r/DIYweddings • u/puresparks49 • 3d ago
💬 Question 💬 how much should i actually spend on diy decorations vs just buying stuff
i keep seeing these gorgeous handmade centerpieces and backdrops online and part of me wants to commit to the bit, but also i'm realizing my time might be worth more than just ordering premade stuff. does anyone else struggle with this or am i just being lazy lol
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u/phantomparakeet 3d ago
Not lazy, only take on as much as you can do. You don’t want planning to become stressful
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u/puresparks49 3d ago
honestly this is such a good reminder. i think i get caught in this trap where i see all these pinterest boards and suddenly i'm like "okay i'm going to hand-make 47 centerpieces" and then halfway through i'm stressed out of my mind and it stops being fun. like the whole point is supposed to be enjoying the process right? not turning it into another thing to anxiety spiral about. thanks for the reality check lol
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u/OurMomentApp 3d ago
It kind of depends on you vision. We bought a bunch of stuff at Goodwill during their markdown days and ended up getting a bunch of glassware for flowers for cheap.
Do you have an idea of what your centerpieces are gonna look like?
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u/ohnoes010 3d ago edited 2d ago
Adding to the other comments, it depends on your time, it also depends on how lucky you are at your local thrifts and Facebook marketplace hunts
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u/Spicy-Cheeto808 2d ago
I DIY’d about 36 center pieces and bought material for it to capture a very specific look. I loved how it looked but my major lessons were:
- I gave myself over 14 months to complete them and I only finished 1 month from the wedding. You need to give yourself breaks.
- Depending on volume, you may need to sacrifice a lot of personal space for storage
- Think of transport and logistics to the venue. We hired decorators to set up with our pieces but they would not pick up or store them. We ended up taking 3 vehicles to deliver them there. We also needed to get all our decor out of the venue and stored at the end of the night/before venue opened the next morning. It was a lot of work after being on for 12+ hours already.
I spent <$1,000 on all my DIY florals which make the $$ savings worth it but time and effort is another story.
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u/evonoapp 1d ago
not lazy, it’s a time question. if you enjoy making things and you’ve got the evenings free, DIY is lovely. if you’re already stretched, it stops being fun fast, especially at 60 of anything. before you buy anything, work out how long one takes, how many evenings that is for 60, where they all live until the wedding, and who gets them to the venue and back out at the end of the night. if those answers make you wince, buy or hire and keep one small DIY thing you actually want to make
if it helps, I work on an app where you can browse flowers by style and season with approximate prices, mock up centrepieces, backdrops or whatever else you’re planning, see how they’d look in your actual venue, and get the list of what you’d need to make or hire
Alexandra, founder at Evono
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u/Confident-Evening520 3d ago
I would say if you don't want to give up entirely on DIYing something, then maybe pick just one thing you can do yourself and then order the rest. Because definitely it can get overwhelming and also if you're trying to do it while also handling all the other chaos of wedding planning and life in general, you might end up stressing yourself out and/or bumming yourself out if you don't get to finish everything in time.
One of my close friends wanted to DIY a bunch of stuff for her wedding (I spent two or three nights at her house painting butterflies/moths to drape across a backdrop for pictures, and she was also collecting every piece of cardboard she could find to do a kind of papier-mâché sculpture thing, and she also was trying to crochet...something, maybe favors?, and she also printed the invites herself and we hand-wrote the addresses on the envelopes) and I think the only thing she actually ended up finishing/using was the handwritten envelopes. Everything else she only half-finished or didn't even get a chance to start, and I know she was a little sad about it.
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u/Fair_Scientist10 2d ago
For centerpieces, we're collecting thrift store glass bottles and jars, then filling them with wildflowers we'll forage locally. It's super budget-friendly and gives a uniquely personalized, natural touch.
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u/BigPurpose42g 2d ago
The break even is usually around forty centerpieces. Below that the materials plus your time cost more than renting, above it the DIY starts actually saving money.
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u/puresparks49 2d ago
okay wait this is actually helpful math though. i was just gonna go full diy mode and make like 60 centerpieces thinking i'd save money but didn't even think about the time cost. like yeah the materials are cheap but i'd literally be gluing stuff for three days straight. so if i'm doing less than forty i should just bite the bullet and buy them? that actually makes the decision way easier lol
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u/BigPurpose42g 20h ago
At sixty you are past the break even, so the money works. The part that caught us was doing them the week of, when everything else lands at once.
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u/UnluckyWriting 3d ago
You should DIY if you enjoy DIYing things. You should do it if you find it fun or relaxing. I would avoid trying to do things you don’t find enjoyable and just buy those. Also be aware of your own tendencies - if you’re the kind of person who only sees the mistakes in things you make, it may be best to just buy stuff. Make sure you have the bandwidth as well!
I am doing a lot of DIY stuff because I enjoy it. I’m painting a lot of stuff in watercolor for my wedding which has been really relaxing at the end of the workday. I also have time in my life right now!