Homemade Wedding Favors – For A Personal Touch

The best wedding favors do not always have to be professionally made, factory-produced or custom ordered. It is strange to note that the latter is preferred today when it was homemade or home-based wedding favors that were originally the kind one would receive from a newly wedded couple. Traditionally, sugar cubes in special trinket boxes were given to guests at weddings – sugar having been an expensive commodity at one point in time. Later, they were replaced by less expensive handmade gifts like embroidery or carvings.

If you are handy with arts and crafts, or creative and arty by nature, homemade wedding favors should be something you seriously consider for various reasons:

- They are unique. No two homemade wedding favor are exactly alike, even if they are the same wedding favor – no two heart shaped chocolate cookies are exactly alike, for instance, nor is it possible for them to be so. The uniqueness of these homemade wedding favors will stamp them permanently in your guests’ memories for a long time to come.

- They are cost-effective. Or at least, you have better control over their cost. How much material to buy, how many pieces and how elaborate their design, you have a say in everything from their conception to completion. This means you have better control over the cost of your favors.

- Making wedding favors helps to create communal bonding between you, your family members, your closest friends and even some selected guests who may have volunteered to help out. This makes your wedding a community affair that everybody wants to succeed. Everyone, especially those closest to you, gets to be involved in the wedding celebrations.

- They are personal. Always wanted a personalized wedding favor for your guests? Then maybe you should make your own favors. Nothing is more personal than one you thought of, designed and then made with your own hands (and a few others, of course). Even if it is a somewhat common gift, like photo frames or potpourri, it is your very own design and scent and will have your signature look and feel on it.

- They make a lasting impression – even if they were not exactly retail quality. In fact, a less than perfect favor is even more memorable than one that is so quality-controlled. Always remember that people tend to remember flaws much more easily than perfection!

What kind of homemade wedding favors you want to give out depends on how good you are at making them and how fast you can complete your favors. Some suggestions you can do are:

- Potpourri. One of the easiest homemade wedding favors to make, potpourri is inexpensive, easy to make and will not take too much time to complete. To top it off, choosing your very own unique scent to give away is both challenging and fun. With potpourri, you do not have to always stick to the usual scents found in bottles and soaps, you can actually create a whole new scent just by mixing and matching. To help you out, get a potpourri-making kit from the gift store.

- Decorative candles are pretty wedding favors to make. Get plain candles and lots of colored one. Burn the colored ones and let the melted wax drip onto the plain candle. Mix the colors together by burning more than one colored candle. This is an inexpensive yet pretty favor you can make at home but bear in mind, it is time-consuming. So, if you do not have a lot of time to prepare for this, you should reconsider.

- Bookmarks are also inexpensive and do not take up too much of your time. You can use digital photographs, pressed dried flowers and leaves, beads, sequins, crystals or colored stones for decoration and a little bit of calligraphy to do the text. Finish it off with a nice bow or ribbon and your bookmark is just as good as the ones you can order.

- Wreaths are also quite easy and do not require you to be exceptionally crafty. To make the task easier, make smaller wreaths that can be hung over the fireplace or on refrigerator doors. The wreath bases can be bought very cheaply in shops and all you will need are the decorative items to put on them – rolls of different colored ribbons, bows and some other significant items like wedding bells, rings, doves or flowers will suffice.

- Christmas tree ornaments. For weddings around Christmastime, these would be ideal as they can be put to good use immediately and kept for every Christmas thereafter.

These are just some examples of the homemade wedding favors you can consider making for your big day. The actual choices you have are endless – it is only as limiting as your imagination.