10 Popular Wedding DIY Projects for Mom

Wedding Ideas

Moms love to contribute to all aspects of your weddings—throwing you an engagement party, creating items for your bridal shower and deciding on details for your reception. They’re especially interested in taking on fun DIY tasks that add a personal touch to the celebrations. With so many DIY projects out there—easily found on Etsy and Pinterest wedding boards in every theme, color, texture and style imaginable—Moms certainly have a lot of ideas to choose from. Here are the most popular DIY wedding projects that we’ve found Moms love to work on:

Signs: From chalkboard signs to wooden signs hand-painted with a welcome message, Mom will have fun dreaming up and creating signs to display throughout the ceremony and reception site, IDing the food stations or dessert bar, telling guests to sign the guest book or take a favor, or showing off some element of a wedding’s theme. Use one of the many free templates online or even take a sign-creation class at a local craft store to put artistic magic to work for the wedding couple and deliver signs that look pro-made (and that other wedding couples often ask to borrow for their own weddings!).
Flags for food picks: Using easy craft materials like Kraft paper and washi tape, these delicate details add pizzazz to hors d’oeuvres, drinks and dessert bars. These little flags take some patience since they’re tiny—and you’ll need hundreds of them—so this is one DIY wedding project that Moms may take the lead on but may want the assistance of artsy helpers, including kids.
Recipe book for the shower: Collecting guests’ recipes, Mom can use Shutterfly or another online photo site to create a professionally printed book full of family recipes the wedding couple will use forever.
Images by Berit.
Cooking and baking. When Mom takes to the kitchen to make family-favorite pies, brownies, cookies and other desert bar items and favors, or her signature spinach balls, mini meatballs or pigs in a blanket for the engagement party, the menu gets so much more special, since you love your mom’s recipes and the loving care she puts into them. Dads can step in here, too, whipping up family recipes, as their DIY contributions to the party.
Cake stand: For the wedding, engagement party, bridal shower or any other celebration, the cake(s) will stand out and look even more enticing when they’re displayed on a fabulous cake platter or pedestal stand. Moms can decorate the cake stand just like they’ve seen in professionally styled magazine photos, with crystals or colorful stones suspended from a lace-pattern cake platter edge. An alternative DIY project is creating a ring of flowers to encircle the base of the pedestal stand, adding color and floral detail beneath the cake.
Jenifer Rutherford Photography
Paper flowers: Small or oversized, paper flowers are a top décor trend, decorating doorways, the ceremony altar backdrop, huppahs and trellises, and even bouquets (click here for how to make these paper bouquets above). Free printable templates are also found on Pinterest and an array of pretty, colored papers are available at the craft store. Paper flowers don’t wilt in hot sun, they don’t attract insects and they become keepers after the wedding or party. Here’s an important note, though: Paper flower templates are copyrighted, so take copyright law very seriously. Don’t use someone else’s copyrighted paper flower template to make flowers, and then sell your creations online. Moms need to know this essential rule before taking on paper flower creations.
Table runners: Take great, luxe, cololorful fabric and hem the edges to create a custom table runner that extends down the middle of a table, adding extra color and texture beneath your centerpiece décor items. If Mom has access to a sewing machine, this could be an easy task for every guest table, or just for your sweetheart table or dessert buffet.
Kay English Photography
Ring pillow: Mom can take a plain ring pillow and then DIY it up with your wedding color via ribbons, hand-sewn crystals or beading, embroidery, accenting with tiny silk flowers, tiny butterflies, seashells and starfish for a beach-themed wedding, or your monogram letter, among other creative accents.
Mason jar décor. Mason jars remain a popular wedding décor item, and there are tons of ways to add decorative flair to those vintage-looking jars. Mason jar DIY projects include painting the jars, etching accents, adding jute jar tops or lace sleeves, monogramming, decoupaging, crystal accenting, suspending the jars, simply adding wildflowers and other décor ideas that Mom will enjoy designing.
Vintage luggage for holding guest cards and gifts. Since everything vintage is trendy for weddings, a popular DIY project that Moms love to take on is decorating a vintage suitcase (check flea markets for these on the cheap!) with ribbons, garlands, florals and other accents, looking again to Pinterest vintage suitcase designs for inspiration.

Whichever tasks Mom will work on, give her images of what you like, as well as a comfy deadline set a few weeks prior to the wedding or shower so that she’s not rushing to complete the projects right before the celebration.

Pin this image to save it for later!