Wedding Wednesdays: DIY Tips for Your Wedding Program

The more guests feel involved with your wedding, the more likely they’ll have a great time. Wedding programs are a wonderful way to help your friends and family follow the ceremony and understand the wedding traditions you’re incorporating, plus they can take theirs home as a keepsake. The key to crafting a good DIY wedding program? Think practically and creatively.

What's Included
No matter what design you choose for your wedding programs, consider adding the following elements:

• The full names of the bride and groom, the wedding date, and the city and state where the wedding is taking place
• The order of the wedding ceremony, including the musical selections (and the lyrics if they're especially meaningful to you), the composers, and the performers, as well as readings, the source or author, and the readers
• Wedding party bios with brief descriptions of each attendant's relationship to you
• The name of the officiant
• A thank-you note to both sets of parents; one to all the guests is another frequent addition
• For religious and secular ceremonies alike, it's important to keep guests in the know by briefly explaining traditions, rituals, and ethic customs
• If you wish to honor deceased loved ones, you can include a memorial on the back page with a photograph, a fond memory, poem, or quote

Personalizing Them
Your wedding program is an opportunity to tell guests a little more about you as a couple and to set the tone for the rest of the event. The easiest way to personalize your programs is to add special touches, such as favorite poems, quotes, or photographs. Here are some creative concepts:

• For an old-world European theme, print the programs on marbled parchment paper rolled into scrolls and tied with a sage-green ribbon and a sprig of eucalyptus
• Set the program up as a Playbill complete with The Players (each attendant's picture and a short bio), a description of Acts (the ceremony events), and a Producers' Note (a letter to guests from the bride and groom)
• High school sweethearts? Reprint a senior prom picture on vellum and use it to top the program, setting a lighthearted, playful mood

Making Them
Whether you choose to create a program that's bound with a wax seal or a single sheet of paper, there are four basic ways to make your wedding day programs:

• Set up an arts-and-crafts station in your home, complete with colorful papers, ribbon, and decorations, and host a bridal party DIY night
• Create them using template designs from a computer program; with the right program, you can create almost anything imaginable
• Purchase a DIY kit from a company like Paper Source; all you'll have to do is follow the directions and put the programs together

Presenting Them
Because wedding programs can come in unusual shapes, sizes, and colors, they can be presented in various ways. Here are some ideas:

• Fill baskets, tin pails, or antique trays -- whatever works with your wedding style -- with programs and place them at the entrance to your ceremony site for guests to grab as they arrive
• For an outdoor wedding, put a program on each chair and set a few pieces of colored sea glass on top to keep them from blowing away
• Ask a friend or family member to greet guests and hand out programs as they arrive
• Have your ushers hand guests a program right before they’re seated

What a wonderful keepsake and way to celebrate! We hope we've inspired you to devour the details of a picture perfect DIY wedding program for your special day!