Cheap and Fun Wedding Favors

You don't have to break the bank to provide a great time for your guests at your wedding, and that includes the wedding favors you will be sending them home with. Many people spend a lot of money on their keepsake wedding favors only to have them wasted or unused (and certainly unremembered) by their guests within a few days. Remember the last wedding you went to? Did the the wedding favors ever make it out of the car when you got home? Or are they still under the seat? Learn how to make cheap and useable wedding favors that your guests will certainly enjoy and utilize, and remember your special day from.

What you want are wedding favors your guests will use or be tempted to put out on display, not little cheapo trinkets that you don't even have a use for. So nix the plastic diamond rings that you used as napkin holders/keepsakes, the little bottles of bubbles (although they are cute for blowing at the happy couple as they leave the wedding ceremony) and the tiny bride-and-groom paper cutouts that decorated your tables for decoration that your guests could take home. Rather, try fun and useful (and cheap, cheap, cheap) elegant wedding favors your guests will love.

Try getting potpourri in your wedding colors (or close to it) and pouring it into individual drawstring baggies that are stamped on the front with your wedding date, a heart, your names, or a picture of a ring, or leave the baggies blank for reuse and after they are draw-stringed shut glue a silk rose or a gemstone on the front (fake flowers can be bought at dollar stores and taken apart for many blooms to glue to baggies, and baggies can be bought in bulk at party or craft stores on the cheap). Place these on top of napkins on people's tables so guests can enjoy the fragrance at the table and take the scents home with them to enjoy after your big day.

Another fun, super cheap party favor and decoration are homemade magnets. Simply buy a roll of magnet strips (they come in rolls of varying lengths and widths and have sticky backs on them that you can cut to size) and purchase decorative stones or glass in your wedding colors, making sure they have flat bottoms. Cut the magnet pieces and stick them to the back of the decorative stones or glass, and for your wedding stick them on all your metal surfaces, like table legs or guests' chairs. These magnets are beautiful and creative, and certainly cheap (you can buy all your supplies at the dollar store or Walmart) and will be used again on your guests' fridges to remember your special day.

Another beautiful wedding favor that is cheap and creative is making Christmas ornaments. Simply by purchasing in bulk clear Christmas balls, you can adhere an engagement picture on the front and tie a ribbon in your wedding colors around the closure on the ball that you hook ties to. Or you can fill the balls with potpourri or colored sand and seashells that will fit into the ball, or for a fun twist, add wedding or heart confetti instead. By using your wedding colors to tie the Christmas balls to your tables or to hang from centerpieces, you have an ethereal attraction to your wedding that your guests can take home and display on their tree come Christmas, or even display in their home year-round as it doesn't look like it's just intended for Christmas. Craft stores in summertime and just after Christmas have these clear balls available on the cheap (you can get 6 for as low as a dollar).

Perhaps the coolest wedding favors I've ever seen are little cork jars filled with colored sand or bath salts in the wedding colors. You can get varying shapes and sizes of tiny corked jars, and you can fill them with decorative bath salts, potpourri, or colored sand that reflects your wedding style. I've seen them with little scrolls in them to look like a message in a bottle that has a cute message on the inside and is a cute dust gatherer in the home afterward. You can find corked jars at thrift stores, yard sales, and in bulk (for about a quarter or $.50 apiece) at craft stores. So long as they're about the same size, they don't have to all be identical, and make great wedding favors for your guests.

Finally, you absolutely cannot go wrong with candles. You can buy them at the dollar store, and plain candles can be livened up with jewels or paper flower cutouts in your wedding colors. My brother did this for his wedding with floating candles, and with paper flowers on the bottom, they created a base to have the candles stand taller and look simply adorable. Everyone loved them and took them home for decorative use, and the cost was about $6.00 for 100 floating candles at the craft store. Cheap and wonderful, fun and creative wedding favors for all!