Wedding Favors & Gifts
I hope that everyone is having a GREAT holiday weekend. I wanted to take a minute to announce the winner in the Beau-coup giveaway…with the great prize of $500 towards any Beau-coup product. Here is the comment that we chose…
1. I would love to see more ways to adapt beautiful weddings with outrageous budgets and turn them into the same beautiful wedding (if not…more beautiful wedding!:) with a smaller budget! Like in magazines, you see the spluge -vs- steal sections. Something just like that only with truly beautiful wedding items. For instance, I ADORE all of these beautiful branch centerpieces, full of blossoms and hanging candle holders but on my budget…it’s not possible. You don’t know how many times I’ve looked at the tree of my front yard and contemplated buying a saw! 
2. If I had a $500 gift card (after shrieking, and I’m sure crying a little…I’ve hit the emotional stage of planning) I would get online and purchase the beautiful natural rattan candle favors on beau-coup.com. It would be a fantastic favor and a reminder of our special day every time our family and friends looked at them in their own homes!
Thanks so much to Jamie for her entry! We actually started a splurge vs. steal feature a while back, but it has definitely lagged a bit! We’ll start working on trying to incorporate all of your ideas…more DIY, more approachable real weddings and more tips on how to turn a beautiful idea into one that can fit any budget!
Wedding Favor Giveaway by Beau-Coup
I thought that I would take a minute to check in with everyone! Today is a great day for me…not only do we have a new baby girl, Audrey Elizabeth (born a week ago Monday), we are also celebrating our 3 year wedding anniversary! My husband, Tait, is incredible and I have fallen in love with him all over again since the birth of our little girl.
So, to celebrate life, love and everything weddings, we thought we would take today to announce our latest giveaway! Together with Beau-coup, the incredible favors company that we are featuring today, we are offering one lucky reader a $500 gift card to buy their favorite favors! All you have to do is answer a couple of questions that will help both SMP and Beau-coup understand what your bridal loves are…
1. In SMP’s honor…what would you like to see MORE of on SMP? Real Weddings, DIY projects, Inspiration Boards or more practical tools like printable checklists and such. Anything goes, we are just looking for good, constructive ideas!
2. And in Beau-coup’s honor…what will you buy with the $500 gift card to Beau-coup? We love to get a feel for what our readers are loving, so spend a minute browsing the Beau-coup site to see what you would put your money towards!
I love, love, love the products that Beau-coup is putting out there. They have a huge selection, and I have to say, a really beautiful array of favor ideas. Here are some of my favorite wedding favor picks…
And, the gift packaging ideas are awesome. LOVE the nests below…
Winnie, of Beau-Coup, will choose the winner over this next weekend so make sure to get your entries in by midnight (PST) on Friday. Both questions must be answered to qualify. We will announce the lucky bride or groom on Monday!
Wedding Favors by Beau-Coup, II
A bit more from Winnie at Beau-coup!
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Wedding Favors Assembly Parties
There are a great many readily available wedding favors to choose from. But for some of us, the best part about doing wedding favors is actually doing them! I love getting together with the girls for an afternoon of yummy treats, good conversation and fun crafts. It’s a great way to bond with your bridesmaids!
Some tips for a successful Wedding Favors Assembly Party:
* Prepare to have enough scissors, hole punchers, rulers…whatever you need to make the favors so that you don’t waste time taking turns
* Wait until you have all of your wedding favor components before sending out the invitation. Sometimes items in the mail get delayed and it would be a waste to have everyone over and nothing to work on.
* Do a run-through and take note of how long it takes, how much candy goes in a jar, how much ribbon goes around the box, etc. And then make sure you have enough of everything
* Calculate the cost of your favors. Sometimes the little pieces add up and you could be spending more than you expected
* Lastly, make it fun! Prepare food, have some drinks and put on some music so your friends have a good time (…and don’t go home spreading rumors about you being a Bridezilla)
Here are some wedding favors packaging ideas from Beau-coup:
For my friend’s recent brunch bridal shower, we gathered together to assemble her wedding favors. She’s a nature girl…I’m talking Prius-driving, works-for-an environmental-non-profit, barters-for-produce-at-the-farmers-market, nature girl. She’s awesome and she makes green look great.
Her favors were lavender sea salt and rosemary sea salt from her favorite farm (she’s the only person I know who has a favorite farm), Eatwell Farm. The salts were packaged in spice jars from Beau-coup and tied with hand cut, hand written hang tags.
At the wedding, tent cards were set out on each table with a note from the bride and groom about their favors, “We love to put the salts on popcorn, fresh heirloom tomatoes, as a marinade for meats and vegetables and scrambled eggs!” Yum!
By the end of brunch we had 100 wedding favors assembled with love and care. And of course the gracious bride sent us home with bridal shower favors that she made - a CD of her favorite music.
Thank you SO much to Winnie at Beau-coup for all of these great favor ideas! Defintiely check out the site if you have some time…there are so many more really great products!
For anyone who has struggled with finding the PERFECT wedding favor, you know that it can be quite a challenge. Finding something that is filled with personality and style and yet still falls into your budget is a hugely frustrating task. Well, lucky for us, Winnie of Beau-Coup, is here to share with us some ideas for brilliant favors!
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The Great Wedding Favors Debate
There’s been some chatter in the blogosphere lately about the necessity of wedding favors. Sadly, some folks seem to consider favors the most expendable item on the wedding checklist. Wedding favors are supposed to be tokens of “thanks” to your guests. Certainly, the choice is yours and if you have a small budget where favors just don’t fit, you need to do what makes you comfortable. But for those who dismiss wedding favors simply because they think favors are meaningless trinkets, we believe you just haven’t found the right favors!
At Beau-coup we encourage our brides to think about their favors as a way share something about themselves with their friends and family. Whether the favors reflect the story of how the couple met, express a shared passion or illustrate the couple’s unique style. When it showcases their personalities and comes from the heart, a thoughtful favor is never a waste.
Consider these fitting favor selections by some of our brides:
“We met at a candy store. We both went for the peach rings and the rest is history. We’re going to fill these mini candy dispensers with peach rings!”
“Well, we met on Match.com.so these match pen key rings are absolutely perfect!”
“We’re from Texas and we love Texas barbeque! The personalized barbecue sauce is so us.”
The key is to think about your story and figure out what piece you want to share. With a little creativity, the chances of finding a hit are definitely in your favor!
Stay tuned for more great ideas from Beau-coup!!
Wedding Jewelry by Sarah Perlis
I loooooove what Sarah Perlis is doing. Her jewelry is absolutely breathtaking. What I love even more though, is that she is now offering clients a chance to design their own custom wedding rings…
Couples can come into her studio and work with Sarah from concept on, to design a ring that is completely unique and one of a kind. How great is that! If you aren’t in the NY area, she also has an absolutely gorgeous array of jewelry on her website…
Check out Sarah’s online shop when you have some time…it’s definitely worth a long look! Prices range hugely, so don’t panic if you see something way outside your budget.
Wedding Jewelry by Ornamental Things
One of our readers sent me the heads-up on this great jewelry designer out of Austin, Ornamental Things…
I am a sucker for anything gold, and anything handmade so these little gems were a no brainer…especially because they pair vintage recycled jewelry with new closures and such. I think the lockets and the charm necklaces would make such beautiful bridesmaids gift. They would also be the perfect sentimental gift for your mother or grandmother.
From Bombus’s brilliant Etsy site, I discovered these incredible designs by Yanina Artisan Jewelry…
I’m sure you’ve noticed by now… I love simple, gold jewelry. It’s forever classic and elegant and these fit the bill perfectly. They are sophisticated and inspired and yet the prices are insanely reasonable. The freshwater pearl necklace on the top right is only $34! So, they just might fit into your bridesmaid gift budget!
