If you've been or are planning to be a DIY Bride, please get in touch! I'd love to feature your story on these pages.

In the meantime, here's my story:

The Story of My Wedding, DIY Brides and 4 Life Films

I didn't set out to be a DIY bride. The main motivation for my DIY wedding wasn't money either. Of course, saving money was a massive bonus. But the main features of my DIY wedding were that I had lots and lots of fun, learnt lots of new things and had a truly unique and personal day.

Back in 1999, I was running my own children's opera company, directing opera in small theatres across West London on a freelance basis and doing part-time work as a supply teacher.

I'd met Neil on a blind date in 1998. It took just five days for us to agree to get married! We had about 6 months to get our wedding organised. We didn't set out to have a DIY wedding - at first, I was just going to make our wedding invitations. But then, I got bitten by the bug. In the months leading up to the wedding, as a DIY bride, I devoted every free evening to making stationery, making cake decorations and even sewing my bridesmaid's dress.

There are lots of good reasons for having a DIY wedding. Obviously, the main one is money. Neil and I didn't want to spend thousands and thousands on one day - we were living at the time in a tiny studio flat in London and saving for a deposit on something bigger was muc more of a priority. However, we still wanted the big day to be special. I wanted to look my best. And I wanted everything from the invitations to the food to be stylish and to reflect our style. Making things ourselves helped us achieve all that on a limited budget. But we had other good reasons for having a DIY wedding!

The first was fun! We learnt new skills together and got a tremendous amount of satisfaction from everything we made. It was a real joint effort: I made our cake and Neil iced it! There was a great sense of camaraderie too: our friends all mucked in and helped! I'm sure every bride is busy in the run up to a wedding but in the run up to our wedding, I was manically busy. And I enjoyed every single minute!

The second reason was control. I admit that I'm a bit of a control freak, to be absolutely honest, and even more of a perfectionist. I didn't want to walk up the aisle wondering if the caterers had provided enough chicken drumsticks! I didn't want to be bossed around by a pushy photographer on my special day. I wanted to make sure everything was perfect - or as perfect as it could be - and one way to do that was to do everything myself.

I'd always wanted to get married in a methodist church and our local church had a church hall which we hired for our reception. Once the date was fixed, our main task was to find the caterers - but this proved easier said than done. After hours of scrutinising buffet menus on the internet and interviewing potential caterers, we still hadn't come any closer to finding someone suitable.

Then Neil came up with the idea of us doing our own catering. It was a daunting prospect but we like a challenge. What's more, our local supermarket was Waitrose and they offered a handy "Special Order" service. In other words, we cheated!

I did make some things myself. On the morning of the wedding, I baked 3 huge vegetarian quiches. I also made about 100 mini-chocolate eclairs which were lovely. My friend Elaine bought three whole salmon from Tesco when they were on sale at half-price (watch out for this - it's a good offer even when you aren't getting married!), she froze them till the big day arrived and then brought them poached and beautifully dressed. But, for the most part, Waitrose supplied us with everything - trays of smoked salmon canapes, mini vol-au-vents, amazing pork pies topped with cranberries, delicious pates, a selecion of delicious bread rolls, roast meats, salads. There was enough to feed an army and everyone said it was the best wedding food they'd ever had.

Rather than using the hotpotch of crockery and cutlery from the church hall, we hired everything from a local shop. Fortunately, they offered a washing up service so we could return the whole lot unwashed! Despite this, there was still a lot of clearing up and we couldn't have coped without friends like Sarah who nobly packed and unpacked stacks of dishes.

Sarah wasn't the only friend to help us that day. In fact, one of the best aspects of the day was the sense of camaraderie as we all mucked in together! Elaine not only provided the salmon but also helped with lots of things including helping me make my bridesmaid's dress and making the flower arrangements for the tables at the reception. My sister Liz was not only an excellent bridesmaid but she helped make our jewellery too! And our friend Matt made an expert job of doing our video.

Perhaps our bravest friend was Tim, who took on the enormous responsibility of taking our wedding photos. Happily, we were able to repay the favour when Neil took the photos at Tim's wedding to Janet!

I will never forget my wedding day. Not only was it the day when I exchanged vows with Neil - it was also felt like a great achievement: the venue looked amazing, the food was magnificent and we had the time of our lives! I'll never forget the tone of pride in my dad's voice at the end of it all: he couldn't believe that we'd pulled off something so big!

After the wedding, I was left with an amazing sense of satisfaction, a great set of new skills, an enormous pile of "How to" books - everything from "How to make a wedding bouquet" to "How to decorate a wedding cake" - and a lot of free time. It's like when you're house-hunting. You spend every evening and every weekend looking for the perfect home, then when you've found it, you don't know what to do with yourself!

There wasn't a book on the market that had a bit of everything in it for the DIY Bride. That told you how to make wedding invitations or how to make sugar roses. Believe me, if such a book had existed back then, I'd have bought it. So, after the wedding, I decided to have a go at writing it myself. The complete guide for the DIY Bride.

I sent my idea round lots of publishers and was rejected. But I knew it was a good idea. So three years later, I sent it off again and this time, to my delight, the Guild of Master Craftsmen decided to publish my book.

All I had to do then was write it. No mean feat because by then, I was working full-time. I'd had a complete change of direction, deciding to fulfill my dreams and pursue a career in television. I'd done a Masters degree in TV Production. My first documentary idea had been commissioned by Granada TV and not long afterwards, I started work at the BBC, where I stayed for the next 5 years.
The book was finally published in July 2004. It was an absolutely thrilling moment opening the box and seeing my work in print, complete with full colour photos of all my wedding creations. Easy Wedding Planner is sadly out of print now. You can buy it secondhand on Amazon or get a copy from your local library. But I still want to share my ideas so I've set up this website. It's non-profit making, I'm not selling anything and even if you buy the book from Amazon, I won't get a penny!

Last year, I decided to combine my interest in weddings with my interest in film making and I set up 4 Life Films. I want to produce wedding videos that have all the creativity and high standards of production as my TV programmes.

Find out more about Easy Wedding Planner or purchase from Amazon. Or visit 4 Life Films website.

I hope that both the book and this website will help you have your dream wedding, whatever your budget!

Email: jennifer@diybrides.co.uk
Copyright Jennifer Page 2008