Happy Monday, friends! In the spirit of Fall (and spending hours this weekend raking up leaves) I thought it would be nice to throw together a roundup of fabulous Fall wedding favors. My personal favorite being the tiny bottles of whisky, because I’m a drunk (and most likely your wedding guests will want to be, too).
1. Fall Favor Box | 2. Favor Box with Paper Leaves | 3. Mini Liquor Bottles | 4. Fall Favor Tags | 5. Mini Candied Apples | 6. Pouch of Pears | 7. “Fall in Love” Scented Leaf Soaps
Happy Friday, friends! I am so excited because for the first time ever MarryThis! has teamed up with de Lovely Affair for a fun wedding favor post swap! (In case you missed it, make sure to check out yesterday’s totally rad Plantable Wildflower Paper charity favor!)
Head on over to dLA to check out my guest post featuring DIY Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookie wedding favors. You read that right. Stop drooling. AND since we here at MarryThis! like to do things on the cheap — you better believe that each favor costs less than $1 to make!
Download your free “It’s What’s on the Inside that Counts” printable label and check out the DIY!
And as always, we want to showcase YOUR lovely MarryThis-inspired favors!
Send your images to allison@marrythis.com – you may just be featured on the blog!
Hello there MarryThis friends! I am Mellissa, and I blog at de Lovely Affair. I was so excited when Allison asked me to write a guest post for the Charity Favors Series, and today, we are going green with a fabulous charity donation idea AND a super easy DIY project for you crafty, budget brides.
A green wedding isn’t just about going cheap; it’s about making smart, value based purchases for everything from invitations to your dress. NOT purchasing packaged, shipped, and then tossed wedding favors, is good for the planet and your wedding budget. There are so many green DIY options for a green bride but by far my favorite is donating to an eco-friendly charity close to your heart.
A perfect green cause for eco-conscious couples: preserving the Amazon Rainforest. Why? The Atlantic Forest region of this vast Amazon Rainforest was once a thriving habitat covering nearly 330 million acres. Now only 7% remains due to urban expansion, industrial development, agriculture, and illegal logging. It’s home to thousands of animals and plant life, some found nowhere else on Earth.This fragile, diverse, and lifegiving biosphere is worth saving for future generations. The Nature Conservancy has a fabulous program to help protect this beautiful rainforest with their Plant A BillionTrees Campaign. You can donate 50 trees for just $50 – a small price to pay.
Green charity favors are an excellent option for eco-conscious couples who want to make a difference with their dollars and give something a little more meaningful than Jordan almonds. And as with every MarryThis charity favor, we can’t have guests going home empty handed. So I have put together a super easy tutorial for Plantable Wildflower Paper. What better way to help the environment than to grow something beautiful?
Plantable paper is made using paper pulp and seeds! Pretty simple. This is an easy paper making project, perfect for a DIY bride on a budget – no fancy equipment necessary. The end result is beautiful textured paper with a rustic feel, adding handmade charm to your plantable paper wedding favor. {All project photos via de Lovely Affair}
Note: This is a messy and wet process therefore it is best to work on a well-protected surface.
1. Tear the paper into small pieces and toss them into a blender. Add warm water to cover the mixture and blend away. Make sure the pulp is really smooth.
2. Pour pulpy mixture through the wire hand strainer and squeeze out the excess water. All lumps should be removed at this stage and the paper pulp should be well mixed. Note: Squeezing out TOO much water will make the mixture too lumpy and hard to form.
3. Mix a handful of seeds and paper pulp in a bowl. The amount of seeds required will depend on the type of seeds used and the finished effect that you are looking for. Mix the seeds well using your hands or a spoon. Do not use the hand blender otherwise you’ll damage the seeds.
4. Grab your cookie sheet and your mold – a cookie or biscuit cutter, which I used. Press the seeded pulp into the mold, making sure that it is even on all sides. Make sure it’s not to thick or it will take longer to dry. Use a towel to press as much water as possible from the paper pulp.
5. Drying the seed paper quickly is essential, otherwise the seeds will start to grow! Placing the seed paper in a warm (but not hot) environment and ensuring that air can circulate around it is the best way to dry the paper quickly. Blowing the seed paper with a hair dryer on a cool setting will also help. Make sure the paper favor is completely dry before embellishing. Store on plastic wrap or parchment paper. Craft it up and you’re done!
The seeds and embellishments were the only things that cost any money for this project.
Grand total per favor: Less than $1 each
Once I got it all figured out, it went very quickly. Less than an hour for my ten discs, but I would say this is an all day, grab your bridesmaids sort of project.
I also put together a printable tag for this project available for download over at de Lovely Affair.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this charity favor! As always, we’d love to see your projects come to life, so send your fabulous wedding favor photos to allison@marrythis.com.
Happy Crafting,
Mellissa
Mellissa de Oliveira is the creator and editor of de Lovely Affair, a practical wedding resource for modern multicultural couples. The blog blends world traditions and international “I Do’s,” practical planning and DIY projects with a good dose of humor, gorgeous photography and, of course, real weddings.
Hello lovelies! I’m celebrating this beautiful Friday in my brand new (circa 1979) house! My hubby and I closed on our house on Tuesday and we are THRILLED. Thank you so much for your wonderful, loyal readership! I’ll be a little light on blogging for the next week or so while we move, but I promise I have a whole crap load of awesome DIYs and charity favors comin’ at ya in July!
First things first — it’s time to announce that MarryThis! is now a one woman show. Frowney face. When Sara, Amy and I started MarryThis in 2010 (back then we didn’t have a blog — we were just selling our wedding guides, which are now free) we had dreams of the three of us quitting our day jobs and working from a beautiful sunny loft on anything wedding related.
But as time progressed, life happened, and now Sara and Amy are both making wonderful and exciting life changes that unfortunately don’t have much to do with weddings. I’m the schmuck still left 
All this to say, the blog will still be exactly the same and equally as awesome — you might just experience a bit more sarcasm and a few more Gwar references.
I miss you so much girls! A vegas trip is definitely in order.
If you’ve seen our DIYs or charity favor series, you know that we are constantly asking to see photos of your finished projects! We received this beauty in our email box and we are so excited to share!
Thanks so much to our new buddy, Megan Miller! In effort to find a non-cheesy wedding favor, Megan decided to make our “Doggy Bag” edible charity favors to give out at her wedding (she’s a veterinarian!), and they turned out fabulous! Megan, I feel honored that you chose our favor to be a part of your big day. Congratulations, newlywed!
And as always, we want to showcase YOUR lovely MarryThis inspired photos too!
Send your images to allison@marrythis.com
It’s no secret that I love functional, practical favors. Why waste your money on personalized or monogrammed favors that your guests will just add to the donate pile within a year? Play it safe by showing your gratitude with an edible treat that everyone is sure to enjoy.
Now, I know I might get some flak for listing Jordan almonds as “tired,” but come on, ladies! I have nothing against this sweet treat — other than the fact that I have received these favors a billion times myself, and the rest of your wedding guests probably have too. Why not use this “favorable” opportunity to express your unique personality as a couple? Check out our edible favor assessment in this installment of Tired, Trendy & Timeless.
Tired: Jordan almonds
Trendy: ‘S’more Love’ favors, via Bridesmaids and Weddings & Honey Jar favors
Timeless: Truffle box, photo by Gina Meola Photography
I often think of a post-wedding morning as one of sleeping in, pressing the snooze button several times, and rushing around to get checked out of the hotel on time after a late night of fun.
That’s where this granola wedding favor comes in. Your guests will love you for this healthy breakfast on the go, plus homemade granola is so easy to make. And when I mean easy to make, I mean Rice Krispies treats easy. Granola takes just a few ingredients, time in the oven and voilà — you’ve got a boatload of tasty and inexpensive toasted oats, nuts and dried fruits.
Use this delish granola recipe from The Kitchen Sink. Granola is sort of like a cookie where you can add whatever you want and it never turns out badly, so choose your favorite dried fruits and nuts.
To make this favor: Fill each wax food bag with one cup of granola. Tie with a fun ribbon and our printable tag and you’re good to go.
Don’t forget that this Sunday is Earth Day! After all, Mother Earth puts up with our crap, litter and pollution all year – so it’s only fitting that we pay homage to our beautiful home with a special day. If I was Mother Earth and you didn’t remember my special day I would drop kick you in the throat and then flood your bathroom. Naturally (pun!), Mother Earth is much more patient and understanding than me, but let’s show the girl some love and try to be better this year, huh?
Pay homage to our favorite sugar mama by giving your wedding guests beautiful AND earth-friendly favors. Here’s a roundup of some of our favorites (the Jellyfish Air Plants are to DIE FOR!).
1. Succulent favor and place card | 2. Tree saplings | 3. Cherry sacks | 4. Jellyfish Air Plants |
5. Seed bomb | 6. DIY seed packet
I hope you all have a fabulous Earth-inspired weekend! We sure had a great week here at MarryThis!
Here’s a summary of this week’s highlights:
Don’t you love when a favor is pretty and inexpensive? I’m smitten with these wine cork keychains because they look classy, but they are secretly very cheap! Each favor cost less than 50 cents.
You only need three items for these so-easy keychains that take just a few steps to put together.
Supplies:
Wine corks
Screw eyes – I used 15/16 in.
Key ring
Here’s how you do it:
Personalize it!: Paint the wine corks with your wedding colors, buy customized wine corks with your initials, or tie one of our beautiful printable tags to the key ring.
This favor would be perfect with our Wine and Cheese wedding guide. Download the free guide today!
Happy Friday, friends! Today we have a follow up on yesterday’s awesome DIY Vanilla Extract Favors. I love a good DIY and this sweet, homemade favor really takes the cake (and you can MAKE cake using it!). Add in our adorable, free “Love is Sweet” printables (with 5 color choices) and your wedding guests are sure to appreciate this thoughtful and practical gift.
Make sure to check out our tutorial, and download your free printable labels!
We sure had a great week here at MarryThis! Here’s a summary of this week’s highlights:
I photographed a wedding last summer where the bride and groom gave out homemade vanilla extract as favors and I thought it was the most adorable thing. So I’m stealing a page from their playbook and offering you this DIY tutorial today for your own vanilla extract favors. This is an extremely easy project that can be easy on the wallet too — follow the steps to make your own.
Supplies:
1. Clean your bottles and let dry. Put one vanilla bean in each bottle.
2. Using your funnel, fill the bottles with alcohol — vodka makes a more classic vanilla extract and bourbon makes, well, a bourbon vanilla extract.
3. Seal them up and store in a safe place without too much light or heat for at least one month.
4. When you’re ready, add labels and hand them out to guests! (Hint: Stop by the blog tomorrow to get these cute little labels for yourself!)
Happy DIY-ing!
As I’ve written in previous posts, I’m a huge fan of edible favors. They rarely go to waste and provide the sustenance your guests need to dance their socks off all night long or to wait patiently between the ceremony and the reception.
This favor features the classic combination of cheese and crackers — a crowd favorite and easy to make. Adding nuts and dried fruit provide variety for those non-cheese and cracker lovers (but really, how many people don’t love cheese and crackers?). You can easily make this favor match with your wedding theme by decorating the box with your colors or tying the box with a cute customized printable tag. Plus, this favor can be relatively inexpensive if you can buy all your food ingredients in bulk. Enjoy!
What you need:
What to do:
Food variations: Other types of dried fruits and nuts would work just as well in this food box.
Box variations: If the thought of wrapping a bunch of favor boxes is overwhelming, keep the paper mache boxes simple and use fancy ribbon or craft paint to decorate the boxes. Also, instead of making box partitions, you can wrap your food items in wax paper or plastic.
Happy Friday, friends! In celebration of St. Patty’s Day tomorrow I thought it would be fun to feature a SUPER easy and inexpensive “Lucky in Love” cake pop wedding favor (with a free printable, of course)! These cake pops are so tasty and adorable I’m guessing most of your guests will have finished theirs before they even get their salad.
As with all of our frugal favors, the BEST part is its cost. At around $10 per batch (each batch makes 30-40 pops), these favors come in as low as .33 cents a piece. Not too shabby. Lay a cake pop on each place setting OR use these as your dessert and nix the wedding cake all together. Now THAT’S budget friendly.
What you need:
1. Download your free St. Patrick’s Day cake pop printables. Customize and cut out each tag using the scalloped-edge paper punch. You could also nix the scallop and cut them out by hand. Never used our printables before? Visit our printing FAQ page to learn how to add your own initials to the printables in Adobe Reader (it’s easy!).
2. Assemble your pre-baked cake pops. I followed this recipe, except I used green and white candy melts instead of almond bark to coat my pops. Decorate the pops using your favorite toppings! I used pearl and green sprinkles as well as shredded coconut (my favorite).
3. After the cake pops are fully set, place each pop in a clear treat bag. Tie each bag with a twist tie. Cut off any excess. Tie a bow with the green ribbon to cover the twist tie.
4. Using the X-Acto knife, make two small horizontal slits on the top and bottom of each printable tag. Feed the tag over the top of each cake pop stick (see photo). That’s it! Make sure to keep these cake pop favors refrigerated until the day of your wedding.
Variations:
If you used our free printables in an awesome project, we would love to see your work! Send your photos to sara@marrythis.com for a chance to be featured on our blog!
Happy Friday! Today is the second installment in our new Charity Wedding Favors series. I am so in love with these charity favors because you can give a little something to your guests while still giving back to the community. A win-win.
These adorable cooking-themed favors are perfect for any foodie couple and are to be accompanied by a donation to your local Food Bank. And GUESS WHAT? Not only are they super cute and practical, they are also REALLY inexpensive. Talk about getting a lot of bang for your buck. Read on for a price breakdown and the how-to!
What you need:
1. Download your free, customizable “Food Bank” charity tag printable. Customize and cut out each tag. Never used our printables before? Visit our printing FAQ page to learn how to add your initials and the charity of your choice to the printables in Adobe Reader (it’s easy!).
2. Using the ribbon, tie a bow around the center of your whisk and spatula.
3. Put a small piece of double-sided tape on the back of your printable tag and affix to the ribbon. I chose to stick the tag to the cut end of my ribbon (see photo), but stick your tag wherever you like best.
4. Center a dishcloth on each place setting, and lay your assembled whisk and spatula on top. That’s it! Foodie favor heaven!
This favor is so cute and handy, blah blah blah … but let’s talk money. ‘Cause we all know that just being cute doesn’t mean ANYTHING to a bride on a budget. For this favor, almost everything was bought at the good ol’ dollar store. And even better than that, each item came in sets. Here’s what you get:
Contrary to popular belief there IS a correct way to give a charity favor. Make sure to check out our guidelines to keep your charity wedding favors in check (scroll to the end of the post).
Most importantly, remember to have a little fun with your favors. After all, giving should make the giver feel good, too. For those of you who are giving charity favors, or have in the past: Thank YOU for your generous effort to make our world a better place. The world could use more brides like you.
I am SO excited about today’s post because I absolutely LOVE charity wedding favors … when they are done correctly. Don’t get me wrong, donating to charity on behalf of your guests is an absolutely WONDERFUL idea that I am in full support of, but let’s keep it real — a charity favor presented in the wrong way can be tacky (and annoying for your guests) EVEN if it’s for a good cause. (Scroll to the bottom of this post for some guidelines to keep your charity wedding favors in check.)
While I love the idea of a donation to charity in lieu of favors, my stomach churns a little when I think about sending my family and friends home empty handed. So our new “Charity Favor” series provides the best of both worlds! We find cute, matching (and inexpensive) favors that your guests can take home and that ALSO benefits charity.
First up are these adorable sugar cookie and dog treat wedding favors to be accompanied by a donation to your local humane society. I LOVE this favor! By pairing a decorated bone-shaped sugar cookie with a homemade peanut butter dog treat — this favor will appeal to your peeps and your pooch. Read on for the how-to.
Dog Lovers Charity Favors
What you need:
1. Download your free, customizable ”Doggy Bag” charity tag printable. Cut out each tag and set aside (do not fold yet). Never used our printables before? Visit our printing FAQ page to learn how to customize your printables in Adobe Reader (it’s easy!).
2. Place one dog treat in the bottom of a cellophane bag. I used this wonderful homemade Peanut Butter Bites dog treat recipe from The Bark Spot.
3. Place one bone-shaped sugar cookie in the bottom of another cellophane bag (you don’t want to mix the human treats with dog treats). I used a basic sugar cookie recipe from AllRecipes. Once your cookies are cooled, dip them in chocolate flavored candy melts and add sprinkles – OR – feel free to decorate however you like. It is very important to decorate the cookies so it is obvious which cookie is for a human, and which is for the dog.
4. Place your two cookie-stuffed cellophane bags on top of each other. Place one bag higher than the other so your treats aren’t lying on top of each other (see photo).
5. Fold over the tops of the cellophane bags together, leaving enough room for the tag.
6. Pre-fold your cut “Doggy Bag” tags and place it on top of your folded treat bags. Secure the tag to the bags with a single staple.
Variations:
We know that each bride’s intentions are good, but a poorly thought out charity favor could make your guests feel under-appreciated.
Here are a few guidelines to keep your charity wedding favors in check:
For those of you who are giving charity favors, or have in the past: Thank YOU for your generous effort to make our world a better place. The world could use more brides like you.
Everyone has different highlights (and lowlights) from planning their own wedding. Personally, one of my favorite things to plan was our wedding favors. There’s just something so fun about giving a gift to the masses (100, in my case). That’s why I am in LOVE with with these super cute, super tasty, and super cheap cookie favors. So, in the spirit of Freebie Friday we have made our super cute printable labels available to you for free! We first showed you these labels in our Frugal Favor post earlier this week.
We recommend printing these labels on full-sheet label paper. Just print, stick and enjoy! Happy Friday, friends!
If you used our free printables in an awesome project, we would love to see your work! Send your photos to sara@marrythis.com for a chance to be featured on our blog!
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