Wedding Invitations

Make your own wedding favors and accessories. Arts and crafts stores have many inexpensive trinkets, beads, lace, sequins, and pearls. They even carry small figurines that can be painted to go atop your wedding cake or in centerpieces. If you have creative friends or family members, enlist their help!

Other inexpensive homemade wedding party favors include painted napkin rings with your names and wedding date, cookies, fudge or chocolates wrapped in tissue or clear cellophane with ribbon, or tiny potted plants.

One bride made her table number plaques at a paint-you-own ceramics studio. She used 2-by-2-inch ceramic tiles, and on the front painted the table number (using different designs on each one: hearts, plaids, etc.). On the back, she printed the couple’s names and wedding date. She had the ceramics store drill two holes at the top of each tile, and then strung organza ribbon through them and hung them from the centerpieces.

If you choose to have table numbers assigned as opposed to open seating, consider having a large chart with all guests listed on it and their table number next to their names. This way, you save on the cost and confusion of individual table and place cards.

Instead of the typical Jordan almonds wrapped in tulle, some couples give guests a packet of flower seeds with their names and wedding date attached; guests can plant them at their homes in honor of the wedding.