Stationery is a huge part of the wedding.
From the invitations to the escort cards to the place settings, the stationery is where you can tie in your motif to create a personal, unique look for your wedding.
As I have mentioned in past blogs, stationery does not have to be expensive. It is very easy to do it yourself if you put in the time and the extra bit of effort. Because of this, there is no reason to scrimp or forget the programs!
The programs were very important to me as it is really the only opportunity to send your guests a message during the wedding. A message from the heart that makes up for the many short and distracted conversations you will try to have with your guests at the wedding.
The first page included our monogram, names, location and time of the ceremony.
We then included the names of our bridal party and their relationship to us – this gives the guests a slight insight as to who our bridal party is.
The program listed out the order of the ceremony including the readings/readers and important events (like exchange of rings!)
Title Page
On the final page we thanked our guests for being a part of our special day and included a verse from one of my favourite Rascal Flatt’s songs – the lyrics of which were lovely and fitting.
When designing the program, it was important to keep in mind the look of the rest of the wedding and to use it as another opportunity to display the theme and motif of our very personal wedding to our guests.
As french toile was such an important part of the French decor we chose I needed to incorporate it often enough that it had presence. To keep costs down I purchased a digital file from the store “With Wild Abandon” on Etsy for $4.00. She sent me a dozen 8×11 digital files of french themed graphics (including a number of toile options).
I chose one of the toiles and used it for……well just about everything!
With Wild Abandon Digital Files
The programs, the tree centerpiece bases, the escort card board, the guest notebooks, the table name cards etc etc etc! For $4.00, the price of ink and cardstock I was able to make the majority of my decor inline with my colours and theme. It was exactly the way I wanted it, there wasn’t any time consuming back and forth with an event decorator, and it cost hardly anything! It certainly took A LOT of time, but because I made it myself, it meant more to me and added a beautiful, personal touch to our wedding.
For the production of the programs I used the following items:
Linen Textured, off-white high quality printing paper from Staples
Metal/Hard Edged Ruler
Glue tape
Grey & White Baker’s Craft Twine
Paper Cutter
Diamond Shaped Hole Punch
Program DIY Materials
I chose the 5×7 booklet option on my Microsoft Publisher program
I used the same border motifs that were used for my invitations and save-the-date, wrote the text I and printed them out.
Paper Trimming
I trimmed the edges using the paper cutter and gave them a clean, sharp fold using a metal ruler.
Clean Fold for Program
For the cover, I used the 8×11 toile file and trimmed the edges down to size.
Program Cover Trimming
I folded all sheets and the cover together and then glued the first page and last page of the program to the cover.
I used a diamond shaped hole punch (a little more delicate of a shape) to punch two holes along the fold line.
Diamond Hole Punch
I then bound the booklet together using the grey and white baker’s craft twine
Baker’s Craft Twine
For the cover I lined our monogram with a linen grey cardstock and then glue-taped it to the front of the program.
The Programs
None of my guests asked if they were home made – instead they asked who was the amazing stationer who made them!
I will not refute that it takes effort and time, but it is so fulfilling to create personal items for your wedding yourself! I was so proud of the programs – it really was worth it.
