Weddingbee Blog

…or FFfF, because that’s the sound I made for the longest time when I thought of favors. On the one hand, there’s a part of me that loves the idea of them. This is probably because I went to too many birthday parties as a child where we were sent home with Lisa Frank paraphernalia. Stickers, notepads, colorful pens, and temporary tattoos. Oh, those were the good days!

Okay, I am still one-hundred-percent all about the birthday party favors. But a wedding is a completely different affair. As in, we would be having 150-200 adult guests instead of 5-10 children. I wasn’t too keen on spending a lot of money on a favor that, from what I’ve heard, more often than not goes untouched and unappreciated. Yet as our day grew closer, I found myself genuinely wanting to offer our guests a token of love and our gratitude.

It wasn’t until I was searching Weddingbee for inspiration and came across Mrs. Sloth’s own favor post that I was convinced. (Thanks, Mrs. Sloth!)

And thus, with minimal money and minimal work, these were born:

photo by Bryan and Mae Photography

Wildflower seed packets! Too cute! Eco-friendly, easy, cheap, and requiring no assembly. I didn’t leave much time for tedious favor assembly, so that was key. After first stumbling upon the idea, I shared it with Mr. Bunting, Daddy Bunting, and Mother Bunting. They all thought it was great, especially since all our guests will have to do to enjoy is sprinkle the seeds on the ground. No digging, no planting, no hassles. We’re all lazy, it’s true.

Now wait a minute, Mrs. Bunting, that photo you posted clearly has more than just a seed packet. What’s the dealio? Well, Grandmother Bunting was a bit sad to hear we wouldn’t be having any of the traditional Jordan’s almonds, so I decided why not do both? Haha, so much for no assembly required! Mother Bunting and MOH Bunting helped me package all the favors in a single evening. We stuffed four almonds in a cello bag, sealed it with a sticker, used a glue dot to attach the almond bag to the seed packet, finished it with twine, and voila! (Tradition calls for five almonds, but our little baggies looked much more comfortable with only four.)

personal photo

The stickers were made by printing on 8.5×11 sticker stock. You know how you can buy mailing labels of varying size? You can also buy sheets of stock that are essentially a giant 8.5×11 sticker. I made mine by printing on those, then used my nifty 1-inch scalloped craft punch to punch those babies out. Easy-peasy, and no cutting machine required!

personal photo

I haven’t heard too much through the grapevine yet about how well-received the favors were, but I can tell you that the majority were gone at the end of the night. There were a handful or so that had the almonds missing with the seed packets left behind, but you really can’t please everyone so I wasn’t too hurt by these rejected pieces. Especially since I saved those leftovers and can now plant them wherever I please. More flowers for me, I say!

personal photo

For those who are interested in the idea, here was our cost breakdown-

• 200 seed packets: $70.00
• Baker’s twine: left-over from invites
• Stickers: Printed on 8.5×11 glossy sticker stock I already had, punched out with my Martha Stewart 1-inch Scalloped Circle Punch
• 200 (2.3 x 3.5″) cello bags: $11.14
• Glue dots runner (from Hobby Lobby): $3.00 after 40% off coupon
• Jordan almonds (from Gordan Food Service): $11.99 for 390 almonds (we bought two containers)

Total: $108.12 – 200 favors at $0.54 each. Not too bad!

Did you find a cost-effective way to have favors for your guests? What were they?