Take this post with a grain of salt  (or pepper, no one needs more salt in their diet!) as my wedding isn’t for another 8 months, but I felt like sharing some advice.

(Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version):

Complete List of Tips for a Successful DIY Wedding:

#1. Start Early.

The End

Expanded List:

#1. Start Early

#2. See #1.

#3. There is no rule #3.

Have I mentioned that Martha Stewart is kind of my hero? I’ve been addicted to crafts since a young age. I spent a lot of time as a kid hanging out with Cinnamum in her craft room, while she made things for the Christmas craft fair season. I even had my own table at our town’s craft fair starting at the tender age of 5. There was never any question about my wedding being DIY. It’s the perfect excuse for a crafting extravaganza!

Here is a taste of the few DIY things we’re planning for a 60-70 person wedding:

• Jam for favours – with cloth on top and tags tied on
• Pies for dessert
• Cute signs for pies, saying what flavour they are
• Cute signs for things in general!
• Bunting/garland of some sort for ceremony and reception area
• Focal point of the room for our vows (what would be the altar area, if we were in a church)
• Centrepieces/decor in general
• Handknit lace shawl for the bride
• Handknit socks for the groom
• Digital photoframe slideshow x2 (one for bride, one for groom)
• Photobooth & props

Who knows what else will be added to that list? I’ll probably end up doing a lot of it, as while Cinnamum is a very crafty lady (I learned it all at her knee!) she doesn’t live here, where I am and where the wedding is happening. She has made 2/3 of the jam we need – the other 1/3 was my responsibility. And you know what? Both of us have finished our jam commitments (minus the strawberry – waiting for early June so they’re at their tastiest!). It helps that I got engaged just before canning season started! And that jam doesn’t go bad after being stored for a year.

Blueberries on my kitchen counter, about to become jam.

But I believe that that is the spirit in which one must approach project the size of a wedding. Pick out what can be done beforehand, and do it. Aim to be done a month before the wedding. This gives you some buffer time, so you can go a couple weeks over schedule and still be done a couple weeks before the wedding. In the case of the list above, everything can be done well in advance, apart from the pies. And that’s not even quite true. I bought a 20-pound box of peaches at the farmer’s market. I made jam from some, and had planned on freezing some so I can make pies in June out of peaches that were picked in-season. Then I realised that instead of them taking up precious freezer space for 9 months, I could make my own canned peach pie filling, and then it can just be stored on a shelf!

Photo from BlogTO

I suppose there is an addendum to The List: Have a backup plan. And also, TEST EVERYTHING.

I want to make 2 peach pies for the wedding. I made 3 jars of filling. This means I can make a pie in say, February, with that pie filling and find out if it tastes good/bad/rancid. If it is bad, I will just buy imported peaches when I want to make my pies. I’ll have wasted 7 peaches (out of 20 pounds of them!) and a few cups of sugar. No big deal.

If my oven/freezer/brain craps out on me the day before the wedding – I plan on driving to the farmer’s market and buying up all of the pie guy’s fruit pies. I hope this doesn’t happen!

I have way more planning I could share about pies, but that deserves its own post or two.

You’ll be hearing plenty about the planning, the recipes, the crafts, the craft-failures, the inspiration, and hopefully the knitting over the course of the next 8 or so months.