When it comes to weddings, there is no such thing as doing anything too early. Even though I consider myself to be an organized person, I was not prepared for the length of time it took to accomplish many projects relating to my daughter's wedding.
One example was making the wedding favors, which were Italian Confetti Candies wrapped in tule. Designing the wedding favors, finding all the items needed to create the favors, then going about the task of making them, took much longer than I anticipated. If you are thinking of having confetti wedding favors at your wedding, I would suggest you get started on them as early as possible, especially if you are planning on making them yourself.
Something as simple as purchasing the candies used for the favors may seem like an easy enough undertaking, and it can be, but you can't count on it. Some candies are more readily available than others, at different seasons throughout the year. Tracking down the type of candy, in the correct colour that we wanted for my daughter's wedding favors, took me the better part of two days. Some places I called had the candy, but were not going to have the colour we wanted until the following season. Some places had the candy, but not in the quantity we wanted. After several phone calls, and hours of searching on the internet, I finally found exactly what we were looking for.
Once we had the candy, I went about looking for just the right colour of tulle. It is surprising just how many different shades pink tulle is available in. Whether tulle or any other type of materials are needed for the favors, I would highly recommend bringing a few colour swatches (that are related to the wedding colours) with you when you go shopping for the items needed for the favors. My daughter's dress was a gorgeous pink colour with beautiful gold sequins on parts of the dress. We matched up the tulle as closely as possible to the dress, and we wanted to purchase gold sequins to sew on the favors. That way there would be elements of the bride's wedding dress tied into the favors. Coming up with the exact sequins we wanted was another job that wasn't as easy as I thought. Who would have thought there could be so many types of sequins, in so many sizes? And even with all that was available, I couldn't find sequins that were small enough so they wouldn't overwhelm the delicate favors. In the long run, I ended up buying a few meters of a fabric trim that had gold sequins sewn onto it. I then had to separate all the individual sequins from the fabric it was sewn to, one by one, which took quite a bit of time. The most time consuming job of all though was actually sewing the individual sequins on to each favor.
When I initially offered to make the favors I knew it would be a fairly big job. However, I underestimated the amount of time it would take. Each favor took me an hour to make, there were 150 guests at the wedding...you do the math! At one point I jokingly said, wouldn't that be something if the night before the wedding I was still making the favors, and guess what, that is exactly what happened. So the moral of this story is better to have everything done, well in advance. And I can't stress enough to never settle. If you want a certain item needed for your favors, keep looking, you will find it, it just may take a little more work than you thought.
A few more reflections about wedding favors.
The tradition of wedding favors has been around for hundreds of years. Originally bride and grooms gave wedding favors to their guests as a way of sharing their good luck. Many cultures had their own customs and protocol when it came to favors. The practice of giving wedding favors has evolved over the years and now there are no clear cut rules; the bride and groom can choose what best works for them. Regardless of the reason, giving a small gift is a lovely gesture to thank your guests for coming.
Regardless who is making the favors for your wedding, a really good idea is to make a few trial favors well in advance of the wedding. This will give the bride and groom an idea of what the finished product will look like. And the bride and groom can make sure it is what they really want. Asking the couple for colour and size preferences, and if there is anything special they wish to have on the favor, is a great starting point. This photograph shows a few of the trial favors I made.
Another important factor to consider on the subject of wedding favors is deciding if the favors will be placed at each guest's table setting, or if the bride and groom will be handing them out to each guest. I have attended weddings where both of these options were done, and I prefer it when the favor is placed at each guest's place setting. Not only do the favors add colour and interest to the table, it also saves time. You can see from the below photo just how lovely the table looks with the favors.
Our most important consideration for the favours was to be original. We wanted to have favors that were different and that didn't look store bought, or mass produced. Granted the design we came up with was a little tedious, but the end result was so worth all the time and effort. If you are making your own wedding favors, there are a few other important aspects to keep in mind. If you are experienced at making crafts, and have done some sewing, then you should be fine. However, if you are not used to creating things from scratch, choose a favor that is simple to make, otherwise you may get overwhelmed with the project. Either that, or hire someone to make the favors. With everything else you will have to consider for your wedding day, you don't want to be stressed out further with the job of making your wedding favors. Plan ahead, and allow enough time to get your favors finished well before the wedding day.
With a little thought and creativity, every wedding can have gorgeous and distinctive wedding favors. Shari and I have some great visions and inspirations for wedding favors. Feel free to contact us, if you wish to discuss having the most unique favors for your wedding.
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