DIY Wedding Project: Make Your Own Bridal Shower Favors

100 Layer Cake - Certainly you’re all familiar with the superduper talented Mimi of Mika78. And clearly we’re all going to want to be a little MORE familiar with her after this post is over. Because if you’re more familiar, as in like friends with her, she puts together an amazing bridal shower for you, complete with a little box of handmade goodies for your guests. Here is how you can make your own bridal shower favors for about $50. Here are the materials you'll need for this DIY project:

Vintage tea cups
Your favorite Tea
Vintage hankies
Paper, bakers twine, cardboard box, and doilies

Mimi created this whole suite for one of her closest friends Christina’s bridal shower. Christina is, in Mimi’s words, "an unbelievable woman and friend," and Mimi wanted to create something really, really special to celebrate her bridal status. She and the rest of the bridesmaids planned an afternoon tea party at a cute restaurant in NYC's West Village, which turned out to be exceptional inspiration for the invitation.

Because Mimi is so incredibly talented, thoughtful, and design-obsessed, she scoured the city’s vintage flea markets for weeks looking for the perfect tea cups and napkins to incorporate into her design. Sigh. Does it get much more heartfelt? (Not to mention absurdly cute.)

She worked with our now friend and DIY contest winner of Bryn of Paperfinger (we didn’t know her when she won the contest, we swear), for the pretty calligraphy. Bryn wrote a bunch of different messages, including a quote Christina is using in her invitations, on the vintage tea cups using a gold pen. And Mimi also included tea bags with little handmade tea tags in each guest gift.

And Mimi made little fill-in-the-blank notes for guests to give to Chris at the shower. Everyone read theirs aloud at the shower and it turned out to be an excellent way to not only get to know Chris’s friends and family a little better, but also to allowed each woman to reflect on her own friendship with the bride-to-be. At the end, Mimi collected each note and put them into a scrapbook for Chris. Such a cute idea!

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5 Great Love Feasts - Our Favorite Wedding Spreads

If you're into "eye candy" and out-of-this-world tastes, a wonderful wedding food presentation is difficult to beat. We love the way 100 Layer Cake - one of our favorite wedding blogs - covers a variety of top weddings. They certain give us great ideas for the events we're either going to plan for other happy couples or planning for our own walk-down-the-aisle events. 

Here are 5 of our favorite recent weddings from 100 Layer Cake. Click on the photographs to read about each wedding, and see how this gorgeous food fits in with the rest of the wedding decor and overall festivities.

#1 - Above and below, a winter wedding scene in rustic Prince Edward Island, Canada, brings on visions of heart-shaped marshmallows floating in hot chocolate, divine treats, and elegant, tailored cakes.

 

#2 - *Magical* is the only way to describe the next wedding, in an elaborate treehouse setting in a California forest - even with a musical babbly brook flowing nearby. An oversized mosquito netting protects the woodland treats, and a formal forest reception with to-die-for desserts couldn't be more amazing.

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The favor of a wedding favor

Wedding favors are big business - and a source of stress for many brides and grooms. Something small, something thematic, something that can be purchased in bulk without breaking the bank...it can be a tall order for an already-stressed couple at the end of their inspiration rope. As such, favors often suffer despite the best intentions, or don't appear at all.

Packets of Jordan almonds or similar candies are classic, and perennial favorites. Along the sugar theme, recent popular favors include lollipops, cookies, and other miniature sweet delights. Savory options such as olive oil or - lucky guests! - bottles of wine have also grown in popularity. Edible favors are all about the packaging and personalization, and the options are endless.

I have rarely been impressed by a favor, but a recent wedding had a smart wink for the guests that was truly inspired. A sweet (and eco-friendly!) bamboo box - neatly bedecked with the couple's name and wedding date - opened to reveal a treasure any guest could appreciate:

Bamboo wedding favor box

Tylenol, Alka Seltzer, mints, and a Hershey's kiss. A personal amenity basket! Now that is a grand gesture for the guests.

Interested in planning weddings and advising on the selection of favors and other wedding gifts? The Sheffield Wedding & Event Planning course teaches everything you need to know to orchestrate a memorable event, from creating a guest list, to hiring vendors, to creating a beautiful wedding design.

A Tree Grows In...your wedding favor?

Wedding favors are terribly tricky; they are meant to be meaningful, well-priced, and eternal. A lot to ask of a bulk item! But a branch of the Florida-based Magnolia Company called Seeds of Life offers a unique option that answers all of these concerns: the wedding favor of a tree.

Live gift trees from the Magnolia Company

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