Homemade Wedding Favors: Save Money with Memorable Items

Whether you are planning a small and simple wedding or a large and extravagant ceremony, you as a bride want to be able to give your wedding guest a special memento to remind them of the joyous occasion they shared with you. Do-it-yourself wedding favors can be very cost effective. Creating and assembling your own wedding favors can become a fun project. Enlist your friends, family and bridesmaids to help you with the projects.

There are many options to choose from when comes to making you own wedding favors. All of these favors can be created by you for your guest. Saving you a bundle of cash, when compared to hiring someone else to do it for you. Here are a few suggestions to help get you started.

Votive Wrappers:
For this project you will need a printer and votive candles. You will also need ribbon and tulle to wrap the finished candles in. You can use either plain, colored or decorative paper to make the wrappers. Print your names and the date of your wedding onto the paper of your choice. Continue printing this throughout the whole sheet of paper, skipping about 3 lines each time. Practice on regular paper first until you have your spacing correct. You want each set of writing to be about the height of your candles. If you have labeling software that allows you to print long skinny labels installed on your computer this will make the task much easier. To add a special touch place a decorative border around your names. Cut the paper down to size so that it wraps neatly around your votive with just a little overlap for you to glue the ends together snuggly. Wrap the finished candle in tulle, gathering it at the top. Wrap the ribbon around the gathered tulle, tieing it in a small bow to hold it together. Now you can give each of you a guest a personalized votive.

Wedding Vow Thank You Cards:
Simply print your wedding vows and a special thank you message to your guest onto decorative cards stock. You can make the card one sided or fold it into a small card. You may want to print a picture of you and your groom on the front of your card. You can also punch two small holes in the front of card with a hole punch. String a ribbon through the holes, tieing the ribbon into a bow on the front of the card.

Wedding Bookmarks:
Using a software program such as Microsoft word, print your wedding vows or wedding song and a special thank you message onto card stock. You can fit up to four bookmarks onto one sheet of card stock. Cut the card stock down to the size of bookmarks. Punch small holes in the top of each bookmark. String ribbon though the holes, tieing it into a bow. You can add small silver or gold wedding bands to hang from the ribbon.

Decorative Candles:
Visit your local craft store to purchase rub on transfer paper. Rub on transfer paper is a special type of paper that has images and designs printed on it. The design can be easily rubbed off and placed onto just about anything. It comes in many different beautiful designs. Use the rub on transfer paper to place the design that you choose onto candles. Wrap the finished candles with tulle and secure with a ribbon.

Wedding Soaps:
This is a very easy and simple wedding favor to make. You will need: clear melt and pour soap, soap molds, fragrance (optional) and small metal wedding band colored in silver or gold. All these items needed can be purchased at a craft store in the wedding supply section. Melt the soap according to the directions on the package, fill the soap molds half way with the liquid soap, set your small metal wedding bands into the mold then pour the rest of the liquid soap into the mold, completely covering the small wedding bands. Once the soap has hardened you will be able to see the wedding bands inside it. The soap will easily pop out of the molds. Wrap the soap in tulle or cellophane and secure with a pretty ribbon.

Personalized Rose Petals:
I will warn you this project may be a little time consuming depending on how many petals you plan to make. For this fun wedding favor you will need an iron, a printer, fabric rose petals and blank iron on transfer paper. Fabric rose petals can be found in many different colors. You can purchase them at a craft store or online. The iron on transfer paper can be purchased at any office supply store. Print the chosen design or lettering, in the desired font, onto the iron on transfer paper. You will be able to print whatever you have chosen many times on the same sheet of paper. Carefully cut around the design or lettering. Follow the directions on the back of the package to iron the chosen design onto each of the fabric rose petals. You can choose multiple designs or phases to transfer onto each of the petals. Place the petals into decorative baskets. Place the baskets onto the guest tables. When you see your guest picking through the baskets to find their favorite petals, you will know it was time well spent.

Making your own personalized labels is another fun and cost effective idea. Label paper can be purchased at any office supply store. If you have label making software installed on you computer, it will make this task much easier. You can use these personalized labels for many other ideas. Stick them on top of small individual size boxes filled with candy, mints or chocolates.

If you are good at baking desserts and you have the extra time, surprise your guest with fresh baked cookies. Wrap the cookies in stiff cellophane. Tie a ribbon around the top to secure the cellophane. You can add one of the personalized labels to the front of the package. Use cookie cutters or a cookie press to make the cookies into shapes such as wedding bells, flowers, or even your initials. Try making an assortment of different cookies or another type of desert. Leave small decorated boxes out so that each guest can choose which desert they want to pack and take home with them.

If you like the idea of edible wedding favors for your guest. Try making chocolate lollipops (suckers). Kitchens supply stores have many different molds to choose from. Pour melted chocalate into the molds. After the lollipop (sucker) has dried and hardened, wrap the lollipop (suckers) with cellophane and tie a ribbon around the cellophane and the stick to the cover the lollipop.

All of the wedding favors projects above are an easy way to show your apprecitation to your guest for sharing this special day with you. Let your imagination and your creativity be your guide when doing these projects. Put your own special touch into it. Creating wedding favors with your love ones is a great way to bond together in the celebration of your big day to come.