wedding wednesday: bridesmaids gifts & favors

Heather is back with some more great budget-friendly wedding advice. Wedding season is here so take notes!

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Our second Wedding Wednesday post features ways to save money on bridesmaid’s gifts and favors. Here’s a few ideas we have cooked up.

• Buy something on sale or when there’s a discount code offered online. For instance, Vera Bradley bags make a great gift but sometimes you can find discount codes online for such. (Here's one of the last posts we did about a Vera sale, we'll keep you posted every time we find another one!)

• Get a Bath & Body Works candle or body gel when they have their semi-annual sale, so it is a lot less than usual, or when you have coupons like these to get your best value.

image via Fragrant Moments

• A lot of times you can find trendy, cheap earrings at Forever 21 that make for a fun gift!

Examples: necklace = $5.80 earrings = $5.80

• Consider personalized stationary through VistaPrint- if you catch them at the right time, you’ll get it for free + shipping!

• Check out these DIY- wine stoppers- these would be such great gifts for girls!!

Favors seem to be one of the easiest things to do yourself. Many people do the bubbles that get blown at you as you leave thhe reception. I know my mom, sister and I spent a few hours going to Walmart picking up mass mini bubbles, buying little pearls and white ribbon and tying them all together. After said countless hours, my DH (then fiancé at the time) left them all at our new condo, so we walked out to waving hands and smiling faces. You know us, something unique had to happen. Haha!

image via we heart it

• At Jessica’s wedding, they had purchased small little to-go boxes that they had stamped with a pretty monogram stamp- the caterer put a slice of extra cake in each box and then stacked them on a table on the way out the door for guests to grab. It was a great way to get rid of all the extra cake, and only cost them around $50!

• Thanks to Melinda for emailing this tip! My wedding was almost 6 years ago and we made (actually my husband made) Cd's to give out as favors to our wedding guests. Since we had all the songs, or were able to get them from friends for free, the only cost was the cd's themselves. We got a great deal at Best Buy and were able to do the favors for under $100 for over 100 guests (including bridal party). Everyone talked about how much they loved the favor. The first song was our first dance. Jon even made the stickers to put on the cds with pictures of us from our 5 year relationship and wrote a message about us for everyone to read to put inside.

• You can also consider a candy bar. A friend of Jessica’s purchased several jars from Hobby Lobby with the 40% off coupon, filled them up with candy matching the colors of the wedding, and placed little snack bags for guests to fill up on their way out. Check this post out for more how to's.

image via The Bride and Groom

• Idea from Real Simple: “The perfect pair” soap set- $1.75 each. (they also have personalized gum, chapstick, candles, etc on this site for less than $2 each- not a bad price!)

image via beau coup

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Such great ideas! Ross and I were married in the fall and decided to use the season to our advantage. For favors, we used carmel apples made with lady finger apples (miniature apples). Then made thank you tags and had them displayed in a great tray. Our guest loved this original and yet yummy take home treat. 

We also used sparklers for our "sending off" and wanted to incorporate a gift. Simple solution=matches. We both play golf and the reception was at the Pensacola Country Club so it was only fitting to "have the perfect match". I ordered the matches, apple tags, and napkins all at the same website which came out to be super cheap. Oh and side note, when ordering napkins use your monogram or names only. Most likely you will have hundreds of these things left over and with only a monogram you can use them for years to come. By punching a hole through the matches we used ribbon to tie onto the sparklers and placed in moss. 

There are thousands of ideas out there but remember, the most important thing is to make your wedding personal. Its your day so let "you" shine. Guests will notice. 

Sorry, I just couldn't help it...my husband looks so dreamy. My best day.