The Rise of the DIY Bride

One of the emerging trends in the wedding industry at the moment is the rise of the DIY bride.  More and more brides (ok, and grooms too…) have been going down the do-it-yourself path to save money.  This makes a lot of sense, given the stagnant state of the economy coupled with the astronomical average cost of a wedding these days.  But aside from the obvious, there are other, more subtle reasons as well.

One reason for this trend is that access to DIY information is now just a click away.  This is a lot different than it used to be.  When I got married in the early 1990’s, the Internet was still in its infancy.  Searching the web for DIY tips and ideas at that time was simply not an effective means of gathering information.  Therefore, many couples at the time opted to work with full service wedding planners.

These days, anybody can learn how to do anything from the comfort of their own home.  Plus, easy access to images and photos via sources like Pinterest, Facebook and Google Image Search helps to spur creativity and imagination amongst would-be brides (i.e., a picture is worth a thousand words).  The bottom line is that because of today’s incredibly easy access to DIY wedding information, couples now have the tools – and the inspiration – necessary to do some of all of the job themselves.

Another subtle reason for this trend has to do with a societal shift towards more individualization and personalization.  These days, many couples want their weddings to showcase their individual personalities and preferences, and this level of customization can rarely be purchased (well, not cheaply or easily, at least).  Thus, many times the best way for couples to uniquely express themselves through their wedding is to create elements of the wedding themselves.  For example, the DIY touch can be applied to the invitations, theme, décor, escort cards, centerpieces, floral arrangements, favors, and other items.

So, as I see it, there are 4 primary reasons for this trend:

• The crappy economy
• The $26K average price tag of a wedding
• The incredible access to DIY information afforded by today’s Internet
• The cultural trend toward personalization and individualization

If you don’t believe this to be true, just look around.  Signs of the DIY wedding trend can be found everywhere.  For example, I just did a Google search for “DIY wedding” (with the quotes) and it returned almost 2.8 million results.  There has also been a substantial increase in the number of couples using myregistry.com, which is a self service wedding registration site.  Additionally, more and more couples are opting to forego having a wedding planner, and even more couples are opting for non-traditional weddings, such as destination weddings, which do not require a lot of planning or effort.

In the final analysis, the emergence of the DIY bride is firmly entrenched at the moment and is not likely to go away anytime soon.  So if you are a bride-to-be, groom-to-be, or even a would-be mother of the bride, think about ways in which you could inject your own creativity and imagination into the wedding by “getting your hands dirty” so to speak.  Stationary and décor elements in particular should be pondered. And if you are in the wedding industry, think about how you could leverage this DIY trend in your own business.  I know I will! Good luck!