For the Bridal Bazaar one of our budget concsious ideas was to have a DIY wedding favor.  Here’s what I came up with!

After surveying countless options I decided to go with the Martha Stewart Candy Boxes, which I purchased at Michaels.  But I only decided to use that option after I found the perfect chocolates from Cost Plus World Market!

The Martha Stewart set comes with the box, the oval label and foam spacers for between the label and box.

To have the boxes match the decor of the table setup, I purchased a sheer gold ribbon as well as a green ribbon and orange ribbon.  My plan was to have half the boxes accented in the green and the other half accented with the orange.  Both the accent colors were a bit bold so I actually layered the gold ribbon over the accent ribbon…I think it looked great!

The very first thing I did was print the labels.  This was time consuming because I wanted all of them to be identical and centered.  Martha’s folks thought ahead and included test sheets that you can print until you get the formatting just right!  However, their printing utilities are not all that great.  The online version was difficult and the Microsoft Word download needed a lot of tweaking!  I got it just right though!  You can download my template here!  You may need to make adjustments for your own printer.

After the printing was done, I forged ahead and made my boxes!

I used the double sided tape to secure the ribbons and label as I layered them.  I placed a square of tape on the box, then put the accent ribbon down and wrapped it around until the ends of the ribbon met.  I made sure the piece of tape was big enough for both end of the ribbon to stick to it.

I placed another piece of tape over the ribbon ends, then layered the gold ribbon over in the same manner.

I then put a few pieces of tape on the back of the oval (only in the center though) and then placed that on the box…voila!  I chose not to use the spacers they included, but you can if you want.

Here is what the boxes would cost if you decided to do them for your wedding…click here to download the PDF. I make no guarantees about how much this project will actually cost you, but I figured I could at least share what it would have cost me!

I worked the booth for the San Diego Chapter of the Association of Bridal Consultants this past Sunday, and it was great!  So many San Diego brides and grooms came out to see what the San Diego Wedding Community has to offer.  I chatted with so many happy couples, their friends and their parents and I wish every one of you the best as you make your plans and say your I-Dos!

Here’s a peek at what our booth setup had to offer!

We had some budget friendly ideas in mind as we designed this lovely table.  I think one of the biggest concepts was to really talk to the florist you want to hire.  Tell them what you can spend, what your colors are and then have faith in your florist to deliver a beautiful product!  The florist we used was able to deliver this centerpiece to us for only $25.00 using that exact idea!  She had carte blanche to pick the flowers that were in season and lovely but not terribly expensive.

I was so excited about how great everything turned out!  And stay tuned for details on the favors!!  They are a DIY project and I’ll have all the details here!