Back to Weddings Main Take Your Wedding Into Your Own Hands Michael’s craft instructor Adrienne Hilliard displays a wedding kit with items for a ringbearer and flower girl. Craft stores carry a variety of items brides can put together themselves, including the materials for wedding favors, invitations, deco MORE PHOTOS After the haze of post-proposal excitement begins to clear, engaged couples must face the overwhelming prospect of planning their wedding. While some brides take comfort in finding professionals to create their perfect day, others feel a sense of security and purpose by taking the reins themselves. From the invitations to favors and decorations, Valley couples are not afraid to take control. “This area is a lot more hands-on than what I’m used to,” said Chris Blose, Michaels craft store manager and former Ashburn resident. “Typically, up there, our wedding aisles stayed pretty full. Here, we’re constantly filling this aisle. A lot more people out there are more crafty.” Paper Goods Engagement announcements, save-the-date cards, bridal shower and wedding invitations, directions, R.S.V.P. cards, ceremony programs, place cards, menus, favor tags and tons of thank you notes. These are only a few of the ways paper is used in the wedding process. With so much information to share, even the least expensive professionally created paper goods can become prohibitively pricey. With a little preplanning and a good sense of your wedding timeline, making your own stuff can be a snap. Depending on the size and formality of a wedding, invitations should be mailed out between two and three months ahead of time “if you actually want people to go to the wedding,” says Adrienne Hilliard, a class instructor for Michaels. With this in mind, start the invitation process at least one month before you plan to mail them. For intricate, multi-piece designs that require attaching trendy ribbons or charms, give yourself even more time to put them together. And, don’t forget to factor in the time-consuming process of gathering guests’ addresses. Michaels has more than 100 wedding invitation kits available during peak wedding planning season, which Blose says runs from March to May. The kits allow brides to compose their own invitations on a home computer, and then print them out whenever convenient. But, be careful when wording your own invites. Have several people proofread the first printout before you accidentally print them with a spelling error. For the bride who wants a completely unique look with custom paper goods, try using a local printing company. At Garrison Press in Harrisonburg, Ed Monger, production manager, says he works with at least 50 couples a year. “A lot of people fear that if they try to do it themselves it won’t look as nice, but that’s not necessarily true,” said Monger. He welcomes hand drawn images or anything created on the computer. “Whatever they do on a computer, we can work with electronically,” he said. “There’s so many different ways it can be done.” Decorations To decorate the ceremony site, consider using synthetic flowers that you can create weeks or months ahead of time without fear of wilting before the wedding. Plain prepackaged bouquets are easily spruced up by adding miniature wire flowers or individual brightly colored blooms to the bunch. “Nowadays, some of this stuff looks so real you’d almost have to be right up on the flowers to realize they’re fake,” said Blose, whose floral department does four to five weddings a season. Belle Stemper, owner of Ragtime Fabrics in Harrisonburg, has had brides come in to purchase sheer fabrics to dress up reception tables and stock up on tons of tulle. “Because tulle is relatively inexpensive, they can use a large amount to get a soft effect at the ceremony or reception site,” she said. Really ambitious brides can even learn how to make their own dress at Ragtime Fabrics. The store offers two-hour personal lessons for $24 a session. “That’s a very affordable way to do it,” says Stemper. “We can run the gamut from pure silk to closeout satin.”   Favors For favors, little boxes or bags of sweets are easy for brides to put together on their own. Favor holders in the shape of clear plastic purses have been “flying off the shelf” at Michaels, says Blose. Customize plain tins quickly by embellishing them with sticker letters in your new monogram or use a heart-shaped hole punch to tie bags together with a personalized thank you note. “You pretty much can go all out from a favor standpoint,” said Blose. “I’m sure it’s a hundred times cheaper than what you would pay to have someone do it.” Hilliard uses different colored scrapbooking papers and cardstock to create favors and invitations for friends’ weddings and showers. She also did her own wedding centerpieces, favors and invitations. “It’s a big job,” she said. “Always make extras just in case, and if people want to take them home.” Don’t add to wedding week stress by waiting too long to start projects. Individually personalized shell or stone placeholders sound great six months out, but you do not want to be awake the night before your wedding working on them. Hilliard recommends starting favors at least a month ahead of time. Know When To Get Help There’s no need to channel Martha Stewart for all aspects of your wedding, particularly time sensitive ones. Professionals should handle real flowers, cakes and other perishables that cannot be done more than a week before the wedding. Kathy Good, a Wilton cake specialist for Michaels, has worked with brides who originally wanted to make their own cake, but they all changed their minds as the day got closer. “It gets too hectic to want to do it on your own,” she said. Contact Elizabeth Rome at 574-6272 or erome@dnronline.com Back to Weddings Main