

Should I Buy or Make My Wedding Fans
Pros for Buying
If you buy a fan instead of making one you have a lot of possibilities. You can either look for fans in the store or there are many fans that are available online. If you buy a fan in the store, you don’t have to wait for it to show up. You also don’t have to wonder if the fan is the fabric or colors that you were wanting.
Now, if you happen to purchase a fan online you might have the option to put a personalized message on it. You could also pick out a design to be featured on the fan. If you purchased a fan on a retailer like Wedding Favors Unlimited that are available online you getting something that is high quality and something that can look traditional or very fun.
Online you have the option of buying in bulk, meaning you would then have the opportunity to get more than just a couple to hand out to loved ones during the wedding.
Pros for Making
If you decide to make your own fans, you have tons of ideas available for you. Youtube and Michaels both have tutorials for how to make many different crafts and fans, so you can have step by step instructions. There are also kits that you can buy that have the materials to make fans in them and those will have instructions on them.
It can be fairly inexpensive to make fans but only if you have an idea in mind when you purchase your materials. Making a fan yourself puts your own personal touch and love into the gift no matter how it turns out. Making fans can also be a fun thing you can do with someone else or a group of people and the more people involved the more fans that can be made. But, you must be prepared for the amount of work you’ll have to put in to make fans yourself.
Things to think about if you are going to make your fan:
Do you feel like you have the time to devote to making multiple fans? Will you be happy with the product that you are making for your loved one/s? If you don’t have the products needed to make the fans do you feel like paying any extra money it may take to make a nice fan? Your fan may not turn out the way that you thought it would, are you okay with having to make several fans before you get the desired look you wanted?
Wedding Program Fans
A great way to have a fan for everyone at the wedding is to do a wedding program fan. Wedding program fans are the wedding program that is attached to a stick. This allows anyone attending the wedding to have a fan that also tells all of the details of the wedding ceremony.
The great thing about a wedding program fan is that most sites that provide wedding invitations and programs will make these fans. The concept of these fans is an easy one and can be a DIY project for anyone involved in the wedding. If you’d like to do this you can buy craft wooden sticks and attach the programs to them with craft glue or they can be stapled on.
Wooden Hand Fans
Wooden hand fans have the look of a paddle. They have the wooden stick that is attached to the back or the bottom of the main fan and the part meant to cool yourself. The main part of the fan can come in many different shapes and these fans can come completely bare. Because there is nothing on these fans you can paint them or use paint pens or markers to make notes or designs on them. You can also attach anything to the outside because it has a clean and empty surface.
Personalized Wedding Fans
How to DIY Wedding Fans

Lexie at her core is a creator who is passionate about sharing her ideas on weddings. She has over a decade in helping others plan and execute weddings from LA to Athens, from 10 person to 1000 weddings. She has seven years of experience in marketing/communications, content creation, event planning, and strategic planning. Lexie’s favorite part of writing? Figuring out how to digest a huge topic, like personalized wedding favor glasses, into a quick 5 minute read. Lexie is also our head of Pinning, so check out her 5 favorite pins everyday!
I had no idea that you also sold wedding fans. I'll have to check them out and see what kinds of personalization options you offer
Thanks Linda. We have tons of personalization options (foil, embossed, etc). Just not engraved. People ask us for that all the time and fail to realize how hard (and expensive it is). We try to focus on budget-conscious options for wedding fans, because we know costs add up.
If I'm planning to make my own wedding fans, how much time do you think it will take to make each fan? I have a feeling that it might be more work than I'm cut out for and I should just buy them
It's a lot of work Jordan. If you make them yourself, you're talking about 1-2 hours to get it right, 1-2 hours shopping and and another 2-3 hours assembling. If you buy personalized options from us, you'll get 50 done in half an hour. No problem.
Its such a great idea to do a two-in-one and put the programs on the fans. I'm assuming they would have to be the flat type of fans then so the guests could easily read them?
Lou, that's right. Those would be the easiest way to make personalized fans that your guests can read during the wedding. It also is a budget way to get two things done: provide a fan and a program
I just don't know what to do. I'm not the craftiest person ever but I would like to at least try to make some of my own decorations for the wedding to save some money. Do you think I should go ahead and try and make these or are there some other easy diy wedding decoration ideas you have
Making the program fans is relatively easy, and we've included instructions ahead. I do think you should consider other DIY wedding decor ideas for guest books (an easy DIY option), DIY invitations and DIY placard holders. THat's the easiest way to decorate on a budget.