Holy melting ice cream, Batman, it is 99 degrees today! With the humidity, it feels like 108, and we are under an “Extreme Heat Advisory”. How did I learn this? Oh, well, Eric and I decided to make the 2 mile round-trip walk to the Dollar General for some super useful things like deodorant, and while sipping on the swiftly warming Gatorade on the way back, I commented that it felt eerily like Mississippi. We stopped by the fountain at our neighbor’s (it’s a church), and when we got home, I hopped online to see just how hot it was. Thus the beginning of this post is explained.
In light of this extreme heat, and with pleasant memories of a much more temperate day in early June, I am dubbing today a “Wedding Wednesday”. Also because I already said that I would post about it. And because lately I’ve been feeling a little bit like I’m talking to myself, I am writing this post in an interview style.
What is this post about? Today I am writing and showcasing the wedding favors that I made for our families that shared our self-written ceremony on the beach.
What were the favors? Great logical sequence here. Thank you. We had two favors, really. One of them was part of the ceremony – bubbles in plastic champagne flutes. Our guests blew bubbles at us after the ceremony was, admittedly, ended abruptly because we didn’t know how to end the ceremony. The second was a little more, ah, favor-ish – they were simple wedding bell decorations that we made from painted clay pots.
Those sounds cute! They totally were.
Let’s talk about those bubbles. Do you have any pictures? Ha! Do I have pictures? I always have pictures. I have pictures of the pictures. That seems excessive. It’s an expression.
Anyway, these were easy to do. I was at Michael’s during my mad rush to find a bouquet, and these were on sale! $1.50 marked down from $5 per pack of 6. I had to refill some of them, which was fine – that’s why the bubbles are blue. With the mini flutes filled, I printed part of our ceremony (that’s for another post!) on card stock, cut the strips, punched some holes, and tied them on. It kept the paper from blowing away in the wind, and they looked cute when we handed them out.
Did anyone use the bubbles? Ah, yes. Much to our, um, amusement.
That looks like a jolly time was had by all. Oh boy wasn’t it…
How about these wedding bell favors? They were a little bit more time consuming, and they involved a lot more trial and error. I found these super mini clay pots, like for plants, at Michael’s (you see a trend here? You see why I had to get a job there?). I had seen them used for wind chimes before, and since I’ve made some awesome wind chimes before, I bought them with that in mind.
So you made wind chimes for favors? Heavens, no. That would have taken a lot of time. No, no; I had these clay pots on hand already, and Eric had commented that they almost looked like wedding bells, if, you know, they were painted and turned upside down. So that’s what I did; I painted them white, and I used black paint to put our initials on them.
You said there was trial and error involved; what kind? Well, I also was going to use this kind of fancy stencil for the letters, and then I was going to stencil heart, too. What I didn’t think about, though, was that the pots were small and round. The stencils were too big, so the letters and the heart came out kind of like blobs. Luckily, I had enough that I made one a practice pot.
So what did you do? I just didn’t use the stencil, and instead of a heart, I painted the date of our ceremony on them.
Those are cute! Did you mention that they were ornaments? Oh, yeah, they were. In order to make them into ornaments, I made these pairs, and then I tied them with some ribbon. My in-laws have them in their kitchen now.
Those are nice. How much did all of this cost? With the bubbles on sale, these already on hand, and the paint, I think the total cost was about $6. Of course, we only had 5 to make (one per separate household). We also had some cute Thank You postcards printed at Zazzle, and we wrote each family a thank you note. They were a hit.
Any plans for something similar in the future? I think these are a great idea. I am considering making a few extras and offering them up on Etsy. These were extra, for instance, so it’s a thought. Ours I also dry brushed with silver, so they came out a little sparkly. But they were good favors, and you could make them bigger, and actually make them wind chimes for a cute anniversary gift or something along those lines.
Sounds great. Thanks for joining us. Oh, yeah, anytime. I’m here all day.
And thank you, readers, for bearing with me while I went on this little tangent. I get bored with the straight narrative at times, if you couldn’t tell.
In all seriousness, the favors were fun to make, and they were fast. I think all told, I spent an hour on these, so if you’re getting married and want that DIY style, you should consider something like this. If you want fancy letters, either use small stencils, bigger pots, or a flat surface. Otherwise, keep it crafty, and Happy Fourth of July!
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