DIY, in which potentials are realized and limits defined

[Martin]

Since discovering it, I've spent dozens of hours checking out www.instructables.com shoveling round the flat and piling up usable materials for dozens of intriguing projects (so will you, believe me). Although a 'wedding' keyword doesn't show too many hits, the point is that this and countless other resources can be drawn on to tackle as many wedding-related needs as you wish.

Needless to say, a positive side-effect of DIY wedding projects is saving possibly boatloads of money. Financial contributors can usually be persuaded to go along with your own idea if it'll be cheaper and more special to you.

Doing things yourself only enhances the spirit of the event, and really throws your commitment into relief. Thus my thoughts so far on DIY and weddings, what kind of projects and stimuli can we pool here?

[Alan]

We're going to be doing a LOT (most) of our wedding DIY or outsourcing to friends who will be doing so. I'll totally post ideas on here as we go along!

A friend gave us a book on DIY weddings, and it's got a lot of good (well, and some bad...) information in it -- it's definitely a resource worth having but I can't for the life of me think of the actual title or author -- I'll have to look it up when I'm at home and post it on here for others to check out!

[Martin]

Was it 'DIY Bride' by Khris Cochran? That's a solid kick-off. Also, 'Bridal Bargains' by D.&A. Fields has a healthy set of ideas, projects and advice. My jacket pattern is from www.folkwear.com, and we're building a photobooth housed at instructables.com. Her dress inspirations came from www.whirlingturban.com

That's my first hand. And Offbeat Bride has groups centered on tattooed ladies which my b2b is making much use of, if that's relevant to anyone.

[Chris]

Aaaaaaaaaaand I'm completely addicted to instructables now. Thanks... Spent the whole day at work yesterday looking at cool stuff.

[Aaron Moring]

Indeed, I am another instructables junkie. I looked at the same post for the photobooth, but the price for the computer program turned me off to it. I was wondering if you went that route or found some way to get around it. Thanks!
(First post, too. Yay!)

[C. Lane]

The photobooth market is blowing up and a lot of companies are renting them out like bounce houses. Also, if you can 1) buy in bulk 2) ask family and friends or 3) even find any still in production getting a few polaroid cameras and a cork board can allow family and freinds to channel their inner Anne Leibowitz and pin them up in a sort of real time art piece that you and your forever chick can display in your home. I like to think of it as a low-tech blogg.

[Martin]

Also, on the subject of photography: it can get really expensive, really fast. Honestly, decide whether you really NEED a custom leather album and 17 couple prints and complimentary vinyl trim and all the rest of it. You are likely to get hounded by inlaws and relatives, but I see no reason I should float the cost of that.

Or, more precisely, why they should float the cost for the wedding industry.
And personally, I don't trust a wedding-only photographer. Show me your other work, buddy. I wanna see what catches your eye when you're not being paid.

We've decided to get a single DVD with all the wedding images for the day, e basta (Okay, 2, if a back-up counts). We'll pick the prints we actually want and we'll let the guests help themselves, too. Everybody gets what they desire, no more but definitely no less, in whatever aesthetic and financial dimensions they see fit.

Next to no carbon footprint keeps the Drama Llama at bay.

[Ryan Dromgoole]

We are also doing a lot of DIY and DIwithHelpfromFriends.
We are doing a Photobooth(found a program that was $75, and total budgeted cost is under/at 400), and my lady made our Save the Date cards with Lino-cuts. I'll pass that site onto her.

[Shawn Reming Jr]

Just a thought, that could potentially save lots of money, and rather easy.

Given the techno age we are in (hooray!) many people, many of your friends and family probably own digital camera's, and will probably bring them to the wedding. An idea I got from a photographer friend (he does this as a service at weddings he photographs), but could be done by anyone even remotely tech savy.. is at the end of the night, or near it at least, have some one go around and borrow the cameras that have been used, and download them on to a single computer to then be either burned to CDs (slightly pricier option) or uploaded on to any internet service you like. It is easy enough to get free web space and a domain name, on the cheap. You can then put them there for anyone to view, use something like Flikr, and limit who see's them if you want. (As far as who does this, maybe assign an usher like person, or say you have a younger family member who isn't quite old enough to take part in every bit of "fun", haha, they could do this, and given how quick younger kids have picked up on tech, could do it fast as well. Just find someone you trust, and you think wouldn't mind doing it).

Basically, upload photo's give back cameras and/or memory cards, upload where you want them, decide how they are accessed, and tell everyone where to find them. Depending on your level of tech knowledge you can create all kinds of online albums, slide shows, etc. It can cost very very little depending on the options you pick. One note on the uploading, you will want to be sure it can be done, so secure a laptop with memory card ports of various sizes, a multi-card reader that plugs into USB can be bought, and not horribly expensive. This way no matter what card is in the camera, you can take it out and put it into the reader). I personally am a Mac person and love iPhoto, but any program you can think of and trust would work. This is really open to your knowledge and creativity.

My photographer friend charges a fee for this service because he stores your photos on his webspace, forever, or until you say otherwise, and gives you total control of how it is setup. Given how easy much of this is, I think its a great idea for saving on albums and the like. If you have friends or family who are less tech savy, the CD idea is handy because they can then take the CD of all photo's taken at the wedding, and take it to any developing place and have the ones they want printed.

Also, related to this, rather than printed invitations, my love and I will have a friend create a website for our wedding, which will basically be the invitation. We will notify everyone who has the ability to access it of the URL via e-mail, and on the website have an address book or some similar form they can RSVP in so we know they got it. We would limit the use of paper invitations to guests who may not have access or knowledge of such things, specifically some grandparents and other older family members and guests.

We are lucky in that we have a web developer friend who has offered to do this as a gift, but it does not have to be complex. Find pictures you like, find one of many free web space things (even a blog would work perfect), themes etc, and make it look how you want on your own. You could also then use the same said web space as an entire wedding website to store the previous mentioned photo's, for easy access by all.

So just some ideas to cut down budget, and also, limit the amount of paper you use for anyone wanting to be more green in any way you can, like we do.

Oh! And hi! New here and just thought I would jump right in. I look forward to seeing peoples thoughts and ideas, and here about your stories as you progress on this journey of being a groom, especially an offbeat one!

[Martin]

I have to apologize on my part for being gone for so long. It was a hectic year and I spent most of it redoing our new place pretty much from scratch. Our wedding day came and went, so I'll have to do some catching up for newcomers.

Very good points you make, and indeed, we incorporated just such things. The online wedding site, or wedsite, has become a popular and almost ubiquitous fixture, and I love that. Anyway you go about it, you can bundle lots of information and cut down on a ridiculous amount of paper.

As far as photos go, the photobooth idea fell through, but we did manage to rig a simple tripod with a Polaroid modded as a daguerrotype and threw in a box of props. The guest album therefore was done at the end of the day, as my wife had made that herself in the previous weeks. It's good to think and imagine big, but there was just no room for a DIY pseudo-Edwardian photobooth this time around. Oh well.

Any digital photos that were amassed were hosted on a purpose-built Flickr site, with the login and page info on the favor tags. These latter happened to be caramel apples, so they went pretty damn fast. This way, everyone can see all the guest photos and print them directly if they want them.

Good to have you, thank you for the impulses!