Wedding on a budget – Favors and decorations

There is no shortage of amazingly clever ideas for wedding favors and wedding decorations. It was no easy task picking my favorites, because Oh my gosh – they were all my favorites! – but I picked a few that I really loved to showcase for you.

I’ve always been a huge fan of floral pomanders hanging from a wrought iron hook amongst the wedding guests. Heart, Hands, House has a great tutorial on how to make these pretty pomanders with little more than a Styrofoam ball, a few glue sticks and streamer paper. Who knew that such easily obtained craft supplies could make such elegant looking decor? I have to admit that I tried to follow her tutorial – which is wonderfully written – but could not get my roses to look as nice as hers. Since needlework is really my talent, I decided to try sewing the crepe paper as if I were sewing a fabric flower and it worked! 

After cutting the 24 inches of crepe paper, fold it in half long ways and baste the raw edge. My sewing machine tension was set so that the paper gathered for me as I was basting it. 

I then rolled, gathered and puckered the flower as the tutorial instructs. I’ve mentioned before, I lack patience in a big way so I decided to use hot glue. I’ll admit that I do have a few blisters on the tips of my fingers but quickly learned how to hold the flower so that I didn’t continue to burn myself.

I made my pomander into a table centerpiece by perching it on a vase. It was time consuming, but the result is amazing!

 In mom’s “What to do with knitted pears?” post, she thought her knitted pears would work well at a bridal shower labeled “The Perfect Pear” or maybe “The Perfect Pair” would have been even more appropriate. Sadly, I don’t have any of mom’s knitted pears but I do agree with her, only I’d use it as favors for the wedding itself. Great idea, thanks mom! ♥

Fortune cookies with notes customized to the occasion are such a cute idea for wedding favors. This idea sent me on a mission to find the easiest recipe for fortune cookies. Just look at them – they can’t be easy to make! Well, I was wrong – they are totally easy to make with a crochet hook! I found a pattern for an Amigurumi Fortune Cookie Cat Toy from Lion Brand Yarns. I don’t have any cats, but I do have wedding favors to make and that’s precisely what I did. I did modify the pattern a little bit since I wanted to use a fortune made from real paper – I will add my modifications below.  My 12 year old daughter, Jaydin, joined in on the fun and found some cute sayings online such as “…and they lived happily ever after” and “Memories are made from moments like these”. We printed these sayings in Word and cut out the little strips to stuff into our fortune cookies. I love the way they turned out!

To modify:

Fold the cookie in half to make a crescent shape.

Single crochet through both layers until there is about 1/2″ opening.

At this point, rather than going through all of the layers, start single crocheting in only the top layer then move to the edge and back of the opening, single crocheting in each stitch until you reach the opposite side where you ended your joining stitches.

Slip stitch in last stitch and finish off.

Weave in yarn.

You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep
because reality is finally better than your dreams.
~ Dr. Seuss~