Weddingbee Blog

I wanted to take another quick side bar from our recaps so I can share our DIY programs with the hive.

Let’s start with a view of the finished product on our wedding day:

Photo by Jamie Grant Photography

I love fun, unique ceremony programs, particularly fans, but I knew early on that I needed to keep this project on the simple side for my sanity. What I didn’t know was that no program is just a “simple DIY,” at least not for me. Keeping what I thought would be a “simple DIY program” in mind, my first love were these beauties made by Mrs. Dachshund:

DIY Wedding Programs by Mrs. Doxie

These had everything I was looking for; they are cute, colorful, informative, and incorporate quotes throughout. But don’t take my word for it, click over and check out Mrs. Dachshund’s programs for yourself. You won’t regret it, I promise. Since I don’t own a Gocco to make a pretty cover like Mrs. Dachshund’s, I searched for something else to make our programs special. Enter Mrs. Emerald’s programs:

More amazing DIY programs from Mrs. Emerald

I loved the vellum overlay Mrs. Emerald used, particularly over her pretty engagement picture. Plus, her programs were a size that could be printed from a home printer, which was important since I wanted to print them from home.

Keeping these programs in mind, here is what I managed to create for ours:

I used vellum paper as a cover, which was pretty, albeit not the most sturdy option. I liked that the vellum allowed you to see the page underneath, and it gave our programs a little something unexpected. I created our programs using Adobe InDesign, although it took some trials (and many errors) to get everything laid out in the proper order. These also used only a page of paper each, which was important because I wanted to keep my raw materials to a minimum.

Upon opening the front cover, I kept things very simple with a cover page listing our basic information: names, date, and location. Looking at it now, it seems almost too simple, but I wanted the quote on the front to frame the text underneath, and any additional swirls would have ruined the effect, hence the rather plain appearance.

The second and third pages contain all the people involved with our ceremony, bridal party on the left, and family on the right. Obviously, this is not a very interesting spread with all the smearing out of names, but I included it to show off one of my favorite elements I squeezed into the programs, the love quotes.

I love this quote from Good Will Hunting, and not just because I had a crush on Ben Affleck back in the day. You might notice that you can see the ink through the white paper. I obviously did not want this to happen, but by the time I was printing these I. did. not. care. I’ve probably just lost my invite to the super-secret paper-aficionados club with such a gaffe, but we were running out of time and I was running low on mental stability. I’ll find my way into the club some other way.

I didn’t take a picture of the full spread, but these middle pages contained the outline of our ceremony. I wanted to include a brief description of the different parts of the ceremony, especially the wine box ceremony that our guests might not have seen before.

Oddly enough, my photos align perfectly with how I divided up my ceremony posts. There was far less explanation needed for the sections above, so that allowed me to fit in another quote.

In case you are wondering, I used some leftover baker’s twine to bind our programs together. I threaded the twine through the packet with a needle to keep the holes nice and clean and finished them off by tying the twine in a bow on the outside of the program. This process was much more taxing than I expected, but luckily Mr. Pony was around to help me finish them just days before the wedding.

Audrey Hepburn is one of my idols, and I absolutely love this quote from her, so I had to find a way to include it somewhere into our wedding day.

Our last spread was dedicated to remembering our loved ones who had passed away and a thank you to our guests, both of which were very important for us to include in our programs.

Our memorial page says, “As we embark upon the next stage of our lives together, we would like to take the time to lovingly remember those who are no longer with us. Today we remember [lists names].”

Our thank you page says, “To our family and friends—Thank you for your love, support, and encouragement. We have been blessed by your gracious love, support, and friendship over the years, and look forward to its presence in the years ahead. We would also like to express our gratitude to those who have freely given their ideas, support, and labor to make this day possible. Thanks also to each of you who have traveled the distance, near and far, to witness our vows to each other and to join us in or marriage celebration today. All our love, Mister and Miss Pony.” Much of this language for these two pages were taken directly from Mrs. Spaniel’s post on her programs. Also, let’s ignore the small typo on this page—I didn’t notice it until writing this post, I’m not going to let it bother me now.

Borrowing from Mrs. Emerald again, the last page contained one of my favorite pictures of us.

The vellum cover allowed you to see the picture on the back, which was one of the main reasons I wanted to use a vellum cover in the first place, although you can’t really tell in this picture.

The back of the cover finished our wedding quote from the front

At times these programs were painful to create and assemble, but I was very happy with the final result.

Up next, I’m going back to recaps with my absolute favorite photos from our wedding day!

Did you or will you DIY your programs? What did you include and what did you leave out?