy pen

Here is how to make DIY wedding invitations at home:

1. Cut your white cardstock into a rectangle measuring 14.8cm x 21cm. Fold in half horizontally.
2. Cut a 9cm x 13cm piece of your silver cardstock, centre in the middle of your white card and adhere to the front using glue.
3. Cut a 7.5cm x 11.5cm piece of your chosen backing cardstock and adhere it to the centre of the card on top of the silver.
4. Die-cut some flourish pieces from your gold or yellow cardstock - look in our templates selection for some inspiration! Attach to the centre of the card.
5. Cut another small rectangle of white card - this is where you will write your chosen message that will appear on the front of your card. Make sure to practice writing it out so you know how much card you need! Adhere this rectangle on top of your flourish piece, making sure you can still see most of the flourish underneath.
6. Add two or three floral sticker embellishments to the front of the card.
7. Once it is all dry, open the card and handwrite your invitation on the inside. If you don't love your handwriting, feel free to use a stencil or even print the message separately and then stick them on.

Make sure all ink is dry before closing your invite.

DIY Wedding Sign & What You'll Need

Your DIY wedding sign will often be your guest's first look into the rest of your wedding, so make sure its colour and style match your wedding's theme! Your sign can be as simple as a square of plywood with painted lettering, or as detailed as a light-up neon sign that's sure to draw attention (check out this neon sign project if you want to try it out!).

We love a DIY wedding sign featuring colour and texture, so let's make a three-piece wedding sign that's easy to customise to your liking.

You will need:

• 3 x rectangular pieces of timber roughly measuring 20cm x 50cm
• White, black and then your choice of background acrylic paint
• Art sponge
• Water
• Drill
• Craft scissors
• Strong cord or twine
• Grey lead pencil
• Round paintbrush
• 4 x wooden beads roughly the size of golf balls

Make sure you are working on a flat surface that has been covered in case of spilled paint.

1. Drill a hole into the top left and top right corners of each board. Make sure this whole is wide enough for your cord or twine to fit through.
2. Pour a small amount of your background paint onto each timber panel. Use water and the sponge spread the paint across the timber to give it a washed effect. Mix some of it with white on the side or while it's on the timber with the sponge to create a lighter colour for the middle plank. Leave the planks to dry completely.
3. Use your pencil to lightly draw on each plank to spell out your greeting of choice. Use different fonts on each one to create an interesting design! Think phrases like 'Mr' '&' 'Mrs' or 'Welcome' 'To Our' Wedding'.
4. Using the round paintbrush and the black and white paint, paint over your pencil design carefully. Use black on your middle plank and white on the first and second ones.
5. Once all the paint is dry it's time to assemble your boards! Thread one piece of cord through the bottom board first through each hole from front to back, tying a knot so the cord stays in place. Add a wooden bead to each cord. Then continue threading the chord through each panel, adding a wooden bead and trying a loop after each one so they stay in place. Once all boards are linked, tie the cords together at the top to create a point to hang them with.
6. Hang your DIY wedding sign and enjoy!

Wedding Table Centrepiece Ideas To Make

You can get really creative when it comes to wedding table centrepieces, as pretty much anything can be a centrepiece if you dress it up enough. There are two rules to keep in mind when creating your own wedding table centrepiece - don't make it so tall your guests can't see over or around it to talk to each other - and be careful combining candles and flammable objects!

A simple bouquet of fresh flowers on each table is a classic choice when it comes to wedding table centrepiece ideas, but if you're feeling crafty we encourage you to check out and modify some of these projects to suit your wedding!

1. Floral Stem Project - use a hot glue gun to create three autumnal floral cones per table, which are then stylishly gathered into a rustic tin bucket.
2. Native Bouquets Project - these colourful native bouquets can be placed flat onto the centre of your tables, or gathered into a small vase if you would prefer them to be upright.
3. Mini Vases or Mason Jar Terrarium projects - these beautiful terrariums will look amazing as centrepieces, and they are also perfect for guests to take home after if they wish.
4. Glitter Mason Jar Project - sparkly and joyful, these mason jars are a festive choice for any wedding. Switch out the red glitter with gold or silver if you would rather they look a little less Christmassy.

There are so many low cost wedding table decorations and centrepiece ideas out there - we encourage you to look around your home for inspiration! Piles of vintage books, old-timey lanterns, painted branches and cute jam jars wrapped with burlap and lace are all popular wedding table centrepiece ideas that don't cost a lot to create on your own.

How To Make Wedding Favours

Wedding favours allow your guests to take a little piece of your special day home with them, and making your own unique wedding favours can help make this practice even more special and meaningful to your loved ones.

If you wish to handmake your DIY wedding favours then it is best to keep them small, as you will need to create one for every guest - or at least every family group. Here are some of our favourite unique wedding favours you can make!

1. We love the idea of a small terrarium for each guest to take home, as they are easy to care for and can be styled to suit any home. Check out our Sand And Stone Terrarium project for details on how to make your own to give away!
2. Small, handmade candles are also a lovely choice for some unique wedding favours, as you can choose and combine scents that are special to you. Burn candles with the same scent at your wedding and guests will remember it well when they burn their own at home! For everything you need to know about candle making, check out our Candle Making blog online.
3. Polymer clay is easy to work with, dries hard in the oven and comes in a huge range of colours and texture effects, so it's super easy to make heaps of small, unique wedding favours with it. Create jewellery, small ramekins, mini statuettes and more using this versatile material! Learn how to work with polymer clay by reading our Beginner's Guide To Polymer Clay Blog online.
4. Do you love making your own honey or jam? Give your guests a small, fun-sized jar of your homemade spread as a cute and unique wedding favour! Decorate the jars with beautiful lace, rustic twine, kraft paper or textured burlap to really highlight their homemade magnificence.

Your DIY wedding favours can also double as low cost wedding table decorations, so make sure to design them in a way that matches the tone and colour scheme of your wedding.

What Not To Handmake For Your Wedding

While it's great to try your hand at creating your own wedding decor, there are some parts of your special day that should just be left to the professionals - trust us! You don't want to be in tears the morning of your wedding because inexperience has gotten in the way of what needs to be a perfect day. Leave the following parts of your wedding to a specialist:

• Photography - we understand, professional photography can be expensive! But from those special moments getting ready with the bridal party to the exuberant dancing at the end, you'll want every moment captured in a way that you'll be happy to look back on - and your uncle with his iPhone just isn't it. Not only can a professional photographer get the perfect angle and lighting for your biggest events, but they are also a fountain of knowledge when it comes to the perfect pose and those amazing moments you didn't even think needed to be captured. They are also usually a whiz at photo editing, so you'll know every photo you pay for will come out beautiful - even if maybe you were blinking in a couple of them.
• Hair and makeup - you may be pretty good at doing your own makeup or hair, but do you really want the stress of getting them perfect on your wedding day, plus that of your bridal party? Getting the help of a professional ensures a style that is perfectly matched to your natural skin tone, plus you can also count on all of your bridal party having a cohesive look rather than crossing your fingers that everyone has the same skill at applying makeup.
• Music and entertainment - not even the most finely curated Spotify playlist is the best choice for music at a wedding. Having a professional DJ, or even live music, ensures you can count on quality songs and music for the scene, plus these professionals will know what songs to play to get the crowd settled down or riled up when you need them. It also means you don't have to consign some poor guest to be on playlist duty all night!
• Floral decor - fresh flowers are often one of the most beautiful parts of a wedding, with their fresh, dewy petals and divine scent that is often synonymous with a successful wedding. You may think you can find and arrange your flowers yourself, but stop and consider all the effort that goes into these seemingly simple wedding decorations. Finding fresh flowers that will look amazing the day of the ceremony isn't easy, and then they need to be cut and trimmed, artfully arranged and then placed in many areas around your venue, On tables, hanging from the walls, on the backs of chairs… flowers can be found almost anywhere at a wedding! Leave it to a professional florist and save yourself the headache of finding, caring for and arranging your wedding flowers.

Have A Lovely Handmade Wedding With Spotlight

We hope you enjoy making your own handmade contribution to any of your wedding decor, from centrepieces and signs to invitations and favours! You can find all the art and craft supplies needed for some DIY wedding decor online at Spotlight, where you can pay for your order and have it delivered to your home in no time. You can also visit your nearest Spotlight store, where our friendly team will help you find everything you need to make some DIY wedding signs, decor and other tidbits.