I’ve dedicated this week of blog posts to do-it-yourself tips and today I’m winding up DIY week with a few personal thoughts. As a wedding professional I take my clients and their visions very seriously. I don’t take for granted the fact that I am invited into the planning process and that my suggestions hold varying levels of clout with my couples. I have a “first, do no harm” policy when it comes to doling out advice. This brings me to a little DIY beef I had this week…
I saw a DIY bouquet project presented on a blog (who shall remain nameless for obvious reasons!) and I think it was irresponsible to present this particular project as a feasible do-it-yourself wedding project. Where’s the beef?…
First, the flowers that one would need to purchase to accomplish this DIY bouquet would easily cost $160-200; second, it requires cutting these pricey white blooms apart and hot gluing them to cardboard (yes, my floral designer readers have just let out a collective gasp at the thought of white petals + hot glue!); third, the amount of time it would take to create this white petal, hot glue & cardboard creation has got to exceed 2 hours; and last, but certainly not least, these white petals don’t stand a chance without a water source which means 1. this would have to be made the morning of the wedding and 2. it will turn brown and wilt within 2 hours–absolutely, definitely and without a doubt–if they hadn’t already turned brown from over handling them.
I think a true wedding pro would disavow this particular do-it-yourself project. Comments from readers raved about what a great DIY project this was. What??? If you did a practice bouquet you’d spend almost $200 to realize that this was a horrible idea and if you attempted to make this bouquet the morning of your wedding you would be grossly disappointed. By the way, a florist can often make a bridal bouquet for about that price and you can just relax until I show up and place it in your hands. That sounds a lot better to me.
So to re-cap my main points about DIY: don’t put too much on your plate, determine whether you are a DIY bride and think twice before doing your own flowers!
This is a DIY save-the-date that one of my grooms made! Yes, DIY is not just for brides.
How awesome is this save-the-date? I love it!
