Friday, August 19, 2011

DIY Wedding Revisited: Programs

Your programs will set the stage for the ceremony and are the first thing the guest pick up when they arrive.  They are also something a guest will read out of interest or boredom while waiting for the ceremony to start.  I DIYed my entire programs from creating the graphics and design to, with a little a lot of help assembling these babies.  I choose to do a light aqua cardstock backing with four tiered overlapping sections.  The first section was a graphic of our names and included our wedding date and church name.


The second portion was acknowledgements where we thanked everyone for their support, especially our parents.  We had remembrance lilys at the altar for those special people in our lives who had passed before us and the acknowledgements was where we choose to explain this remembrance.    


The ceremony part is pretty self explanatory.  Depending on your religion or the type of ceremony you are having it guides guest through the experience.  This may be important if you are deviating from tradition, if some guests are from different religions or cultures and aren’t familiar with the ceremony, or just for guests to follow along.     


We also choose to include the wedding party in the program.  We had the traditional bridesmaids and groomsmen, but also included personal attendants and a little tradition we have up north called “host couples”….who really are your wedding day slaves and have to schlep your presents around and attend to your needs.  We love host couples.      


I will not lie.  These programs were a beeyotch to make.  I ordered the cardstock and paper from paper and more, a fabulous paper store online with great rates.  To optimize paper I cut the cardstock in half lengthwise (so I could make two programs per sheet) and then used that width to dictate the width of my paper.  I created the graphics in word and power point. 

**Update: After I took some measurements again and ripped apart one poor program I made some new discoveries.  Since all the text was too wide I had to go with one sheet of cardstock per program.  Also I discovered that I stapled all the tiers together at the top!

It is tricky to get all sections to be of equal width and also to get your tiers to line up perfectly so all of the footers are showing and your “wedding party” section isn’t half covered up by your “ceremony” section.  Needless to say there were a lot of test pages printed.  Then I measured them out and put them in a word document so I could get as many sections per paper as possible.  After that I headed off to Office Max with the files in the jump drive and a song in my heart.  I then took several trips back to Office Max so their computer could read my files.  I choose Office Max to do my printing so it would be of higher quality and I could save on my ink.

After all was said and done, everything was printed, all the materials were gathered I headed off to my Mother-in-laws house to assemble.  I used the cheap thin ribbon from Michaels to assemble this thing and a X-acto knife to cut slits to thread the ribbon through. The key to making sure the top part of the cardstock stays creased (to hide your top edges) is lots of pressure on the crease and hot glue.  Then cut, thread, and tie. 

My mother in law, a friend, and myself started out in the morning and after 3 hours of assembling these babies we called in the reinforcements.  4 more helping hands showed up it only took us eehhh 2-3 MORE HOURS to get them all assembled.  There was a slight oversight on my part of the actual time commitment, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. They were prefect and I loved them so much that all the blood, sweat, hot glue burns, and tears were worth it! Due to the amount of requests for a template for these programs I have provided one here!      



We put them in a basket on the wedding day and they looked amazing!  This was definitely a DIY triumph!




*Pictures of the wedding day were taken exclusively by Amber Asman of asmanphotography.  In short, she rocks.

41 comments:

  1. Hi
    I really like your wedding program! Good job!!!
    I have been looking for something similar for my wedding. However, can't find any templates yet.
    Would you mind sending me your template on my email tamikamanigat@gmail.com.
    I only have a month to plan my wedding! I still want it to be perfect.

    Anyways, let me know
    thanks in advance

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  2. Hi Tami! You can for sure have the template. Feel free to contact me with any questions you have after you get it! Good luck and I hope you have a great day!

    PS I made my programs a week before so you should have plenty of time! The biggest thing was ordering my papers.

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  3. I love this program! I have been racking my brain for programs for weeks now and yours is so perfect! I would love to have your template as well if you don't mind.. I have a little less than three months until my wedding but I wanted to get a head start. Would you mind? My email is ashleyh@cre8.com. Thanks so much!

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  4. These programs look AMAZING! I am maid of honour for a wedding in 3 weeks and like a good MOH i've taken on the task of creating the programs and this is right up the Bride's alley in terms of taste!

    I would love it if you could email me the template. :) my email is melissa.mohammed@rogers.com

    Thanks so much!!!

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  5. Ashley - good luck on your wedding! I am so glad you liked the templates! Three months should be more than enough to get these going!

    Melissa - you are an amazing MOH! Programs are stressful and I'm sure your bride will really appreciate you taking this on!

    For other readers I have provided the template and instructions here:

    http://thedomesticdomicile.blogspot.com/2011/08/diy-wedding-revisited-program-templates.html

    Happy crafting!

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  6. May I also have the template sent to my email please? I love your idea better than a lot I have found. My email is tyash1432@gmail.com
    Thank you
    Tyler

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  7. Hi Tyler - you can get the template at this link with all the information and details! Thanks!

    http://thedomesticdomicile.blogspot.com/2011/08/diy-wedding-revisited-program-templates.html

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  8. Hi Ann!

    I must first say that your website has been a great resource when it came to my programs. As others mentioned I searched and did not find anything as great until I saw your blog. Im working on my programs for my 11-11-11 wedding and had a few questions about the paper. I am ordering the paper from paper and more and wanted to know did you have the paper pre-cut for the 4 layers of printing when you ordered it. I am having the card stock pre-cut but wasn't sure if you had the other pages cut once you printed them or before? Also, what did you use to ensure the 1/2 inch fold of the card stock was straight? Lastly, I have been on power point wrecking my brain to complete the cover page artwork lol I'm a nurse and surely not an artist. Any other tips on that would help. Thanks again for your help! If you want to contact me directly you can email me at kamariaandhector@gmail.com

    KC

    T

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  9. Hey KC! Great questions! I also ordered my paper from paper and more - they are wonderful. I did not get it precut. For the backing I used a regular paper cutter to cut the aqua cardstock in half. For the other pages I wouldn't recommend having them pre-cut because the pages are very hard to print when they are not standard paper size. Again I would get your hands on a paper cutter and do custom cuts. What really worked for me was that I made a mock up “template sheet” with the outline of where I wanted my cuts and used that as a guide for the other sheets. Regarding the ½ inch fold on the top I really tried to make sure each of the sides of the cardstock lined up…and then I made a little wish. Some will come out crooked, but you can put those on the bottom! For the artwork, what works for me is to search websites like wedding bee, the knot, pintrest, etc. and gain inspiration for what you want your graphic to look like – do you have any inspiration pictures?

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  10. I downloaded the template- the programs are AMAZING by the way...I just cannot figure out how to edit the first part- the names and initials...any advice you have would be much appreciated- thanks!
    eadabrowski@gmail.com

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  11. Thank you! Unfortunately the first page is a saved graphic so you aren't able to put your own information in. It is included so DIY brides can get an idea about the exact dimension of the page. You can create a similar graphic in programs like Publisher or Power Point and save as a PDF.

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  12. So I may have missed it, but what are the measurements for the paper? Did you use regular 8.5x11 paper for the aqua?

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  13. Yes I used regular 8.5 x 11 cardstock for the aqua and cut it in half to make the backing. Hope that helps!

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  14. You cut your cardstock so that the programs ended up being 4.25"x11" right? Did you print two copies of the program on each sheet of white paper to save paper, or did you print one at a time?

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  15. Whitney - the cardstock will end up being 4.25" x 11 inches. I printed as many as I could on the white sheets of paper to save on costs. I then used a papercutter to individually cut each one out!

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  16. Can you please send met he template! I am hoping you still have it! It seems like the post are older, but I am in love with it!

    Jnalitz@gmail.com

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  17. Hi! You can access the program template with the link below! Good luck and happy crafting!

    http://thedomesticdomicile.blogspot.com/2011/08/diy-wedding-revisited-program-templates.html

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  18. These are amazing! I've been hoarding the pictures for months and now it's time for me to start on them! Could you please send me the email template?? astockwell511@gmail.com

    Thank you so much! These are wonderful!!

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  19. Hi ver1tass1lber - you can find the templates at the link below! So excited you like the templates - hope all goes well with the crafting!

    http://thedomesticdomicile.blogspot.com/2011/08/diy-wedding-revisited-program-templates.html

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  20. Okay, first of all these are great, I know tha tyou mentioned the size of the backing you used and that was 8.5 x 11 and you cut it in half so that one piece made two backings. What about the other papers? I have not ordered my paper yet so i am not sure how much I have to order, like how much paper will make how many programs? Thanks!!!

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  21. Hi Jessie! Glad you like the programs! Since there are so many tiers (4) you need to figure out how much paper you need to order for each tier. My best advice would be to print out the template and by each size figure out how many of each you can fit on a page. For the larger ones I think I fit 2 per page, and for the smaller ones I may have done a combination of the first, second, and third pages on one page depending on size! Hope this helps!

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  22. Hi I loved the programs and the layout of each individual page. I've been recking my brain on how I can create an unique program for the wedding along with elegance. Is there a way that your layout can be forwarded to my email at gree1286@yahoo.com please. Thanks in advance!

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  23. Hi Gree! You can find the template linked in the blog. If it doesn't open for you I would be happy to send it your way!

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  24. I love these!!! Could you email me the template? dribble0742@hotmail.com

    sooo adorable!

    Kara

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  25. Hi Kara,

    You can find the template at the link below! Good luck!

    http://thedomesticdomicile.blogspot.com/2011/08/diy-wedding-revisited-program-templates.html

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  26. Hi Ann! THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH for sharing your template. The wedding program you made is beautiful and I can't wait to make mine :-)

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  27. Thank you so much for sharing this! We are trying to do so much of our wedding on our own, I really appreciate the help!
    I'm excited to use your beautiful template!

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  28. Hi Ann,
    I saw it somewhere, but what fonts do I need to download?? I can't find it now
    Thanks!

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  29. Hi! The fonts are Splendid ES and Calabri!

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  30. Ooh had the idea of doing these for my invites! but love your idea of having the coloured backing, just adds another dimension to it!

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  31. I made these for my son's wedding. Do NOT and I do repeat, Do NOT make these if you need 300. We ended up with 100 hours (and yes I am a very experienced paper crafter. In fact, three of my friends who are all card makers and scrapbooker worked on these. One's daughter joined us. She doesn't have a lot of scrapbook experience, but had just finished making lots of things for her won wedding-so not a novice. One actually owns the store where I worked all week. The only novice was my husband who took off two afternoons to punch holes and thread ribbon. They are very pretty, but an immense amount of work and precision is mandatory. The only difference I had was to make tabs on the ends where you have the printed titles in color. I did this to save over $130 in copying costs. I was able to print 20 to a page that way. (Also, you need to narrow your template since the pages need to be narrower than 4.25 if the card stock is to show around the edges. Hof sheets of cardsotck are 8.5 x 4.25.

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  32. Hi Mamapow - sorry to hear these took so long. I made 200 of these for my wedding and what worked for us what to do an assembly line. Ex: one person organizing and stapling, one gluing, one stringing and tying etc. With about 6ish people it took us about 10 hours to assemble - sorry to hear it took you longer! I dropped off my template at Office max and they did all the printing for me. Obviously designing them took a lot of work, but with the template it should go much easier. Hope other brides have had a better experience!

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  33. Hi,

    I love this idea. Would I be able to get the template from you? My email is edarciero@gmail.com.

    Thanks so much :)

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  34. Hi edarciero - you can actually find the template link in the blog post! I would be happy to send it on to you if you have problems opening it!

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  35. Hi!
    I LOVE these programs and would love to try to make them!
    I'm having trouble with your link to the template though, could you please email it to me?
    Jaime
    jaimej625@aol.com

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  36. Hi Jamie - the template should be in your inbox! Enjoy!

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  37. Hi. I am trying to use your template but am having a very difficult time recreating the first page. Can you walk me through how you did it. I can't seem to overlap the wording. You can post again here or email me at mickeymice19@hotmail.com

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  38. Hi Mickeymice19 - you will not be able to create this graphic in word. I used Microsoft Publisher, but you can also use Microsoft Power Point as well. If you don't have either of these programs you can get a free trial and make the text during the free trial and save it as a PDF to have full access to it. The A and R were in two separate text boxes blown up big. I moved the text boxes so the letters overlapped. For the pink text each line was a separate text box with different fonts to get the spacing right. Hope it helps!

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  39. Hey! I have been trying to decide on wedding programs for my wedding for a while and nothing I have seen has caught my eye, until I saw this! It is perfect and no other program matches it. I was wondering if you could send me the template my email is ridgwayash09@gmail.com

    Thank you soo much!
    Ashley

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  40. These are great!

    My question though is how did you go about cutting out each section (wedding party, ceremony, etc) to get them to the correct measurements after they were printed on a piece of paper? Did you have to go through and measure out each one to the correct dimensions and then cut it out? I would love to do this template for my programs but I can't imagine how long that would take!

    Thanks,

    Emily

    Thanks!

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  41. I made a rectangle box around each of the different sections and printed one of each page for the template. I used an industrial paper cutter and started (with the template sheet on top) to cut the paper. When I did it I had them printed at office max and then there were about 5 ish of us that did it over 7 hours. The first seveal hours there were only two of us and then we called in the reinforcements!

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Let me know what you think. I would love to hear from you!