Pretty Programs

Photo by Norman Yu Photography

As I mentioned in my last post, a great way to save on your wedding is to keep it simple with your paper products.  Even basic wedding programs can cost big bucks when you pay someone else to do them.  Let me be real with you for a minute...no one else gives a crap what your programs look like.  Seriously.  I'm sorry, I know, your heart is breaking and the image of fancy programs complete with ribbons and pearls and hand calligraphy are turning to mist before your eyes.  I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I had to be honest with you.

The fact of the matter is, once the wedding is over, most guests will throw those programs away and never think about them again...if they even remember to take them home at all.  The purpose of a program is to let your guests know the order of ceremony and maybe the who's who of your wedding party.  Anything else is extra.  Yes, it's nice to share your love story in 10 pages or less, but come ON people...most of them know your story and if they don't, it's ok...they know how it ends!

So.  Now that we've gotten over ourselves let's get down to business making the nicest possible programs for the least amount of money...because the less you spend on paper the more you can spend on that honeymoon you want!

First...to the paper aisle!!
I'd recommend something heavier than printer paper.  You want it to be stiff enough to hold it's own.  I would go with card stock, which comes in a variety of colors and finishes.  I chose a pearl finish ivory card stock...very classy looking.  50 sheets for $11.99 at my Office Depot.

Second...formatting
To make an inexpensive project look more professional, I chose to print my programs two to a page longways...so they're long and thin.  You can definitely do yours differently, but I thought these looked more modern.  Unless you're going for a more contemporary design, center your text.  Test out different fonts to make sure that they are legible and that they fit on the page.  I know the calligraphy-like fonts are pretty, but they're no go to you if no one can read them.  I'd also save anything super fancy for the headings and let the regular text be a little more structured.

Third...TEST PAGE!
I cannot stress this enough: print. a. test. page.  DO IT.  You would be really pissed if you hit print on 100 programs only to find out that it cut off a line at the bottom or the heading was just a smidge too low on the page.  Plus, this give you and extra opportunity to check spellings and such.  Trust me...it's better to triple check something than to have to do it over.

Fourth...when in doubt, get some help.
For some reason, my printer hates me.  It never cooperates with anything I try to print.  I took my program in to Office Depot on a flash drive, and the girls at the printing desk did the rest...they even put my full sheets into their handy dandy cutting contraption and sliced my programs for me...a much better job than I could have done myself.

The end result was lovely and exactly what I wanted.  In total I spent $23 and some change for 100 programs.  That included the cardstock, formatting fee, printing, and cutting.  If you're looking for something even more fancy, you are welcome to print on vellum and use ribbon to attach them to some cardstock or doll them up with stick on gems (Martha Stewart's line has some really pretty ones).  Bottom line...you don't have to spend big bucks to have something nice!