Sending your guests home with a little something special to remember the day by doesn’t have to be a big budget extravagant affair. Use your imagination and a dash of creativity and you’ll find ways to turn the ubiquitous wedding favor into a charming highly personalized statement that says a lot about you and the guest.
The tradition of making your own wedding favors is almost as old as the custom of marriage itself. In the days before mass production and online shopping made our lives so much easier, a bride would pack little bags of fruits and nuts to pass on to guests at her wedding.
Edible Wedding Favors
A really great way to stay within your wedding budget, practice your baking skills and send guests home with a delicious personalized memento of the day is to use edible wedding favors. Cookies are a time honored classic. With cookie cutter shapes ranging from the classic hearts and flowers to stars, moon, shells, and leaves, you’ll have an array of designs to choose from. Download an easy cookie recipe, monogram your initials into them, use icing sugar and sprinkles to decorate, pack in little tins or boxes, or wrap in colored translucent paper and tie with a tiny ribbon and voila! You have a delicious wedding favor that’s within your budget.
When it comes to tickling the taste buds you can’t go wrong with chocolate. Ask your local confectioner to whip up a batch of little chocolate hearts monogrammed with your initials of course, or make your own choco treats. Wrap these in gold paper and finish with a snazzy bow. Lollipops are another quirky edible wedding favor; remember to personalize them with your names.
Seed Wedding Favors
Seeds are symbolic of new beginnings, and therefore make an excellent choice for a wedding favor. While these are available online prettily packaged and all, you can also make your own seed packet wedding favors. It’s just a matter of choosing what seeds you want to hand out. Forget me nots are a great choice, but herbs, fruits and vegetable seeds will also do just great. Pack the seed into small squares of fabric and attach a tag that has the name of the seed and instructions on how to plant it and care for it.
Personalized CDs
Modern technology makes it possible for everyone to indulge her creative side with fantastic results. Use your computer to create place card holder cards using beautiful fonts. Or create your own romance themed CD for each guest to take home.
Scrubs and Soaps
Go the extra mile and gift your guests homemade soaps and scrubs as wedding favors. Scout online for easy ways to make deliciously scented little soaps, pack them in translucent boxes or glass jars and round off with a colored bow. You can even “brand” the soaps after both your names for a laugh! Do the same for scrubs or home made lotions. Add paper tags with your wedding date and names printed out, and watch your wedding favors quickly become the talk at every table!
Making your own wedding favors may require some imaginative time scheduling, but work perfectly for smaller weddings with a limited number of guests.
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Homemade Wedding Favors
Thursday, November 18th, 2010Incorporate Ribbons in Your Wedding Invitation Package
Monday, November 8th, 2010One of the newest trends in wedding invitations is the use of ribbons. From classic white colored ribbon to fun and funky brightly colored ribbon, you can find hundreds of styles to use with your wedding invitations. But how can you integrate ribbons into your invitation package? Here are some great ideas you and your spouse-to-be can use.
First, wedding invitations can use ribbons in the designs themselves. These ribbons become part of the overall look of the invitation. Usually, if you can customize the colors of the invitation, you can also choose the type of ribbon, and in many cases, there are hundreds of default colors available. Typically, ribbon that is part of the overall design is found either along one side or above the top and tied in a bow.
Ribbons can also be used as a closer with your wedding invitations. Your wedding invitations can open vertically or horizontally, or can be split down the middle for a “double door” effect. To keep the invitations closed, you can tie the ribbon around them, or you can use a hole punch to tie the ribbon through. Sleeves can also be purchased to hold your invitations inside of the envelope. Ribbons can be used as a closer on these as well.
Keep in mind that you should not use ribbons on the envelopes you will be mailing or the return envelope your guests will use to RSVP. Posts offices in all states have very strict guidelines about what can go through the mail. In many cases, ribbons and other loose strings can’t go through the mail, since they can get stuck in mail-sorting machinery. So, if you include ribbons as part of the envelope design, you will have to have another, bigger envelope to use for mailing it. In any case, using ribbon to close your wedding invitations will make them seem like presents. Your guests will feel special untying the bow to find out the details of your big day.
There is no agreed upon way to integrate a ribbon into a wedding invitation. Ribbons do not necessarily have to be dangling or tied in bows. In fact, with do it yourself wedding invitations, the ribbon can even be glued flat as part of the design. This gives your invitations a 3-dimensional effect without the bows and frills. If you are leaning toward non-traditional wedding invitations, this could be the perfect compromise.
One of the best ways to use ribbon with your wedding invitations is to introduce a little color to the invitation package. White has always been the traditional color for weddings, and recently, it has become trendy to choose all-white decorations, accessories, etc., for weddings. If you do not want to purchase wedding invitations printed on colorful paper, consider using ribbon to include just a dash of style. This is often a great compromise if you and your future spouse can’t agree on the colors your wedding invitations should be!
What kind of ribbons can you choose? Your options are nearly endless. If you want something very traditional, a white organza ribbon or bow might look great with your wedding invitations. On the other hand, maybe you want something modern. In that case, a slim, brightly colored ribbon might be great. You can choose polka dots or another funky design if you plan on having a non-traditional wedding, and you can choose eco-friendly raffia or recycled ribbon if you want green wedding invitations. Of course, wedding ribbons come in all many different widths and colors.
Wedding ribbon is only the start of what you can add to your wedding invitation package. You can also include stickers, velum inserts, wax seals, accent jackets, overlays, potpourri, confetti, and more. You can even use special stamps to mail them, and do it yourself wedding stamps are available if you want to further customize your wedding invitations. Your wedding invitations definitely do not have to be ordinary.
Because there are so many different kinds of wedding ribbons, making a final choice can be difficult. Keep in mind that quality is important, because cheap ribbon can fray. Also, remember that there are discount options available that look great without costing a fortune. If possible, get a sample of the ribbon before order. That way you can determine which choices in your price range are of the highest quality.
Ribbons are not for everyone. Depending on the style of your wedding invitations, ribbons might not work, and if you are sending the invitations in a very simple envelope, bows could get crushed. Make an attempt not to automatically rule out ribbons, though. Even if you do not want a traditional or romantic style (or too girly) style for your wedding invitations, ribbons can be a great choice. With all of the choices available, you might be able to find a style which is perfect for you and your fiancé.
Wedding Attire For Grooms
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010Sure, we all know that the bride is destined to be the star of the day at a wedding, but what about the groom? Let’s not overlook him! More and more men these days agree: what they wear matters too, and believe it or not, many grooms have opinions on their wedding attire. Here is a look on the trends in wedding attire for grooms.
One big trend for formal weddings is for the groom to wear a tuxedo with a straight tie rather than a bow tie. You only have to look to Hollywood to see this trend in action on the red carpet. Check out how dashing Hollywood’s leading men look in their tuxedos with straight black ties at the Academy Awards. This is a trend that has come into its own in mens’ wedding fashion, as well. A lot of guys think that the bow tie is just too dorky or old-fashioned, while the straight tie feels much more hip and modern.
Bring that around full circle, because there is also in fact a revival of bow ties on younger men these days (huh?), just not with formal tuxedos. Grooms and groomsmen are wearing bow ties in fun prints for preppy weddings. To see how to interpret this wedding trend in a way that is preppy-chic, not old fuddy-duddy, flip through any Vineyard Vines catalog. There you will see how a bow tie with a nautical motif or even in with the logo of your alma mater can be very cool when worn with a khakis, a navy blazer, and a pastel shirt (pink, if you dare; light blue or yellow, if you dare not).
The hip city loft wedding trend is going strong, and the attire that would suit a groom in a country club or hotel ballroom simply will not work in such an aggressively hip setting. The answer: a custom suit (or at least a custom tailored one). The cut of the suit should be more Hedi Slimane than Brooks Brothers. Anything Italian is good. A British cut suit can also work well if the groom has the “geek chic” thing going on, but it has to be worn with an air of irony and slightly mussed hair.
Even more traditional grooms are taking more of an interest in what they wear for their weddings. They may not go for custom suits or Hollywood inspired fashion, but that doesn’t mean that they are willing to leave the entire decision in the bride’s hands either. These are the grooms who will wear a classic tuxedo for the evening or a navy blue suit for a daytime wedding, but they use their accessories to put a personal stamp on the outfit (yes, technically, men do wear accessories!). It could be as subtle as a patterned pair of dress socks instead of basic black, or adding a dash of color to a suit with an interesting pocket square. Many brides will also give their fiances gifts of wedding jewelry which can be worn to add personality to their attire. Popular wedding jewelry gifts for grooms include silver cufflinks and pocketwatches.
So you see, it is in fact possible for a groom to show some style on his wedding day. He is probably in no danger of upstaging the bride (let’s hope not!), but he can still put together a look that has character and personality. And brides, just think of how handsome your stylish groom will look in the wedding photos!