Ceremony Programs? Check!

I'm done with the ceremony programs! Yeehaw! The Candyman and I actually finished these up together last weekend. One more thing crossed off the list!

I really can't rave enough about the Brides brand of invitations and matching everything I got at Michael's. While I did have to monkey around with the formatting a bit, it's all worth it. I've done a few things to make it my own and that's what's nice. It's kinds of like that show on The Food Network, Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee. I didn't make my own invitations per se, but I took pre-made stuff and have tweaked it just a little to make it all work.

The first ceremony programs I had were tiered with a card stock backing. These were impossible to print. Even using their assigned format and font, it wouldn't work. There was a mini-WPM (Wedding Planning Meltdown) during this process. I took them back to Michael's and bought regular booklet style programs and they were a total snap.

Here's the outside of the booklet.

Here's the inside.

I printed the version of The Lord's Prayer we like. Did you know there are three different versions? We prefer the 1928 version from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

The Candyman folded all the pages for me while I assembled and tied the ribbons into pretty knots. Can I tell you what pain in the ass that was? Who knew tying knots would be so difficult.?

Remember all the little flowers I used on my invitations? Well, I have a bunch left over, so I decided to use them on the outside of the programs, just for fun.

God love The Candyman for glue-dotting tiny little flowers on our programs. Definitely not his thing.

And voila! Our ceremony programs!

While I wish that I had a Gocco printer, time to DIY everything and a little bit more creativity, I am really happy with how all my printed materials came out. I'm happy I haven't spent a fortune on all of it. I bought all my invitations (pocket fold with response cards), table cards, menus, thank you cards, place cards, ceremony programs, glue dots, mini flowers, double sided sticky tape, favor boxes, extra card stock for favor stuff (as well as guest book fun), extra ribbon, heart and round hole punchers, favor bags for inside the box (yes, I'm anal retentive), DIY personalized labels for the invites and all postage for about $350! I took advantage of every sale and coupon from JoAnn's and Michael's as I could! The one thing I did not include in this total is the ink to print all this. I've purchase 3 sets of ink cartridges as $35 a pop. I think I would have only needed 2 if it hadn't been for my OOT bags. The iron-on transfer I'm using for those used a TON of ink per page! Still, I think I'm doing pretty good since all the stuff is personalized by moi! Thus far, I don't think I would have wanted to do this any other way.

I have what I hope is my LAST dress fitting this afternoon. I can't believe that our wedding is only 43 days away! Crazy!

So tell me, those of you going the DIY route - are you enjoying it? Do you think it's worth it?