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DIY Or Professional Help: How Far Are You Willing To Go?

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Could your aunt have made this dress?  Not likely.

Could your aunt have made this dress? Not likely.

Unless you belong to the now famous one percent, you are likely intimidated by the cost of your decision to have a wedding rather than taking a cheap flight to Vegas.  The average American wedding carries a price tag of about $28,000, a considerable pill for any but the wealthy to swallow.  However, you can get plenty of advice on bringing down that bottom line by doing things yourself or enlisting the aid of others who will work at unpaid internship rates.

Which begs the question: what parts of your wedding celebration are OK to put in the hands of amateurs, and which functions should be performed by professionals even if it runs up the bill?  Fabulous fellow blogger Elena at Seamless asks one of those critical questions: do you know a seamstress who is skilled and dependable enough to agree to sew a wedding dress for you? Most of us get plenty nervous just looking at gowns — we can’t imagine taking on the pressure of being responsible for how the thing actually looks. (That’s why we choose to stay safely behind the lens, thank you very much.)

And for those of you with a friend planning a wedding, is it wise to perform a volunteer labor of love or should some of these tasks be left to experts?  So let’s pick apart the components and see which might be candidates for the DIY approach, and which should remain in the hands of experienced veterans.

  • Cake.  Professional bakers produce spectacular results, but I’ve seen plenty of charming and delicious amateur productions as well.
  • Printed Material.  Place cards, invitations, save-the-date cards: all of these can have more appeal when hand-made by a person close to you, but they are labor intensive.  If you want to keep this DIY volunteer as a friend, you might want to think twice.
  • Flowers.  Best left to the pros, in my opinion.  They know how to arrange and store them so they will look gorgeous at the wedding, rather than looking as though they would have been beautiful yesterday, before they wilted.
  • Music: I’m a HUGE fan of live bands at the reception and musicians at the ceremony.  There’s just no substitute for real talent on display in person.  But I realize the price tag might lead you to recorded music, and I’ve seen plenty of friends with laptops do a perfectly acceptable job rocking the reception.
  • Video.  Answer honestly: how many times will you watch it?  I know video artists do wonderful work, but if all you want is a record of the fact you got married, an amateur with a decent camera can be an option.
  • Photography.  Sorry, you already know this is where I draw the line.  There is no comparison between photos produced by a talented professional and those snapped by Uncle Ralph with his new digital camera.  This can be the difference between a beautiful set of visual memories you will look at many times over the years and a set of excuses why they didn’t turn out.

Did you have someone you know do any of these for you?  Were those good decisions with happy outcomes, or did some of them lead to disasters?  We’re all ears.

Very cute.  But that's quite a few tiny bows to tie.

Very cute. But that’s quite a few tiny bows to tie.

My Pinterest and Facebook are always professional!



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