I discovered the craft stores a little late. I am not a crafter by any means and never thought to look there for wedding stuff. Now I want to get all kinds of things…. but it would be going overboard! So I can’t.
My mom ordered personalized shot glasses as wedding favors. We still have to figure out if/how to dress them up. I have little swan boat thingys that we could dress up and use as favors. I saw some inexpensive toasting glasses through Oriental Trading. They are so cheap it’s tempting to get them. My mom wants to get personalized napkins! I think I got tons of gifts for my attendants. I have tons of decorations, but no centerpieces.
Everytime I see some cute favor, I want to get it.
I also ordered some wedding activity pads and plastic wedding cups from Oriental trading for the kids, so they don’t get bored.
I got a recipe book with blank cards at my shower. I would love to have people somehow share their favorite recipes with us to put in the book.
Since someone asked…. No, I am not an alcoholic. I probably average about one alcoholic beverage a year! But I do know some people collect shot glasses from places they visit, etc. because it’s a rather inexpensive "souveneir".
Also, shot glasses, depending on the shape and size can double as a votive holder. Maybe I’ll put votive candles in them so people don’t get the wrong idea…..
No, I didnt go overboard. It was hard choosing, though. I just kept it simple and elegant. I made a lot of stuff myself.
No, I didnt go overboard. It was hard choosing, though. I just kept it simple and elegant. I made a lot of stuff myself.
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It’s fine. The little things are what people notice. We did personalized napkins, drink stirrers, coasters and little boxes for people to take cake home with them if they wanted. Everyone loved it and still talk about it to this day.
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when you send out your invitations you could send the blank card with a note to give your secret recipe to the bride to be! We are not doing favors we are dontaing to a charity! But remember alot fo people wont even take the favors!
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There are so many things that you can do on the cheap and still have a very nice wedding.
My husband and I did our wedding for probably no more than about $1000.
We had it in his mom’s backyard in April. We had it at sunset, so we had borrowed tons of white lights and strung them in the plants, trees, and along the fences.
I made homemade candles to put around the pond and on the tables as center pieces.
We used silks flower garlands for the table center pieces as well. Dollar Stores often have some nice ones cheap.
We did ours where we asked close family and friends to bring a large potluck dish, and his dad deep pitted beef and pork.
Oops, sorry, baby woke, gotta go. Would love to share more…just e-mail me and will share some wonderful secrets that were a delight to every one.
I’m Back because I wanted to share our wedding cake idea with you.
We had so little to spend on our wedding, I wanted to save on my cake and do it myself. However, I had so many other things to do to get ready that I couldn’t afford the time to bake and ice a cake. We took a creative short cut and bought two half sheet cakes from costco, one chocolate, one white. I asked them to simply put a white border around the two cakes, that’s it, I would do the rest.
At home, we got a board to set them on, we butted both cakes up to each other on one side where the card baord actually overlapped and the two cakes were touching. We then put an 8" pedastool in the middle and put a nice (popular cake decorator’s cake - to freeze) on the pedastool. We then decorated with fresh flowers. We used the flowers to cover the "seam" of the two cakes as well as the pedastool and such. We used a little bride and groom bear decoration on top. It was gorgeous. So many people asked how we made a cake that was half chocolate and half white.
We used this idea again for my nieces reception a year after she married. This time she didn’t have the top round cake so in it’s place we put a very pretty cracked glass candle holder with a burgandy-red candle in it, then decorated with a swag of red silk roses and a garland of little crystal accents that spiraled down from the candle topper. The candle was lit for the cake cutting. That one was even prettier than my own.
We wrapped small bottles of bubbles with tulle as a favor/rice replacement. Kids and adults all loved it.
There are so many short cuts to having a beautiful wedding without all the expence. It always amazes me how much people spend! BTW, we had 75 people at our wedding for under $1000.
Good Luck and have fun.
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I AM CHOOSING TO MAKE A DONATION TO A LOCAL CHARITY AND NOT HAVE DONATIONS. PEOPLE NEVER KEEP THAT CRAP ANYWAY.
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Wow, I didn’t even know about favors when I got married. We had ours at my in-laws house but if I’d known, I would have gotten little things.
Your things sound adorable. If I was coming to your wedding I would scarf up all my own, plus take other people’s if they left them behind or weren’t going to take them!
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The average cost of a wedding in the United States is $28,600 for 169 guests.
The reason that figure is so high is because brides go crazy and forget about their budget. You need to stand firm on your spending and limit yourself in how much you’re spending on non-essential items. You do have a budget, right? If not, then you need to stop the spending right now and sit down and figure out how much money you have to spend.
Your guests do not need 2 or 3 or 4 favors — the personalized shot glasses in a nice organza bag, tied with a ribbon is plenty. They don’t need swam boats filled with candy or toasting glasses from Oriental Trading. That’s just money wasted.
The personalized napkins are a nice touch when you’re serving your wedding cake. This is actually a practical item and I say go for it.
Gifts for your attendants. I think attendants prefer to have a single "nice" gift than a bunch of small cheap things. So make sure you’re picking something out that they will find practical and wonderful.
You need to concentrate on your centerpieces. Look at all the decorations you’ve purchased and figure out if they can be re-purposed into something for centerpieces. Be practical and creative.
Good luck!
Pam
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I am a professionally trained wedding planner and have planned over 50 weddings. Here’s an article I wrote with some additional tips:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/303520/professional_tips_on_planning_your.html
As a professional party designer I always have tons of ideas in my head so it was hard to narrow down which one I wanted for my wedding. I have done so many gorgeous ones it was hard to pick just one thing. Once I got my vision clear of what I wanted it all fell into place.
After that I really didn’t go overboard. Things like personalized napkins are just a waste to me. Why spend a few hundred on something that is meant to be wadded up and thrown in the trash?
Personalized shot glasses…unless you are only having a really young crowd that might offend older guests. are you an alcoholic?
Personalized Napkins….ok so I might give in and do this for the wedding. Don’t order them online though. Just pick out a great stamp from the craft store, get an ink pad, and stamp plain ones yourself. You don’t have to do it all at once, just stamp a few as you watch TV and you’ll be done in no time.
Special kids’ stuff…always a great idea
Recipe book….I would much prefer that over a personalized shot glass.
Remember, favors can be centerpieces too. For instance take those shot glasses and put a single rose head in them and group together.
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Recipe book: Send the blank cards out with the invitations and ask to return them with the RSVP cards. You should get all kinds of good recipes!
The shot glasses: wrap them in lacy/tulle fabric with a bow on top. Fill them with candy of your wedding colors.
Centerpieces. Get small glass bowls and fill with water. Float the swans or floating candles in the water. Maybe put a mirror underneath the bowl to add effect.
The personalized napkins are a tradition, which is why your mom wants to get them. They’re great for cookie tables or to wrap the cake for the guests to take home.
Save the money on the cute favors and use it towards your honeymoon or flowers. Stop looking online for the stuff and you won’t want to buy any!
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Maybe for a centerpiece idea you could wrap your gifts real nice for the guest and maybe make a centerpiece out of it, whether its in nicely wrapped boxes or in some sort of basket… I do think you might be going overboard with it all though. The advantage to that is you can always sell things back! My advice would be to buy a planning book and maybe make some drawings or just some lists of what you have and start focusing on what you need.
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A Bride myself!
Believe me.. the less you spend, the more you will have for a down payment on a house or whatever floats your boat.
We were able to go on a cruise for our honeymoon & had plenty of $ to spend.
I got my centerpeices for $3 at the Family Dollar Store.
Everyone loved them!
Rememer it’s only one day.. it’s about the 2 of you not all that STUFF.
Good luck & God bless
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No, I had lists and we pretty much stuck to those. We paid for the wedding ourselves, so we couldn’t really go overboard.
Just an idea for the shot glasses - though they are a fine favour on their own. At my nephew’s wedding, they had a little organza bag with mini tootsie rolls put into the glasses, so they looked pretty at the table with the satin bow tied on top.
The recipe thing isn’t really appropriate for a wedding.
Maybe the swan boats could be used somehow in centrepieces…
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I hate to say it, but usually wedding favors aren’t that big of a deal to the guests. A nice little something is very thoughtful of course, but there’s no reason to go overboard. And my thoughts on the printed napkins? DONT DO IT! They are a waste of money, do yourself a favor & put that money towards something more practical!
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buying a shot glass does not make a person an alcoholic, honestly, some people are just crazy!!! I haven’t gone overboard because I am on such a tight budget, we want to get all the important things paid for such as the food and refreshments (and yes we have alcohol, and NO, no one is an alcoholic) and if we have any money left then I will spend that on extras. I’ve got some pretty favour boxes and great chocolates to go in them already, so I don’t feel like I am cheating my guests out of a favour.
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