DIY Wedding Favour Ideas

Wedding Favours or Bombonnieres are a great way to thank your guests for sharing in your special day. Lets take a moment and be honest with one another, not many of us enjoy taking home trinkets that will become dust collectors nor are there many of us that become excited over another bag of sugar coated almonds. 

We recommend you get creative and give your guests something practical that can be used in the kitchen or garden, something that represents you as a couple that leaves your guests raving about them long after the big day comes to an end. Here are some easy DIY ideas we love!

Miniature Seedling Trees  - “Watch us Grow” 

"The Perfect Pear"

Miniature Bottles of Limoncello

Personalised Fortune Teller

Baked cookie in a CD sleeve with a personalised message

Homemade Italian Biscotti - try crostoli and almond bread

Jar of Honey -  "Meant to Bee"

Jam Jar - "Spread the Love"

Rustic Bags of Coffee Beans

We would love to hear your great wedding favour ideas - leave us a comment below!

The Wedding Gurus xo

Soaps from Provence - escort card holders + favors!

Last weekend, I came across a cute German shop with my friends that specializes in soaps and lotions from the Provence region in France. Each bar of soap was beautifully stamped. I couldn't help falling in love with their beauty and divine scents. As I was talking with the store owner, he told me that a few years ago, he used countless Lily of the Valley bars in his sister's wedding - they placed a bar of soap at each seat in the reception hall and used it as an escort card holder by slicing the soap at the top and inserting the escort card. The soap ended up serving a dual purpose - card holder and guest favor! And the scent was apparently incredible. Isn't that a great idea?

Click here to do some online shopping at the cute shop I found. Or you could always book a trip to the Provence and do your shopping at a local market! That's exactly what I plan to do in a few weeks - J surprised me by wanting to visit the Provence together so we'll be exploring St. Remy, Arles and more very soon! If you have any suggestions for our trip, let me know!

Mylien + Nick's California Autumn wedding

Mylien and Nick wanted their wedding to embody the colors of fall and they couldn't have done a better job! The rusty oranges and reds look so dreamy mixed in with the softer cream accents. Love it! To see more from their lovely wedding, check out the slideshow here.

And now for a little insight on the day from the bride herself ...

Personal touches ... :
Both Nick and I made so many things for our wedding ... Branch centerpieces, hanging lighted columns, and [a] fall leaf chandelier. Both Nick and I made all the decor decisions to bring the room together. Also, our main color was orange and "Orange" is one of the many nicknames I have for Nick.

Favorite moment ... : The vows. I couldn't wait to share my journal entry with him and finally commit our lives to one another.

Advice to fellow brides ... : Don't procrastinate and plan ahead, RELAX, let it go and enjoy the actual wedding day, and lastly, make decisions in advance! I had a hard time making decisions and sticking to them which led to the worst case of procrastination with everything flooding in on the last few days.

Vendors ... :
Ceremony: St. John Vianney Church in San Jose, CA

Reception: Villa Ragusa in Campbell, CA (Alison was amazing!)
Coordinator: Adrienne Lee Tickled Events
Cake: Goldilocks
Lighting: Got Lights!
Photography: Alfred & Emma Salom (absolutely wonderful to work with and amazing pictures!)
Day Of Wedding Coordinator: Tickled Events, Adrienne Lee (she was awesome!)
Ice Sculpture: Ice Illusions
Make-up: Aimi Duong (better than I ever imagined!!!)
Hair: Alicia, Rootz Salon in Los Gatos (OMG, the best up-do hair style ever! My hair is hard to work with and she made it phenomenal.)
Wedding Dress: Jin Wang (True Couture Wedding dresses; she personally works with every client and is super sweet. Hands down the best wedding dress I've ever seen... and it happened to be mine!)

Thanks to Mylien + Nick {and Alfred Salom photography} for sharing this beautiful day!

Real Wedding: Phuong + Gregory

You might recognize the beaaaaautiful bride as Mrs. Perfume from Weddingbee or from her highly addictive wedding blog, Macarons and Marie: My Modern Vintage Wedding. Regardless, I got hooked long ago following along as she planned a most decadent affair, absolutely fit for a queen, and by queen I am, of course, referring to the always très-chic Marie Antoinette. ;o) Scroll down for more eye candy and some fabulous insight from the bride herself ...

Tell us about your wedding style ... :All we knew in the beginning was that we were having a garden wedding at a historic mountain resort, The Homestead. The trend or fashion when I started wedding planning was "vintage." I interpreted this as 1930s, somewhere between old Hollywood and Gatsby. Gauzy, delicate, soft, and time-worn was the look combination I was going for. It worked very well with the setting. I blended in a bit of crisp 50s retro with my getaway dress (which my mom made from a vintage pattern).

Personal touches ... :
My mother made my veil out of two different types of vintage lace: Chantilly along the sides and a more substantial beaded Alençon at the bottom. She also sewed the bridesmaids dresses. I couldn't find the color I was looking for in ready-to-wear dresses, so my mom came to the rescue. I made macarons for the favors. The jewelry I wore was antique and vintage. Gregory's mom is an antiques dealer and has a garage full of amazing pieces. She gave me the vintage 1930s Art Deco earrings (the antique locket and clip I found on eBay). She also loaned us a bunch of old sterling ice buckets, water pitchers, and candlesticks for the centerpieces on our reception tables.

Favorite moment ... :
The stand-out moment of the wedding was when our officiant mistakenly read the marriage twice. So we kissed twice and are doubly married!

Advice to fellow brides ... :
It's easy to feel overwhelmed. Be present in the moment; find a minute or two to drink in the day. You will miss it otherwise.

And now, for all the nitty, gritty details:

Venue: The Homestead, Hot Springs, Virginia; set in the Allegheny mountains, it's a picturesque location. We had been going there on weekends for some time, and decided it would be the perfect location. I guess now we've solidified it as our special getaway place. In terms of wedding location, it was most convenient. Everything was right there in one spot so we didn't have to worry about transportation, lodging, etc. Also, the onsite coordinator made it so easy to plan.

Florist: Mountain Laurel Creations; a tiny start-up business. They were so accomodating and incredibly reasonable in their pricing. Last minute, I changed my bouquet to Amnesia roses, which were hard to source. They came through.

Dress: Vera Wang; it was a sample from www.yourdreamdress.com; the amazing thing is that the only alteration needed was a little hemming.

Invitations and paper goods: Lindsey Ryan. She's incredible and did a great job combining my idea of vintage, Parisian flea market, Ladurée, garden, Chinoiserie/indochine into a fantastic paper suite.

Etc.: I was obsessed with Ladurée macarons. Unfortunately they don't ship to the U.S. I was also keen on making something by hand that I could give to guests. So I made macarons for our favors. For those who know the difficulties of making macarons, I found a fool proof recipe!

Thanks so much for sharing an intimate sneak peek of your wedding with us, Phuong! And congratulations to both of you - all the best wishes for a long and loving marriage! xox.

And make sure to check out Phuong's gorgeous Etsy shop, Little White Dress, filled with oh-so-chic handmade dresses and accessories for weddings & parties! I especially love the sweet heirloom ring pillow! Timeless.

{All photos by Tim and Jamie Jackson}