Because I have a black thumb and manage to kill pretty much any plant that I come in contact with, I love succulents. You can actively try to kill them by forgetting to water them for months and they will still survive (most of the time). I actually did manage to kill two succulents I bought at Trader’s Joe’s last year, but I kinda just wanted to see if it was possible.
Anyway, since I love any kind of reception decor that can pull double duty, these succulents are a great idea. They can serve as both place-card holders AND favors if you don’t have too many guests coming in from out of town (if I had to fly with one of these, I’d probably just throw it out).
You can buy succulents at Home Depot or Lowe’s, or your local gardening center if you can find them. I also found a good deal online from JadePoint.com, which sells them for $1.25-$2.00 each. The more you buy, the cheaper they are. Also note that they do not ship during winter months because of weather.
It would be cute to include a little note on the back of each place-card that has watering instructions (IE: Put in sunlight and water a small amount when dry). A great resource for place cards is Paper Presentation. You can buy flat rectangular place cards (click here), and write everbody’s names out on them, or buy printable business cards and print everybody’s names (a retro Typewriter font would look cool). You can find printable business cards here. To make them even cuter, you could put a stamp next to the instructions, such as this watering can.
For place-card holders, use toothpicks or bamboo skewers (cut in half) and glue the place cards to each and stick them in the succulent.
Since the succulents typically come in flimsy plastic containers, you can easily dress them up by dropping them in a fancier pot. These wooden pots sell for $5.99 for a pack of 12.
Total ballpark cost for 125 succulent place card holders/favors: $250
