Small Wedding DIY Ideas That Still Feel Polished

The idea of having a big wedding can be daunting for many couples. There will be so much to organize, and of course the cost of it all will dent the couple's budget – no wonder small, more intimate wedding celebrations are becoming increasingly popular. A smaller wedding is not only easier to plan; many DIY ideas can be used to make it not only cheaper, but extra special, as they enhance the character and the couple's personality on their big day.

If you like some of our clever ideas, it is important to allow yourself plenty of time, as they can take time to complete. Making them in advance is a bonus, but how they will be stored is an important consideration. Why not invite your friends round for a few craft sessions so they can help you?

This can really make wedding preparations great fun!

DIY Floral Centerpieces

Flower arrangements for the tables can be very expensive to buy, but can also be great fun to make yourself and save you money. Choosing seasonal flowers is always a cheaper option, but picking flowers from your garden or opting for wild flowers and foliage is cheaper still!

A selection of small glass vases and jars grouped on each table can be filled with a single flower and foliage in each. Flowers can be either white, cream, or your chosen wedding color, and this can be accentuated by tying a ribbon around the vases and jars to keep them together.

Pop nightlights in some of the jars as this creates a romantic ambiance. If you are feeling creative, invest in some glass paints so that you can decorate the vases with hearts and initials, flowers, butterflies, or whatever else appeals.

Handmade Wedding Invitations

Creating your own wedding invitations adds a lovely personal touch. You can choose styles and materials to match your wedding theme. For rustic weddings, a simple cream card tied with twine is effective, and scrolls tied with ribbon are perfect for vintage-styled weddings.

Craft shops are good hunting grounds for suitable paper and card, and adjustable templates can be found online. If you have a friend who is good at calligraphy or has beautiful handwriting, they can help you achieve a very polished look.

Personalized Wedding Favors

Having personalized wedding favors is a lovely reminder for your guests to take home. There are so many fun ideas to choose from, including small jars of honey, homemade jam, or infused sugars. A miniature bottle of the signature cocktail served at the reception or herb-infused olive oil is a lovely idea too.

A tiny houseplant or cactus wrapped in hessian or a packet of flower seeds are gift ideas that will last long after your wedding. A clever idea is to use the wedding favors as place markers by adding a small flag, lolly stick or luggage label with the guests' names beautifully written on each.

Rustic Mason Jar Lanterns

Use these lovely rustic lanterns to add a warm, romantic ambiance. Collect mason jars of different sizes to give depth to a table arrangement. If you are feeling artistic, they can be decorated with glass paint pens.

A small amount of sand in each helps to anchor them to the table, and they can be decorated with a small ribbon in your wedding color around their necks. LED nightlights or battery-operated fairy lights are the best choices for safety. Pop one in each mason jar.

Small mason jars can be hung above the tables and larger ones can be used to guide guests along pathways. For outdoor weddings, mason lanterns hung from branches of trees look really lovely and suit all styles of wedding.

Burlap Table Runners

Table runners made from burlap sacking add rustic charm to the wedding tables. The fabric is inexpensive to buy, and the runners are easy to make. Carefully measure the size of the tables.

The fabric needs to hang over each side of the table and the two ends by 12 inches. Very carefully cut the burlap into your chosen lengths. Carefully pull a few of the horizontal threads from each end of the runner to create a small fringe.

If you prefer, you can hem each piece using a hot glue gun.

Once you have made your runners, they can be decorated to suit your wedding theme. Glue lace or a wide satin ribbon down the center of each runner using the hot glue gun, or decorate the runner with hearts and your initials using a metallic pen. Once the table is set and decorated with your table decorations the burlap table runners will look really lovely.

Custom Wedding Signage

One of the easiest ways to personalize your wedding is to use wedding signage. It plays a useful role, giving your guests directions and timings, but can also be used to develop the color scheme of your wedding and to add character.

One of the most popular items to use for signage is large unwanted wooden pallets. These can be left in their natural light color or painted black or another dark color, and then the wording added in white. The pallet can be decorated with fresh, dried, or paper flowers and fairy lights.

Many couples hold onto them long after their wedding day and keep them and use them to decorate their garden.

Another fun idea is to make signposts from old pieces of wood. These need to be set into a block of concrete to support them if there is no convenient flowerbed to hammer them into. A water- or sand-filled plastic support for a sun parasol can also work well.

If you have or can buy some cheap old, large mirrors these work really well. Clean the mirrors really well with alcohol and then write on them using oil-based paint or a marker pen.

Homemade Wedding Cake

Making your own wedding cake is a great way to save money and can be a really fun experience in the build-up to your big day. The cake can be a traditional fruit cake or can be a sponge cake in your favorite flavor – chocolate, raspberry, lemon, etc.

It is best to try out the recipe well in advance. If you choose one that freezes well, this will give you more time nearer the day. For smaller weddings, a two-tier cake is perfect, and the smaller tier is placed straight onto the base tier.

Choose a good quality cake board that will support the weight well or cover a wooden bread/chopping board with tin foil or wedding wrapping paper.

Cream buttercream in a delicious vanilla flavor is always popular and can be easily decorated using an icing comb or large fork. The decoration on the top can be a single spray of flowers, some seasonal fruit, or a shop-bought decoration. Make sure you keep it in scale and that the decoration does not overwhelm the cake.

Why not introduce a fun element to your wedding day with individual wedding cupcakes for your guests, a pyramid of profiteroles or a donut tree? Choose a branch that has plenty of smaller branches for this. Spray paint the branch in one of your wedding colors.

Secure the branch in a decorated flower pot and hang mini donuts and ribbons on all the branches – make sure you have enough donuts for everyone to avoid disappointment!

DIY Photo Booth Props

Wedding booths are a fun addition for your guests. You can create a photo corner by decorating it with mini balloons or hanging flowers down the wall. Alternatively, you can hang a large ornate picture frame on the wall.

On one side, place a decorated table with a Polaroid camera on it and a cork pin board behind, and soon there will be an array of amusing photographs on it!

For extra fun, you can leave an array of colourful props with the camera, such as daft hats, sunglasses and pretend moustaches. Some large pieces of paper, colored felt tips and scissors will make for some amusing results!

Creative Seating Chart

All your guests will be keen to find out where they are sitting, and a clear seating plan is essential! An old pallet painted and trimmed in fairy lights is a great way to display a large paper seating plan.

Another popular idea is to pin a large world map on the pallet. A flag for each numbered table is attached to different continents/countries, and on the flag, the table number is written, plus the names of the guests at that table. If some of your guests are from different countries, this can be reflected in your choice of countries.

Handcrafted Bouquet

Creating your own bouquet of flowers is a lovely personal thing to do and is a great alternative to a shop-bought bouquet. You will find that you can buy the floral foam in a plastic hand holder at the florist.

For your bouquet, you will need a mixture of flowers in toning colors that match your wedding's color scheme. These flowers can be bought or picked from your garden. Roses and peonies are the classic choice.

You can choose an array of white flowers if you prefer and can complement them with wildflowers and greenery in different tones of green. Think about the shape that you would like your bouquet to be and whether you would like some trailing ivy or similar.

You will need to soak the florist foam for a good 24 hours prior to making your arrangement and then let the foam drain. When you are arranging the flowers, first decorate the lower outer edge with greenery, pushing each stem carefully into the foam. Next, place a large, beautifully shaped flower in the center and place all the smaller flowers around the central one.

Intersperse the flowers with different types of greenery.

If you cannot get a florist foam bouquet shape, you can make a looser looking bouquet by cutting longer stemmed flowers and encircling them with greenery before securing them all in plastic with florist wire and tape.

Once you have completed your bouquet, store it somewhere cool and dark until you need it. Bouquets can be made the day before your wedding.

DIY Ceremony Backdrop

If the backdrop for your wedding ceremony looks dull and uninteresting, you can give it a creative makeover to make it more romantic. A plain wall can be beautifully decorated with streams of hanging flowers, fairy lights, or colorful paper pom-poms. Pretty bunting in your wedding colors can be strung across the wall, and pretty sheer material hung in soft folds will soon transform the backdrop.

If your wedding ceremony is going to be outdoors and the backdrop features some hedges or trees, these can again be given a whimsical look by adding night lights, ribbons and bunting. For a beautiful rustic vibe, a large pair of wooden doors can be used to add character and charm.

Homemade Signature Cocktails

Crafting a signature cocktail for your special day is a unique way to make your wedding memorable. There are plenty of recipes online, and the cocktails can be named after the couple or feature a well-known connection between them. It is fun to experiment well in advance with some different recipes, and these can be chosen to emphasize the season or a favorite fruit.

Don't forget to make several non-alcoholic 'mocktail' versions too.

The cocktails can be prepared in bulk in advance, or the recipe can be printed in large lettering and pinned to the wall with all the ingredients, glasses, and cocktail stirrers on a table in front so that guests can make their own.

If you are planning a winter wedding, the perfect variation to this idea is to serve a variety of different flavored hot chocolates – with plenty of mini marshmallows too!

DIY Wedding Arches

Wedding arches not only look lovely, but they also add romance to wedding photographs. A DIY arch can look every bit as good as a bought one and save you many dollars.

There are many ways to make an arch, and these include a clothes rail, wooden beams, or even two ladders with a third stretched above the others. Once the arch has been built, it can be painted and decorated with flowers, ribbons, balloons and nightlights. A long length of sheer material wrapped over the archway and secured with flowers can look stunning.

Two old wooden doors can be fixed open with a wooden beam above, and these look lovely and rustic when decorated with flowers.

If you prefer not to have a square or rectangular archway, a beautiful circular one can be made from metal piping, or if you want to be innovative, a tall wooden triangle adds an element of fun. Whichever you choose, your archway will make a stylish focus for your wedding ceremony.

Herbal Tea Bar Setup

If you are having an afternoon wedding celebration, why not offer your guests something completely different? A herbal tea bar is a fun alternative that many guests will not have experienced.

All the different teas can be displayed in large glass jars, and the tea bar can be decorated with fairy lights and flowers. If you have some large colorful teapots, these will look good on display too.

The herbal teas should include classic favorites like peppermint, chamomile, and lavender, but also some more unusual ones that you think your guests would like to try, such as Chinese Rose Pouchon and the increasingly popular Japanese Matcha.

Close to the teas, you need to provide tea strainers, lemon slices, and some light-tasting flower honey.

Creative Dessert Table

Everyone loves a tasty dessert and a creative and enticing dessert table will certainly prove a winner! The table can be elegant with marble and gleaming silver, pedestal cake stands and pretty display plates.

Choose a variety of desserts to broaden their appeal. Chocolate, meringues and a tasty cheesecake are always popular, but some pastries with seasonal fruits will popular too. All of these can be bought or perhaps you have a couple of great cooks in your family who would love to contribute to your big day.

When choosing your desserts, don't forget to include a gluten-free, dairy free option if needed.

Decorative Chalkboard Signs

Chalkboard signs complement a variety of wedding themes perfectly. A child's blackboard can be transformed by painting the stand and decorating the board with flowers or greenery. Alternatively, a wooden pallet does the job well and can be painted black and the writing completed in white.

The board can be painted black and placed in a large ornamental frame.

If you know one of your friends is good at calligraphy, press them into action! Alternatively, whoever has the neatest writing will be ideal.

DIY Confetti Cones

Confetti cones are a great addition to a wedding, but a thrifty way to enjoy them is to make your own!

Choose colorful paper or card to create the cones in your color scheme. Wrap a sheet of paper into a cone shape and stick it in place with double-sided tape. The cones can be decorated and personalized if you wish.

They are best stored upright in a suitable wooden box.

The cones can be filled with confetti, but dried rose petals are extra special and eco-friendly.

The rose petals can be prepared in advance by drying them in small handfuls in a preheated air fryer at 320F (160C) for 2 minutes. Small leaves can be dried in the same way and are perfect for fall weddings.

Polaroid Guestbook

This is a fun way to capture the emotion on your wedding day. Guests are asked to take a photograph and print it. Before adding it to the guestbook, they must write a personal message to you both.

This activity needs to be well signed to ensure all your guests participate. Choose a designated corner and place a table there with the Polaroid camera and several markers. On the wall behind, have instructions on what to do written in large print clearly, with a few examples of such photographs for inspiration!

This is a lovely way to capture the thoughts and memories of your guests on this special day.

Keep reading

• Summer Wedding Ideas for a Warm-Weather Celebration
• Rustic Wedding Backdrops for a Boho Ceremony
• Wedding Table Decorations With Jars That Feel Intentional