Wedding Planning|Wedding Planning & Wedding Advice

Get Crafty!

Add some activities to a bridal shower to make it more fun. If you give everyone something to do with their hands you’ll have less awkward small talk and more fun overall – particularly if your guest list is made up of a bunch of people who won’t know each other very well. These ideas could work at a bachelorette party too, depending on the tone of the event.

Ring Fling

Provide an assortment of materials and let guests craft their own engagement ring. Offer prizes for the most outrageous, most realistic, etc. Raid your craft supplies – if you’re not a big craft nerd like me, you can also go to a dollar store or craft store and pick up: metallic-colored pipe cleaners, large beads, ribbons, glitter glue, and whatever else you see that will work.

Check out this impressive looking ring from craftbits.com (visit the site for a tutorial).

Garter Fun

Everyone makes their own garter and then make all the guests wear it out on the stagette, if you like! Or everyone could make one and then the bride picks which one she will actually wear at the wedding.There’s a tutorial at applebride.com. Another option, buy simple and inexpensive garters for every guest and then ask them to decorate them instead. This is a quick and easy activity that could start off a fun evening. Garters should include the guests name or role in the wedding and the decorations will serve as an icebreaker when everyone is mingling at the party. It’s also a cheeky way to identify everyone in the group if you are heading downtown for the second half of the evening.

A plain white garter at koyalwholesale.com is only $2.99 (while on sale). Ideas for decorations: feathers, flowers, felt hearts (or other shapes), beads, gems, lace, ribbons, charms, etc. Also consider buying some fabric pens or self-applicating paint.

The garter pictured below is from mypromstyle.com.

Tampon Brides

Each guest makes a bride from a tampon for a fun craft activity that promotes lots of laughter and female bonding. Provide the following materials: tampons, glue gun, paint, pipe cleaners, yarn, embroidery thread, cardboard, glitter glue, beads, etc. This craft was inspired by the infamous Tampon Angel – I was pleasantly suprised to find a whole website dedicated to tampon crafts (tamponcrafts.com- their angel is pictured below).

Here are some great ideas for wedding favors that you can make yourself! A great way to set your wedding apart from the rest – when you make your own favors they can be truly unique and customized to your character as a wedding couple. You can also save a lot of money!

Sweet Deals

Check online for stores that sell wholesale chocolate and buy your candy favors in bulk. For example, you can get a 6 pound box of delicious almond bark at candywarehouse.com. Available in white, dark, or milk chocolate – if you need more than one box, mix it up so that you can offer a selection to each guest.

You can buy favor bags and boxes online as well, or check out your local dollar store, craft store, or discount department store for sales. Sandscripts.com offers a wide variety of fabric bags, gift bags, and gift boxes. You can also order customized ribbon for your event for a very reasonable price.

Cookie Cutter Wedding

Another idea – invite a few of your friends over for a cookie crafternoon. Bake the cookies beforehand if possible, and then get together to decorate and package the goods with your friend (ask them to bring over some bottles of wine to get the creative juices really flowing). Check out sweetopia for instructions for these beautiful butterfly cookies, as well as lots of general tips and links to other online resources for cookie decoration.

If you’re not confident about your cookie skills – bake and decorate simple cookies instead and then focus on presentation, instead.

Or, buy cookie cutters in bulk, attach your favorite recipe and your wedding date with a beautiful ribbon, and you’re done (no baking required!). Tip: buy the cookie cutters from an online cookie cutter store rather than a specialty wedding store for better prices! Check out cookiecutter.com for lots of options: flowers for a spring wedding, hearts, brides and grooms, etc.