If you’ve added up the costs of invitation design, personal wedding planners, customised labels for favours, decorations, menus and other bits and pieces and are consequently panicking: this list is for you.
Rescu. has compiled the best free online resources for every aspect of your wedding, from DIY pinwheel favours to apps and spreadsheets for organising your guest list.
By Jennifer Thorp.
Doing a wedding yourself, with the help of friends and family, doesn’t mean sacrificing taste or style. And by saving costs on these aspects, you can give more to other parts of the day. It’s a win-win!
Before The Day
Invitations can be a major expense if professionally designed and sent. Fortunately, with a good printer and paper, you can do just as good a job on your own – with some template help from the experts.
Wedding Chicks have some of the most popular free wedding printables online, including Save The Dates, monogrammed labels, invitation suites and thank-you cards (pictured above). Their whimsical style looks personally designed even without paying a designer.
If you’re looking to do it yourself, a great way to make an invitation special is a fantastic font. We love the free wedding fonts for invitations from Fontspace and retro fonts at Demilked.
Forgoing a wedding planner to organise your day yourself can seem overwhelming, but there are great resources to help you handle it. The 12-month wedding planner from Wedding Ideas Magazine is one of the most-used free planners online.
Google has also developed an All-In-One Wedding Planner, including guest lists, cake, favours and RSVPs. It uses Google Docs, so you’ll need a Google account.
And if you want a website giving guests all the information about your big day, check out the customisable personal wedding websites from MyWedding, pictured above.
The Ceremony
The ‘Yay!’ wedding flags from Offbeat Bride, pictured above, are popular for audience participation. Be warned, you’ll need to buy the sticks for the flags yourself from a hardware store like Bunnings.
A paper flower garland backdrop from Elli, pictured above left, is a delicate way to make a ceremony space romantic without excess fuss. It’s particularly good if the bride or groom are sensitive to pollen, and can be kept easily afterwards!
Microsoft Office has developed a range of free wedding programme templates for brides and grooms to leave for guests. If you’re looking for something a bit more complex, try the DIY fan programmes by Aylee Bits or the three-tiered programmes from Domestic Domicile. Both require assembly.
The Reception
Love Vs. Design has a large range of reception wedding printables, with rustic designs including chalkboards (pictured above), watercolour decorations and vintage-style place cards.
If you want something hanging off the back of your chairs or the wall, but can’t settle on a traditional ‘Just Married’ sign, the customisable banners from Martha Stewart Weddings include every letter from the alphabet for you to arrange as you like.
On the table itself, we love the vintage paper placemats from The Pretty Blog. Print them on thick card stock so they’ll stand up to plates and cutlery.
As for menus, there are many good free menu templates, but our favourites include the customisable DIY wedding menus from Etsy (pictured above) which must be folded and placed upright, and the paisley menu from April Wheeler Events.
Want a photo booth? It’s possible to achieve the same results without hiring one out. Online photo booth technology from Snapstrip means that you can have a photo booth on any computer, while free moustache and lip props from Living Locurto let your guests look silly on a budget.
If you want a quirky seating plan, try customisable flag bunting from Martha Stewart Weddings. It allows each piece of bunting to have guest’s names and table numbers.
And then there’s the guest book. Marry This has guest book advice cards to file in individually, so that guests can be prompted and get soppy without anybody else knowing!
After The Wedding
Giving your guests a favour to take home? Do it on a budget with some DIY boxes. There’s a sweet miniature DIY candy box for favours from Melissa Esplin, or a Bonbon DIY candy box from Eat Drink Chic (pictured above).
And if you’ve gotten into the popcorn trend, try the miniature DIY popcorn box by One Charming Party. More whimsical? We love the Pinwheel party favour from Oh Happy Day.
Label them all with party favour tags from The DIY Network and you’re all set.
Jetting off somewhere exotic and want guests to help? The free honeymoon registry from Honeyfund is the top free honeymoon-funding site on the web, and guests can contribute just as they would to a registry.
But after you get back, remember to send out thank-you cards – Confetti Sunshine’s bunting thank-you cards or the customisable monogram thank-you cards from Elli (pictured above) are perfect for the job.
Will you be using any of these free wedding printables and resources for your big day?
Image courtesy Love Vs. Design, Elli, Wedding Chicks, My Wedding, Offbeat Bride, Etsy, and Eat, Drink Chic.
