Wedding DIY Programs?

[Krissie]

I''m like the least crafty person ever, but if I can save money on programs I''m willing to give it a shot! We anticipate having anywhere from 225 to 290 show up at our wedding, so as you can imagine, having programs printed for all guests would kill the budget.

It will be a full Catholic mass, so we will need multiple pages for all of the hymns, readings, and general order of Mass. I really love the ribbon-tied look, and I saw some gorgeous wired ribbon at Container Store over the weekend. So I am exploring the DIY route and specifically, am interested in the DIY programs from Crane''s. I think the "baronial square" style is my favorite, and it comes with templates and everything.

Have any of you had a good experience using Crane''s or any other DIY sources? If you are using a template, what are you putting on the front cover of the programs to make it look less DIY (I mean, I could use clip art, but that would probably look less formal)? Are you using standard black ink?

Thanks!

 

[Krissie]

bumping b/c I''m really curious

 

[Mrs DMcD]

Sorry Krissie, no advice to give - but I am interested to see some responses, as I have been wondering about this too. I should only need about 150, so wouldn''t be too big of a task to undertake. My main concern is having everything "go together" (invitations, place cards, programs, etc) and wonder if it will all come together if they aren''t all from the same place. Good luck!

 

[Sabine]

I was searching past program threads because this is something I still need to do too, and this one mentioned Cranes in the last reply: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/wedding-programs-diy-vs-professional.60284/

 

[split_shank]

I dont have much to offer either, other than the thought that maybe you won''t need to print out as many as your expected guest number. Most of the weddings I have been to, a lot of couples will just share a program, not need one for children, etc, unless they want their own. Unless you have one on each chair or something, then you would need one on each. Just a thought...

 

[Elmorton]

Our Episcopal blessing was with communion, and our church provided the typical Sunday bulletin that had the order of the mass and everyone just followed along with the prayer book and hymnal. Where they usually list the acolytes, they listed our wedding party, and where there are typically announcements, they printed that a cake and punch reception would follow and that we thanked our parents for everything they've done for us. Could you see if your church would provide you with the bulletin (you might donate $ for the cost of printing and labor)?

It worked out perfectly fine - our priest did pause a little longer for page turning than for a typical Sunday (since DH, my parents, godparents, and one of our ushers were pretty much the only Episcopalians in attendance). I will say too that for traditional Episcopal and Catholic weddings I've attended, if guests are not of the same faith, they'll typically choose not to participate in the prayers and observe only. If you have a lot of Catholics in attendance, one would assume they'd help the person next to them follow the prayer book and make sure they're on the same page.

The church we attend now has the whole mass printed in the bulletin, and it's lengthy...I would guess at least 10 pages, so 5-6 extra-large sheets. Printing that for 225 is going to be pretty expensive (which makes me wonder how much $ my church would save if they'd stop doing that!!). And - they're not pretty, dainty, or delicate.

For our civil ceremony, we did DIY our program - I bought covers (Wilton brand, from Walmart, actually), and then simply printed additional pages on pretty linen paper using Word. I did have several run-throughs, because the templates weren't really accommodating when you need to add additional information (like on the inside cover, the back of the cover, etc). For 125 guests, we needed two boxes of covers and 1 small box of paper ($30?), but I only ended up with 90 (lots of mess-ups!) so gave the ushers directions to try to give one program per couple. We had quite a few left over, oops.

Also - I tried the ribbon tied thing - and it was awful. I love ribbon-tied programs, but they tend to work best if there aren't any extra pages. When we tried to ribbon-tie (and we tried several different ways), the pages would be hard to turn or rip.