DIY Wedding : Making your own programs

 

I am down to crunch time so in an effort to save time I went onto Etsy to try to find some premade printable programs. Some that I liked were $80, others as low as $15. After noting some of the dimensions to see how many print on one page I realized that a lot of them are 2 per page, cutting the 8.5x11 down to 4.25x11. So I resorted back to my standard thought any time I see pretty much anything…. “I could make that”… It only took me about an hour to get everything done.

I started out by editing the size of the paper down to the 4.25x11 but then realized when it came time to print that it wouldn’t print multiples per page the right way… so I changed it, and it is EVEN EASIER. I swear. I hope all those DIY brides read this and realize they can do it themselves!

I used a banner from a free digital kit I found on Persnickety Prints. I also used a glitter heart from Design Editor (follow her blog, you won’t regret it) I have a massive amount of digital scrapbooking supplies, all free. If you are looking for some elements to use I suggest starting at Quality DigiScrap blog. You can find just about anything for your wedding theme. Don’t forget about clip art and using google images or even engagement photos.

Now… Onto the tutorial…

Open Microsoft Word. Let’s setup the document to make 2 programs per page. The layout should automatically be portrait for Word, if for any reason it isn’t please make that change. Next you will setup the Margins to be “narrow” and then the Columns to be “two”. The beauty of using Word is that it is so user friendly. The setup will automatically make sure the the columns are the same size and there is a margin btwn them. So no worrying about things bleeding over.

Next it’s time to start putting in the digital scrapbooking elements or even clip art or the photo.

There are some tricks to using photo files in word. Word will try to keep them in line with text and in the body of the document unless you select the picture and make a few quick changes. These changes will make it where you can more freely move and resize the photo file. But do keep in mind that word will now not recognize that in the body of the text, that means when you start typing your text might overlap the photo. Just enter down a few lines until you are clear of the photo.

Now we can start editing the text needed for your program. What I saw on most was “the wedding of NAME & NAME” followed by the order of the ceremony events. On my “second” page which will be the back I have the Wedding Partys names and roles. A lot of them also listed a thank you to the guests or a map to the reception venue, as my reception is in the same place and my list got a little long I just kept it to the wedding party names.

I formatted the text to be centered in each column for my preference but that is up to you and how you want yours to look. You can add as many digital elements you like, and you can also use which ever fonts you like. I will show you how mine turned out and some extra tips for formatting the text for better placement.

Fonts Used: Titles – Branboll, Names – Dead Hardy, names and details – Yummy Cupcakes

A few extra settings to help with the spacing btwn lines. If you notice in word when you hit enter to go down to the next line the spacing might be more than you want, like where it says bride’s entrance and then lists the song I wanted those right next to each other. Also where it says the wedding party title and then the names listed.

Make the spacing 1.0 and it will probably say “remove space after paragraph” and you will want to click that to remove that space. If you want to add it for spacing btwn the different parts of the wedding party like btwn the groomsmen and the bridesmaids just add that space back in in lieu of adding and extra “enter” space.

Printing: Since this is the front and back of your program on one side, all you need to do is insert the paper once printed into your printer the other way around and the program will print the front on the back of the back and the back on to the back of the front… (confused?) I would suggest printing these on cardstock.

Cutting: If you have a paper cutter just line the edge up with 4.25” and cut away, if you print these at Staples they will charge $2.00 to use their big paper cutter to cut multiples at once. I would suggest this to save you a headache of cutting them over and over and over. DO NOT FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY TRY TO CUT THESE WITH SCISSORS. Please… just… don’t.

Cost breakdown: I made a call to Staples for pricing and was told for full color front and back it was $1.98 a page and then the additional $2.00 for the full order to cut. I have used Office Depot a lot and have sweet talked them into only charging full color for front and black and white for the back since technically the back is black and white, which will save almost half the cost. For cardstock they typically upcharge you anywhere from $0.07 – $0.25 depending on the paper you choose. If you are printing at home make sure when you print in your printer settings that you have it on either “high quality” or “photo” settings so that you won’t get any streaky lines in your clip art items. (also note that a lot of printers now a days will not feed cardstock from the bottom tray, if you have a feed tray from the back it works, the cardstock will not curl around the rollers on the inside. If you want to print at home but yours doesn’t have a back feed tray then look into “resume” paper, its thicker and has a nice texture to it and will feed through printers.)

I hope all the other DIY brides out there find this tutorial helpful in making there day exactly what they want. I am so glad we are DIYing a lot of our stuff, cuz even if I wanted to find some of the things I want, it just isn’t out there. Our Wedding is not traditional. And I wouldn’t want it any other way!

Much Love,

Tamara