Our DIY Semi-Favors

Our wedding favors are not really "favors" in the traditional sense.  I'm actually not 100% sure how I'm going to work out the placement of them and whether everyone will receive one or just the ladies (this will make sense in a minute when I get to what and how I actually made.)

My original idea was to buy little, glass bud vases and fill them with dried flowers with a little tag tied around the neck of the vase. Unfortunately, that was going to get expensive, fast, so it was nixed.

Remember how much I love lavender? I went ahead and ordered 4 bunches of dried lavender stems from Save-On-Crafts. I also ordered a large bundle of raffia, which i like to describe as a cross between a ribbon and a cornhusk.  Very rustic chic.  Once the materials arrived on my doorstep, it was time to get my craft on...

First, I had to get a puncher to make my little tags.  I used a 25%-off coupon at Micheal's to buy a Martha Stewart Craft Punch as well as a 1/8" hole puncher.   I used the same Scriptina font that I used for my signs to print out our names and our wedding date on some leftover brown and yellow paper and then punched away.

Here are all my materials, including a sheet of pre-punched tags...

(Personal Photo)

Once all the tags were punched out and holed up, I took about 4-5 stalks of lavender out of the big bundle and trimmed the ends to make them even...

(Personal Photo)

The next step took a bit of practice to get it right with only two hands but all I did was tie a piece of raffia around the lavender stems and then tie the favor tag on at the end, knotting one end of the raffia so the tag would stay on. Here's a bunch of them done...

(Personal Photo)

After about 10 or so, I had the brilliant idea of punching two holes in the favor tags and looping the raffia through before tying it to the lavender. This was an easier method of tying and the lavender seemed more securely tied this way.  Take a look...

(Personal Photo)

I've got about 25 done, now here's where I need to make a decision.  Do I make these for all 175 guests or just the female population? I think it would look beautiful to to have one of these at every place setting but at the same time, I can't really picture some of Mr Trail Mix's friends taking these home as a keepsake from our wedding. If I made them for just the ladies, I would just alternate each place setting with one. Plus, making only about 85 of these versus 175 sounds a lot more appealing. But if I've got the supplies, maybe I should just suck it up and make one for everyone, regardless of if they are taken home or not...Hmmmmm, decisions, decisions...

Also, here's the budget breakdown of this project:

4 Bunches Dried Lavender (90 Stems Each): $8.50 per 1 bundle

Natural Raffia 32" Braid: $5.99

Martha Stewart Craft Punch: Originally $8.99 but I got it for about $6.00 with my 25% off coupon

1/8 Hole Punch: Originally $4.99 but again, with 25% off, it was about $3.75

Paper: Leftover from a pack bought for a grand total of .99 cents so I'm disregarding the cost of this...

Total (including shipping and tax): About $60.00 or .35 cents per favor...Not a bad price but I may need to order another bundle or two of lavender if I decide to make one for everyone, which would push the price up to about .50 cents per favor...

A pretty good deal for a sweet little reminder of our wedding, eh? I think they will look lovely as part of our tablescape and hopefully most of the guests will take theirs home with them...

So what's your opinion on making one for each person at our wedding versus just the female guests? Is this favor enough or should I add some candy or something to go with it?