DIY weddings, are they really cheaper? (2024)

Many times DIY brides or DIY couples will believe that doing it yourself will save you a huge amount of money and in select cases, it does, for example, buying your own linens is usually cheaper than renting them, but turning around and selling the used ones is quite the hassle.

What is usually Cheaper, But more Labor Intensive

Weddings come in all different sizes, price ranges, styles, and flavors, and with that, there are a few things we’re doing it yourselves usually saves you a few bucks, but not enough to really make the effort worthwhile to your pocketbook.

It’s a common misconception that DIY flowers, décor, and food are usually cheaper than hiring a professional.

The trade-off however is the quality and the time or labor. Usually, you’ll invest a lot more in labor than it’s worth and usually, that’s where the professional will be able to do it faster, better, and many times an equal amount or cheaper when you put in the man-hours.

We did a survey and asked couples how much DIY they did verse just hiring the professional.

Of the 137 couples that answered, only 37% said they tried a DIY.

DIY vs hiring Professional

Wedding Flowers

Wedding flowers are a line item that many DIY brides will skip or minimize to help try and save money. If you do centerpieces that are not flowers or that have very little flowers in them, like baby’s breath, for example, it will be cheaper.

I’ve been to weddings where mason jars filled with glass rock, water, and a goldfish wrapped in burlap were the centerpiece, although usually, the fish don’t live very long and sometimes die before the reception.

Average wedding couples with about 100 guests are going to spend in the $700-$1,300 range for flowers, including the centerpieces, bouquets, and boutonnières for the men. Now that’s a starting price, the bigger the wedding, the more you’ll spend typically.

For the DIY bride, you have to order the flowers (which is a challenge itself), pay for them, pick them up, keep them in a cool fridge so they don’t wilt, build each centerpiece with the accessories you bought (glass, bowls, fabric, pins, glue, etc.) and keep them cool for a couple of days beforehand.

That’s a lot of work and most people don’t have the environment to build or maintain flowers. Yes, you can do them cheaper, but you’re sacrificing time for more important things.

What we say you should do:

We recommend that you hire the wedding florist to do the bouquets and boutonnière’s and leave the centerpieces to your desire without flowers in them. You’ll save the most and still get great flowers too.

Wedding Hair and Makeup

With hair and makeup, you can save yourself money here, but the truth is that by the time you spend on average $120 for them to come, bring all the makeup and hair accessories, it’s really not a huge saving.

Truth be told you can do it yourself, but you’re giving yourself added stress on the wedding day and there are plenty of other avenues where you can save big on the wedding like food or the venue for example.

What we say you should do:

We recommend that you spend the money to have a pro come to you and do hair/makeup.

Wedding Dinner

Wedding guests are by far the MOST expensive line item followed by the venue/reception hall. Here, you can save by doing it yourself but, I’ll give you a little unknown insight that can help you out and still save money.

If you want to save the most amount money but still have a nice dinner, try Olive Garden.

Yup, they offer a great little catering menu and for 100 people, you can feed them for as low as $12.50 per head. That’s pasta, salad, and breadsticks. You still need to hire someone to keep everything going and you’ll still need to buy plates, forks, etc.

You can also just choose pasta, which will run you closer to $10 a person.

Chances are that you will not find anything much cheaper than $10 per head, even if you made the meal yourself. Again, it’s putting in the time and labor to build such a meal.

Now, if you want something other than pasta, you’re going to pay more, but it’s a little unknown nugget that I stumbled across when filming a small backyard-style wedding in 2014.

What we say you should do:

Skip doing it yourself and hire Olive Garden to cater the wedding, also spend $150-$200 on someone to manage it at the dinner.

Wedding Venue

What you’ll find here is that wedding venues, even the ‘cheap’ ones are going to run you into the thousands. Most DIY couples will look for something much more affordable and there are usually a couple of options out there if you know where to turn.

First, the church. If you’re a churchgoer, chances are you can use the building for the ceremony and a small reception. This is going to save you an incredible amount of money and time.

The benefit of being a member is that many times you’ll have access to the church for your wedding, the downfall is that it’s not a venue.

If you’re not the religious type, you may be able to take advantage of a nearby community park. Many of them will allow you to have a wedding and small reception, usually for a fee of a couple of hundred bucks or less. You can look at your local parks and reception department and start there.

If you’re intent on having a wedding venue, then we suggest you book a country rustic ‘barn’ style venue.

These are usually going to be the cheapest compared to all the other styles that are out there. Plan on spending anywhere from $500 to $5,000 depending on where you live.

What we say you should do:

If you want the best of the cheap routes and if you can, have it in a backyard. this is where you’ll save the most amount of money, although plan on having a backup in case of bad weather. (TRUST me, I’ve been to so many weddings where the rain just poured out and there was NO backup plan)

Wedding Photographer

For DIY couples, you’ll still want to hire a wedding photographer, although you’ll want to ask for what’s called ‘turn and burn’.

Turn-n-burn is where the wedding photo pro will simply take images, go home and copy them to a USB and mail them to you, unedited.

It’s the cheapest route, but it’s also the best route when hiring a professional. If you’re wanting to save the MOST amount of money, this is the way to go.

What we say you should do:

What we don’t recommend, having a friend with a camera or smartphone to take images.

Why?

Because they will quickly forget that they were asked to take images or video and want to be apart of the wedding day. Over time, they will become more vested in what’s going on rather than focusing on you, missing a lot of images.

Hire the professional at a reduced rate, just for the day.

Out Final Thoughts on DIY

Doing it yourself for the wedding day isn’t always as cracked up to be, there is a lot of hard work involved, sometimes stress, but with some smart planning, you can save some money for the big day, but spend it where it matters the most.