Tag Archives: unique wedding favors

Reception Decor: Composer Busts

by on April 21, 2013

Mini composer busts halbe

 

I’ve talked about my love (obsession?) for Beethoven before, so finding these awesome and inexpensive statues via Country Living magazine totally made my day. These mini composer busts were apparently popular and mass-produced in the 1950s-1970s, and were usually gifts from piano teachers to their students (my piano teacher never gave me something awesome! I guess the trend stopped by the 90s). A brief online search turned up several collections of these available via eBay and Etsy for as low as $4/statue. They are small (typically 5″), and either made of chalkware, vinyl, or porcelain, and they were made by several different manufacturers. Halbe seems to be the most popular on eBay, but I think a deep-dive could turn up other brands (Country Living mentioned they got theirs from Herco Industries.

I think these could be great as part of your reception table decor, and you could group two on a table in between flower arrangements or another creative centerpiece. After the wedding, you can display them on a bookshelf as part of a fun design. If you were having a smaller wedding you could even give them away as wedding favors, especially if they’re only $4/each.

 

 

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Double Duty Reception Decor: Bottle Openers

by on June 20, 2011

If you’re looking for clever ways to have your reception décor double as wedding favors, this is a fun idea that’s perfect for summer weddings: Bottle openers that work for escort cards, favors, and table displays!

If you’re having a small wedding, consider purchasing vintage/used bottle openers at your local thrift store or online via sites like eBay and Etsy. If you’re having a large number of people, you’d be better off buying them from a store that sells in bulk. I love these bottle openers from Pottery Barn, below.

Arrange them on a table with escort cards tied to each. Place a bottle of brightly-colored soda (such as IZZE’S) at each guest’s place setting, which they can then open with their new bottle opener. If you want to do individual place cards, string another craft tag around each bottle with guest’s names on them. To make sure people know their bottle openers are favors, write or stamp something cute on the backside of the escort craft-tag such as “Take Me Home,” “Yours to Keep,” or “To Have and To Hold.” In addition to being cute/kitschy, the bottles offer a great pop of color to your tables.

 

 

Pottery Barn Mermaid Bottle Opener
Price: $6.00*

*Be sure to call PB to see if they can give you a bulk deal (usually 10-15% off).

Buy it here

 

Kraft Hang Tags
Price: Pack of 20 for $7.95

Buy it here

 

 

IZZE Sparkling Juice
Price: $12.01 for 12 bottles

Buy it here

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Practical (and Cute) Wedding Favors

by on March 21, 2011

I don’t totally get food and candy wedding favors. Lollipops, chocolates, or anything that can disappear within 3 seconds of me picking it up seems like a waste of money. If you’re going to opt to have a wedding favor for your guests (and this is by no means required), you want to ideally give them something they can use again–and will, in turn, make them remember the fun time they had at your wedding when doing so. The only exception to this “no food” rule of mine, I think, would be something fun like a to-go bag of beef sliders and fries or something that can be considered a late night “meal.” After a night of drinking and dancing and when your feet hurt, a hamburger and fries is something I can appreciate AND remember. A bon-bon? Not so much.

If you want to give your guests something they can remember your wedding by, you can make a fun mix CD of music from your wedding like we did (it was a homemade blues CD with all the music played during our cocktail hour). Or, you can order one of these practical wedding favors, below. TIP: Plan on having the favors displayed in a very obvious way, with a very obvious sign that says something like “TAKE ONE.” Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with a trunk full of wine stoppers, which is better than a trunk full of melted chocolate!


Two Peas in a Pod Salt and Pepper Shakers

Why Guests Will Love It: Unique/fun serving pieces like this are great for dinner parties.

48-95: $3.24/each

Buy it here

Lovebirds wine bottle stopper

Why Guests Will Love It: Even if you already have a wine stopper at home, another one is always appreciated. After all, sometimes you need to have a white AND a red open.

48-95: $3.39/each

Buy it here

LOVE wine bottle stopper

$2.09/each

Buy it here

Eco-Friendly Tote Bag

Why Guests Will Love It: Even though I always end up leaving my eco-friendly tote bag in the trunk when I go grocery shopping, it’s still good to have one so you can at least pretend you tried.

$2.00/each (more than 6 sets of six is $12/each)

Buy it here

Imperial Tea Light Holder

Why Guests Will Love It: These Moroccan-inspired candle holders will look good in anybody’s house.

Set of 4: $5.49

Buy it here


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Double Duty Reception Ideas: Succulents

by on December 18, 2010

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

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