Wedding Programs: Ideas & Free Templates You Can Use
Whether you’ve got a tighter budget or you want to throw in some of your DIY skills to the wedding “ring,” you can save some money by designing and printing your own wedding programs using some free templates. Below you’ll find a host of inspiration and the materials you need to get started on your do-it-yourself journey. Personalize, stylize and have your wedding programs ready by the weekend.
Quickly Find
- Program Checklist
- Overview of What Your Wedding Program Should Include
- Wedding Program Do’s & Dont’s
- Free Downloadable Wedding Program Templates
- Online Wedding Program Templates
- Professional Wedding Programs
- More Posts About Wedding Programs
See Also: Trying to get a wedding planned on a tight budget? One money saving idea is to design and print your own wedding programs using free templates!
Note: This post creates links to third party sites. We may make a commission if you click on those links and end up purchasing. We only include products we love and earning a potential small commission has zero influence on our choices or rankings.
Wedding Program Checklist:
When it comes to wedding planning, checklists are going to be your saving grace. From entertainment needs to your bridesmaids’ must-haves, these outlines will have you on your toes and not missing a beat. Keep yourself sane and use this wedding program checklist to make sure you’re not forgetting important information for your guests.
See: free wedding program template
What Your Wedding Program Should Include
Wedding programs are a great way to keep your guests feeling included and engaged in the celebration. Create one just for the ceremony, a separate one for the reception or design one that will outline the entire night’s festivities. It’s important that you include some of the most essential details though.
Learn about what you should include as well as some do’s and don’ts below!
Important Information
Although including a wedding program is optional, if you do decide to use them it’s essential that you include all of the most important information.
First, you want to make sure that you’ve got the basics:
- The names of the couple getting married.
- The names of those in the wedding party.
- A breakdown of the ceremony or reception: song lists, prayers, unity ceremony, etc.
- Any songs/hymns/readings that guests can follow along with.
Second, add some extras to personalize the program a bit further:
- Descriptions of family/cultural/religious traditions that they’ll see throughout the event.
- A personal story.
- Photos of the couple as children or big moments throughout their relationship.
- A map of the ceremony or reception area.
- Thank you’s to parents, families and friends.
Wedding Program Do’s & Don’ts
You want to make sure that your wedding program is easy-to-read and logical in its format. Before we move on to some free templates that you can download and personalize, let’s have a look at some do’s and don’ts to keep in mind.
- DON’T include any inside jokes in your stories or funny excerpts. There isn’t enough space to explain those type of details. Remember, it should be easy-to-read and easy-to-understand for everyone on the guest list.
- DON’T type this up the day before. You want to make sure you have enough time to add all of the necessary information. But you also want to make sure you proofread it, with fresh eyes!
- DO print extra copies. You don’t want to be short on the day of. Having too many will always be far better than running out.
- DO make sure you leave yourself enough space. Think about font and font size while typing out all of the necessary information but …
- DON’T go with a font size that’s too small to read. Make sure everything is comfortable enough to see without a magnifying glass. Packing too much information on the program is a definite no-no.
Free Downloadable Wedding Program Templates:
You can choose from a selection of free wedding program templates below. We’ve provided three templates (as Word documents) here, and we’ve even got some ideas on how to help you customize it! (When you click on the links below you’ll be asked to download a file which contains your wedding program which you’ll save and open in Microsoft Word)).
Free Minimalist Wedding Programs
This third wedding program template is similar to the second template above. It is also designed to be printed out as a double-sided document, and then cut in half, so the program is 5.5 x 8.5 in. This program has a simpler (but still elegant) font, French Script, with some nice corner graphics of daisies. Daisies are flowers that can dress “up” or “down” so you can really have some fun with this template. The daisies will look great with either formal or informal fonts. You could also choose a fun paper color like neon pink or turquoise!
- Program Covers Template – Martha’s Wedding gives you this beautiful program cover.
- DIY: Fan Programs from ayleebits.com with cool images custom-designed by Aylee.
- Free Wedding Program Template from The Budge Savvy Bride
- Free Tri-Fold Wedding Program Template from Chica and Jo
Free Classical Wedding Programs
This second wedding program template is very versatile and classic. It’s a simple program with elegant Edwardian Script font and no graphics. It should be printed out as a double-sided document, and then cut in half, so the program is 5.5 x 8.5 in. You can play around with the fonts to find one that suits your style, with no need to worry about finding any pictures or graphics. Some of the fancier fonts (like Edwardian Script) can be difficult to read on a computer monitor, though, so you may want to finalize the text of the program before you start working with the fonts. This wedding program looks beautiful printed on ivory or very light pastel-colored paper.
- DIY Wedding Revisited: Program Templates from the Domestic Domicile.
- Gold-Detailed Ceremony Booklet. This ceremony booklet with gold details.
- Heart-Shaped Programs. These adorable heart-shaped programs are a lovely addition.
- Pretty Blooms Wedding Program. A beautiful Paddle Fan from Sweet Violet Bride.
- Free Wedding Program Templates. Southworth’s has matching programs for all needs.
- Heart Fan Ceremony Programs. Another fan wedding program, this time from TheKnot.
Free Modern Wedding Programs
- Steal this funny wedding program for your own wedding day! From Off Beat Bride.
- Accordion Wedding Program. You can match this printable program with your wedding colors.
- Wedding Program Wheel. This program wheel is a fun, interactive way to display all your details.
- Dot Pattern Wedding Program. A simple pattern and complementing colors.
- Red Flourish Program. This elegant program is the perfect way to incorporate tasteful color.
- Modern Wedding Program Templates. from our friends at Wedding Creations.
- Modern Double Sided Ceremony Programs. Great feature at TheKnot.
- Classic Blue Victorian Ceremony Programs. Another great feature at TheKnot.
Free Traditional Wedding Programs
This first free wedding program template is a full color, 8.5 x 11 document that after printing, will be folded in half. It has an Irish theme with a colorful rose bouquet on the cover and a Celtic knot cross graphic on the inside, as well as an Irish blessing (note that the program has the wedding guests reciting the blessing).
- Printable Flower Garden Wedding Program. Gorgeous design that’s perfect for a Spring wedding.
- Classy Rose Wedding Program. Classy rose wedding program great for a sophisticated style.
- Lace Wedding Program. The lace detail on this wedding program beautifully accents
- Free Wedding Programs from Wedding Chicks.
Free Rustic Themed Wedding Programs
- Chalkboard Wedding Program. Chalkboard wedding program fits in perfectly for a rustic ceremony.
- Hand-Illustrated Rustic Wedding Program. Hand-drawn programs are sure to add a touch of whimsy.
- Purple-Themed Program. We’re loving the adorable color scheme of this program.
- Heart Tree Ceremony Programs. Love these.
Free Funny Wedding Programs
- “Keep Cool and Marry On” Wedding Program. Amazing for when your guests need to keep cool.
- Cute and Cheeky Wedding Program. Personalize the text on this cute and cheeky program.
Free Crafty Wedding Programs
- Fan Program Template: This classy yet whimsical program design is sure to make a lasting impression.
- B Wedd Tri-Fold Template: This elegant tri-fold template is designed to be placed in a paper sleeve.
- Martha Stewart offers a simple and pretty downloadable program template available for printing.
- DIY wedding program printables from Minted.
Disadvantages of Free Wedding Program Templates
While the reduced cost is a major advantage, there are a few disadvantages to using templates that should be considered.
- Searching Time: Rarely in one place it can take a lot of web searching to find the perfect wedding program
- Limited selection: The selection is much more limited than paid wedding programs
- Work: For the DIY Wedding Programs it isn’t just print and done. It takes real work and hours of your time
- Quality: Free wedding programs aren’t usually as high quality as ones you can buy.
- Not always saving money. Add up all of the above in time, sweat and tears and often it is easier to buy from somewhere like Etsy
(Almost Free) Custom Wedding Program Templates:
Wedding programs are a huge part of making your wedding day feel special. Yet, wedding programs are one of those details that can get lost in a sea of a hundred other things to worry about when planning your wedding. You forget about it until about a week before the wedding and then rush to create a wedding program with days to spare. It basically means a last minute word document job that looks amateurish and lacks inspiration. And yet, creating custom wedding programs that can easily be edited and updated with your information is as easy as ordering your wedding invitations online.
In this day and age there are lots of options for finding wedding program templates (we’re big fans of sites like Wedding Paper Divas and Etsy). Even better news is that the price for custom wedding programs is totally reasonable and worth every penny if you don’t see yourself going the straight DIY route. With Etsy you will likely still have some work to do yourself, but if you choose a full end to end solution like Wedding Paper Divas they will typically handle it all automatically.
Here’s how ordering custom wedding programs work. First, you need to find a design and style you like. We recommend looking to match your wedding program to your event colors, wedding season or wedding invitations – look for something that ties your wedding program to some other part of your wedding. In the last few years the sheer selection of wedding programs available has grown exponentially with independent designers and the larger printing companies are rolling out new distinct designs and themes on an almost weekly basis. You will have no issues finding designs that work for you. We selected some of our favorite wedding program designs below for you to check out and be inspired by, but we encourage you to explore because there are thousands of great options.
Once you’ve settled on a design then you start the customization process. Depending on the website you buy your invitations/programs from, you will typically have several color schemes and font styles to choose from for each design. You can play around with the options and see the changes in real time (warning, some solutions are better than others but we’ve found most to be pretty good here). If you choose a custom wedding program template that needs a photo this is probably when you will be prompted to upload it. Make sure to use a high-quality image as sometimes it won’t look good when printed. At this stage you are entering all the wedding details (probably a good idea to have that stuff handy when you start this process). You then pay and your beautiful, custom wedding programs will ship to you in no time.
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Professional Wedding Program Designers:
March 2017 Update: When we first wrote this article back in 2010 the market for wedding programs created by professionals was prohibitively expensive and lacked options. Fast forward to 2017 and there is now a vibrant, creative and exciting market of talented wedding program and invitation designers who sell beautiful goods on marketplaces like Etsy. We scoured Etsy to find the best of the best professional wedding program designers. The good news is that we found over 50 wedding program sellers who had amazing products. Our shortlist of the best were:
Paper Pigeon Designs
Opened in October of 2014, Paper Pigeon Designs creates invitations and wedding programs of every sort. The brainchild of Jenn who is a “does it all” entrepreneur, playing the roles of graphic designer, production creator, shipping coordinator, and pretty much any other role to make Paper Pigeon Designs Shop a success. PaperPigeonDesigns will handle both small and large projects. PaperPigeonDesigns on Etsy.
MyPrintableArts
MyPrintableArts creates gorgeous invitations for bridal showers, baby showers, birthday parties, holidays and much more. In the spirit of this post we also found some really pretty wedding programs. We love that everything can be customized, including color and design at no additional cost (which isn’t always the case so you should check that with potential vendors). MyPrintableArts on Etsy.
Run by an experienced graphic designer with almost 15 years in the business ArtfulPixels says she loves to “make beautiful printed things”. When she got married in 2014, she designed our save-the-dates, invitation package and all of the printed decor. After lots of compliments and suggestions that she decided to help couples create their own unique vision for their wedding day. ArtfulPixels on Etsy.
ElizabethDavisDesign
We love ElizabethDavisDesign‘s fresh take on beautifully-designed wedding invitations and custom logos delivered right to your inbox. We especially love the vintage and rustic designed wedding invitations and programs. ElizabethDavisDesign on Etsy.
PrettyNPrinted
I recently started up my Etsy shop after getting married. I fell in love with all things wedding and I started thinking of how I could be involved in the wedding planning community. I’ve always been creative and had a love for design so here I am! PrettyNPrinted on Etsy.
PeekabooPenguin
The founder of Peekaboo says she “love to create things”. With the little spare time she has (stay-at-home mom), we love the pretty designs. You will find a wide assortment of printable invitations for any event including weddings, baby showers, and birthdays. PeekabooPenguin on Etsy
CiaoBellaStudio
A recently opened an Etsy shop that is pretty focused on printables for Weddings, Showers & Events. CiaoBellaStudio on Etsy.
MrAndMrsWeddingArt
The Mrs, an illustrator by trade, was responding to email requests for wedding party silhouettes. “I’m getting a lot of requests for custom wedding parties. I think we should do something about it”. she said. By the time they arrived in Rancho Mirage they had a name and a business. MrAndMrsWeddingArt and really pretty wedding programs and invitations. MrAndMrsWeddingArt on Etsy
KarlyKDesignShop
Karly K Designs specializes in wedding stationery, party invitations, and statement art for a variety of occasions! They love featuring rustic elements, florals, and flourishes in their designs. KarlyKDesignShop on Etsy.
WillowLanePaperie
Sarah creates lovely simple rustic designs for gorgeous hosts to enjoy. Planners, stationery and printable templates will save you money and help you create the most beautiful event, right down to the finer pretty details. WillowLanePaperie on Etsy.
PrintableMoment
Printable Moment is all about the tech. You can edit your chosen template in your browser right after purchase. A great collection of designs like the rustic wedding programs below are part of 150+ items. PrintableMoment on Etsy.
WeDoHoney
We Do Honey is an online Wedding Paper Goods shop for instant download wedding stationery. We Do Honey gives every couple the ability to quickly and easily create wedding stationery items for the big day with unique designs. With exquisite stationery pieces at a fraction of the cost you would pay through a printer it is perfect for the DIY bride. Find unique wedding program designs you’ll love with exceptional quality all at a price you can feel good about. WeDoHoney on Etsy.
VineWedding
Printable Wedding Invitations, Programs and Signs. This store has over 100 DIY wedding programs by itself, along of hundreds of others across all printables and wedding invitation categories. It is one of the largest selections we’ve seen on Etsy and the quality and diversity of creative is huge. VineWedding on Etsy.
BlissPaperBoutique
Danielle, self proclaimed graphic design extraordinaire. I began creating invitations and printables for family and friends, which quickly grew into a small business. I love design, stationery and “pretty” things — bringing them together is truly my Bliss. Aside from design, I dabble in photography, blogging and baking. BlissPaperBoutique on Etsy.
