5 Things you Should NEVER DIY for your Wedding

1.    The Flowers

Yes, we know that it seems easy to just order your flowers from a large discount store.   How hard could it be to just grab a vase (oh wait, you need to buy the vases), a bunch of flowers (some or all of which arrived the day before your wedding brown or dead, now what?) and put them in your vases? Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  There is a real art to making sure that your bouquet flowers don’t die or fall out of your bouquet before you walk down the aisle, and you don’t want to be the bride that discovers her flowers have died before they were even put together.

In the end, once you have purchased the laundry list of things you need to make your own centerpieces, bouquets and boutonnieres along with the time, stress and energy spent creating your own wedding flowers, you could have found a professional florist that would do it all for you within your budget, and with the time, inventory, and expertise to take care of any potential day-of mishaps.

2.    The Cake

There are numerous tutorials on the Internet demonstrating how easy it is to bake your own wedding cake, and many people have a friend that knows someone who is a really good baker and would be willing to make your wedding cake or cupcakes at little to no cost. If you are considering these routes, also consider that you should be prepared to not have a dessert on your big day. At the last minute the “great baker” called your friend to tell her that something has come up. It happens all to often, and professional bakers frequently receive last minute panic calls to make wedding cakes.

There are many, many things that can go very wrong in the making, transportation, and set-up of desserts for weddings.  Even the most experienced bakers can have difficulties, but they are experienced enough to fix their problems.

3.    The Hair and Make-up

Even if you are a make-up artist or hair stylist, it is probably not a good idea to take on those tasks yourself the day of your wedding.  When you wake up the morning of your wedding day, you don’t want to have to worry about a “bad hair day,” or worse, a “bad skin day”.  This is a day you need to relax and be taken care of!

4.    The Photography

We can’t urge you enough to consider NOT DIYing your wedding photography.  It’s true that DSLR cameras have come a long way and can make your friend or relative a good, even great hobby photographer, but a wedding with a hundred or more guests is not the time to risk allowing a friend or relative that takes great snapshots to be responsible for capturing one of the most important events of your life.  This is the largest tangible memory that you will take away from your wedding, and you don’t want your wedding pictures to be something that you never look at because they bring back bad feelings.

Use BW Photography as your Wedding Photographer.  You can't go wrong.

5.    The Entertainment

One of the biggest regrets couples have after the fact, is that they didn’t hire proper entertainment. Working on a budget is smart, but before you try to cut corners on the music, remember that the DJ plays a role in almost every facet of the reception, whether it’s providing background music, making announcements so the guests know what to do, or getting the people to dance and have fun…the DJ is involved in almost everything. An inexperienced family friend playing "DJ" for the night is likely to make mistakes, and whatever mistakes they make are amplified for the whole crowd to notice. Even if they don’t make mistakes, there’s a big chance that your reception will be somewhere between dull and average without someone who knows what they are doing, and that shouldn’t be good enough for your wedding day.

When considering what you would like to DIY for your wedding, make sure that it is something you can do weeks or months in advance in your leisure time.  You will have friends and relatives that will want to spend time with you and you don’t want to be torn between something fun and “I am sorry I can’t, I have to….” Whatever you decide to do yourself, make sure you save that final week to just relax and enjoy the anticipation of your stress-free wedding day!