When I got married, I made my own wedding programs. Much like Jo (who shared her tri-fold wedding program template with you previously), I spent a lot of time making a Microsoft Word template with the information formatted nicely. I then printed out the pages and assembled the programs, which ended up looking like little booklets. In this post I’ll share my free template with you and show you how I used it to make a modern and crafty wedding program.
I started by printing out the pages of my program. The paper you use can be anything from a nice bright white printer paper
You can have as many pages as you want, and you can see my pages in the Word template below.
After editing the template, I printed out plenty of copies of all the pages and then used my trusty paper trimmer
the same size as the pages. I stacked the pages in order and put the sheet of vellum on top.
Included in this stack was a piece of card stock that served as the back of my booklet. I cut the card stock slightly larger than the pages so that it would stick out on the sides and bottom (I left the top flush). The card stock pieces were 4 1/4″ wide and 8 3/4″ tall. Since our wedding colors were silver/gray and lavender, I used a soft gray card stock (and lavender ribbon).
With all the pieces cut, it was time for assembly. I took one set of pages (including vellum and card stock) and then aligned all the top edges together. I then punched two holes in the entire stack, about 1/2″ apart and 1/2″ down from the top. This is where my ribbon would be going, and since the ribbon I was using was thin, I didn’t want giant round punch holes, so instead I used a cool 1/4″ slot-style hole punch,
Your ribbon should be fairly wide (I used a 3/4″ ribbon) but not too thick or else it won’t fit in the holes. I used a wired ribbon, which helped me to form the ribbon the way I wanted it and gave the “knot” a nice firm hold on the paper.
To thread the ribbon through the holes, start by poking both ends from the front through to the back.
Then take one end (which is sticking out the back at this point) and push it back through the other hole so that it sticks out the front. Do the same with the other end, and now you’ll have both ends coming out on the front of the card.
Pull them tight and straighten them, then trim the ends of the ribbon if needed (they might have unraveled a bit during handling) so they are crisp.
When you’re done, you’ll have a nice clean “knot” on the back and a pretty “bow” on the front.
Now the programs are ready to be handed out to the guests on the big day!
Here is the Word template I promised you, that I used to create my programs. This template is geared for a Catholic Mass, but you can obviously change the items on the pages as needed to suit your ceremony.
Click here to download our free Booklet-style Wedding Program Template
The first page of my template is sort of a “title page” and I left a space where you can include a large fancy initial (of your new last name), a clipart image to match your wedding theme (maybe a butterfly, rose, or wedding bells), or a photo of the happy couple. The middle pages contain ceremony information. The last page contains a personal message from the couple, along with contact information. I highly recommend something like this, because your guests will find your words to be thoughtful and the contact information to be useful, especially if you’re moving to a new home after the wedding.
If you liked this, check out these similar projects:
31 comments so far:
And if the frayed ribbon edges bother you, you can also use a flame to slightly melt the edges, which seals them completely – no more fraying! Just be careful not to get the ribbon too close to the flame, and keep it moving.
Thanks for the template I am making them for my own wedding, they look really good and our colors are black white and red so I used black card stock backing and red ribbon!
I appreciate the suggestions, it is just slow going as I am making them myself and have to make 150 and have 40 done so far! I think I underestimated supplies so I will have to go back to Michaels.
Suzanne, I’m happy the program is working out for you, and I bet it looks really pretty with your colors. I know what you mean about it taking a while, though. When I made mine, I got my parents to come over one evening and we did the whole stack assembly line style, which really helped a lot
Thank you so much for the template. I’ve looked all over the internet and yours was the best and easiest to work with. I LOVE IT. I’m making my own wedding programs and am thinking about making my own invitations too. My wedding is more than a year away but I’m already getting all the supplies ready. Thank you again.
Thanks, Karen! I’m glad you like the template and we’d love to see your programs when you’re done. As for starting a year early — I don’t blame you one bit! I started really early for my wedding, too. It was the only way to get as much handcrafted stuff done as I could, which saved money and made the wedding that much more personal. Have fun!
This is amazing! I’ve been searching all over for a template–and once I found this one I knew it was the one. I’ve gotten the template done and just need to go buy the supplies to get them done! I love your site–you guys are amazing!
Thanks, Miranda! Good luck with the programs and let us know how it goes
can you tell me where I can find the slit style hole punch that you used in this program design. I have not been able to find side hole punch.
Thanks,
Esther
Hi, Esther. The slot-style hole punch is available on Amazon. There’s a link to it in the project description, but here it is again for easier reference: 1/4″ rectangle hole punch. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them at Michael’s craft store, also, so you might want to check them out if you’ve got one in your area.
Hi! I like this idea. Can you tell me..if you remember..How much ribbon you used for one program? Thanks!
Hi Delanie. I think the ribbon was about 6″ long. Hope that helps and good luck with your programs!
Cool! Thanks!
Hi there- can you tell me where you got your ribbon and what type of ribbon it is? Also, about how many spools of ribbon did you need? Thanks so much!
Kerry, I bought the ribbon at Michael’s, I think. You need about 6 inches of ribbon per program, so how many spools you need will depend on how much ribbon is on a spool and many programs you are making. Good luck!
Hi – this is a great template. One question I had was, do you write the same text on the vellum page as you do the first page? One idea I was thinking of is to just put our initial on the vellum page but wasn’t sure if that would look weird….
Hi Kerryann! I did not print anything at all on the vellum because I wanted the text from the first page to show through. It made for a nice soft effect.
One thing you’ll have to be careful of if you decide to print on vellum is that inkjet printers don’t tend to print very well on vellum, but laser printers seem to do a better job.
Hi Chica,
Thank you very much for the templet. I have one question, I have a very large wedding party (16 bridesmaids). Can I use the same templet for my wedding.
Hi Francesca. That sure is a large party! You can modify the template to include any information you want, so you ought to be able to fit all your bridesmaids’ names on there. The list might just have to stretch to two pages
Hello, This may sound silly but I want to use the tri-fold program template, but I am not able to unsert my own names and things, is that how it is suppose to work? Or am I doing something wrong? Can someone help me please I would like to use the template.
I am sorry you are having problems with the template. If you click the link to download and tell it to open it in Microsoft Word, you should be able to edit it freely and then save it to your hard drive. Do you have Microsoft Word installed? If you are still having troubles, please send me an email at jo@chicaandjo.com and I will send you the file directly.
Hello I was wondering if I can use 2.5″ satin edged wired ribbons for this project. I can not find 3/4″ ribbons anywhere. Thanking you in advance.
Which size ribbon do you suggest also keep in mind that my colors are of the rainbow. Which are pastel colors of pink,green,blue,orange,yellow,and purple.
Hi Francesca. You can really use any size ribbon you like, as long as it will fit in the holes you punch. I personally think 2.5″ ribbon might be too large and overwhelm the page, but if you like it and it works for you, go for it! Just buy one roll and try a few samples first and see how it looks before doing them all
As for the colors, why not get 6 different ribbons, each in one of the colors, and mix the programs up? Some folks would get pink, some would get yellow, etc. That would be very pretty, I think.
Hi Chica,
I am thrilled that I came across your booklet template. It is the exact type of program I wanted to make and you made it that much easier for me. Thank you for posting it!
Awesome, Dawn! We’d love to see your programs when you’re done, so feel free to post them to our Flickr group.
Hi I love the “V” what font did you use and what put the size? I need and “A” where you V. I am also trying to make this smaller and convert it to a tri-fold. thanks so much
I also need to add a small 2.5 x 2.5 picture to the front of this program. Any suggestions on how to do that? Thanks again
Hi Cynthia. I don’t remember where I got that “V” or what font I used, but I just searched one of my favorite sources for free fonts, 1001freefonts.com, and found one I think you’ll like. Check out Baroque Script. It has a very fanciful “A”.
As for the photo, Word should make that pretty easy for you. Just put your cursor where you want the photo to be, and choose “Insert” -> “Picture” -> “From File” in the menu. Then browse for your photo on your computer and insert it. You can then re-size it and move it as desired.
Good luck and we’d love to hear how it goes!
Thank you sooooo much. I am doing this for a friend and I want this to be special. I’m excited to see the finished product!! You’re awesome!!!
Thank you for this great tutorial, I like these alot! Quick question, with no cut marks on the print out, how did you know exactly where to cut so that everything was the correct width?
Hi Nik, thanks for the nice comments. It has been a few years since I made those programs, but if I remember right, I just started on one side of the paper and used the ruler on my paper trimmer to measure each cut. This may vary depending on how your printer prints the pages, but just try to get them as even as possible, and remember that every program doesn’t have to be the exact same width