DIY Wedding Ideas For Your Special Day

Your wedding day is one of the most important and special days of your life. It's a celebration of your matrimony with your closest family and friends. But with all that importance often comes a hefty price tag. Apart from the obvious expenses such as venue hire, food, photography and entertainment, decorations - while a smaller concern - can also become quite costly when planning your wedding. 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. 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 the overall theme of your wedding.

Quick Links

• Why Should I Make My Own DIY Wedding Decorations?
• Invite Guests With DIY Wedding Invitations
• Welcome Your Guests With A DIY Wedding Sign
• Wedding Table Centrepiece Ideas To Make
• Balloon Garlands, Photobooths And More: Create A Picture-Perfect Photo Opportunity
• Give The Gift Of Love With DIY Wedding Favours

Why Should I Make My Own DIY Wedding Decorations?

While it may seem a little intimidating, making your own wedding invitations, decor and other accessories 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 style to the decor is a great way to make your wedding personalised, 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 DIY wedding decorations so you can enjoy your handmade efforts on the day!

Invite Guests With DIY Wedding Invitations

Before you even begin planning your decorations, it's important to know how many people are attending your celebrations. Create a guest list of everyone you wish to attend your special day, then send out invitations to these friends and family.

A paper-cutting machine, such as one from the Cricut, is one of the best ways to create professional-looking wedding invites on your own. If you've got a Cricut on hand at home, have a go at following our amazing DIY wedding invitations project.

Download the Cricut Wedding Invites Project

How To Make DIY Wedding Invitations At Home:

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 9 cm x 13 cm piece of your silver cardstock, centre in the middle of your white card and adhere to the front using glue.
3. Cut a 7.5 cm x 11.5 cm 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 stencils selection for some inspiration! Attach your cut outs 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.
8. Make sure all ink is dry before closing your invite.

Electronic DIY Wedding Invitations

Let's be honest - if you've got over a hundred people coming to your wedding, creating DIY wedding invitations by hand will be a challenge. Instead, you can create stunning invites on any computer program as electronic e-vites, but if you still want to make some of your own, consider special handmade invites for family, close friends or the bridal party.

Welcome Your Guests With A DIY Wedding Sign

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!

Download the Neon Sign Project

How To Make A Welcome Sign For Wedding

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 20 cm x 50 cm
• 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

Here is how to make a DIY wedding sign at home:

1. Make sure you are working on a flat surface that has been covered in case of spilled paint.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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'.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Hang your DIY wedding sign and welcome guests into your wedding with style!

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

1. Don't make it so tall your guests can't see over or around it to talk to each other
2. Be careful if combining candles and flammable objects!

Stylish Table Numbers

For those wanting a more minimalist look while remaining functional, you may decide to simply display your table numbers as your centrepiece. This also serves to help guests find their seat before serving any meals. This is also a fun and easy task to craft yourself as depending on how many tables you have, can be a rather quick activity for you to undertake in the lead up to your wedding. There are many ways to make DIY table numbers such as:

• Decorating craft numbers with paint, paper, glitter or embellishments to match your chosen wedding theme.
• Displaying framed photos of you and your partner at the age of the table number (accompanied by the actual table number of course as identifying the age you both are in certain photos can be tricky for guests!)
• Shaping numbers out with clay. You can play around mixing colours or painting patterns directly onto your clay.

Nature Inspired Wedding Centrepieces

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.
5. Faux Floral Centrepiece - For seating arrangements that involve longer tables, it's use centrepieces to elongate your space even further. This stunning centrepiece combines the pop of colour from the faux flowers with the peaceful greenery of artificial garlands.

Shop Artificial Floristry and Greenery

Repurpose Items Around Your Home

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. You could even repurpose any decorations used for your engagement or bridal shower!

Balloon Garlands, Backdrops, Photobooths And More: Create A Picture-Perfect Photo Opportunity For Your Wedding

While it's important to have a photographer to capture moments from your wedding, it's also a good idea to set up a background for guests to enjoy posing in front of, taking fun and carefree pictures to look back on.

Elegant Wedding Balloon Garland

Balloons are truly a classic symbol of party decorations. Creating a balloon garland is a great and elegant approach to incorporating these whimsical decorations into your wedding decor. DIY wedding decorations often involve smaller decor pieces but don't worry, constructing a balloon garland is almost as easy as crafting any other DIY wedding decorations!

Luckily for you, we've put together everything you need to know about assembling the perfect balloon garland, including how to make a garland with both a base and strip tape. Our wedding balloons are a great choice for balloon garlands. You could even create a cohesive display by positioning the same balloons throughout your venue as standalone pieces that complement your final balloon garland.

Shop Wedding Balloonsy

Polaroid Wedding Scrapbook

Incorporate a vintage twist on modern photobooths! Set up a photobooth station by positioning a polaroid camera and props as well as a book, glue stick and a pen in any corner of your venue. Props can include anything as subtle as a team bride or groom sign to more wacky and whimsical costume accessories like hats, wigs and feather boas!

Then, encourage guests to pose for photos, taking polaroid photos of themselves and gluing them into a special wedding day scrapbook for you to keep forever. This doubles as an alternative to traditional wedding guestbooks with guests able to write a special message to the bride and groom alongside hilarious photos with amusing props.

Give The Gift Of Love With DIY 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!

• 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!
• 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
• 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
• 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. But if you are on a time crunch, we have you covered! Check out our collection of wedding favours for the perfect gift for your guests.

Shop Wedding Favours

Made With Love: Decorate Your Wedding With A Personal Touch

Put your creative skills to the test by crafting your very own DIY wedding decorations. Whether it's as simple as a table number or something grander like a balloon garland, you can find all the art and craft supplies needed for some DIY wedding decor online at Spotlight. 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.

Spotlight is your one-stop party shop for your next celebration or event. From bridal showers to engagement parties, we have you covered on all things party decorations and party supplies!

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