DIY Lite: Wedding Favor Edition

I finally have professional photos back, so recaps are coming! Before I get started, I want to share my last-minute DIYS that we completed before the wedding. I am the kind of bride that will pin the crap out of some Pinterest ideas, but when it comes time for me to execute anything, I nearly always get it wrong somehow...which is really a bummer considering the fact that I'm a middle school teacher and should probably be a lot craftier than I am.

If only it were this easy. Via Crafty Manolo

For our wedding favors, Mr. Blue Moon and I pretty much knew we would like to make something ourselves so that we could (a) save money, and (b) personalize our favors. We started off with some pretty ambitious ideas...handmade candles or our own jams, perhaps? 

Via Ruffled

Via ClementineWeddings on Etsy

We quickly realized that we are most definitely not skilled enough or patient enough for projects like these. Eventually, we settled on two ideas: birdseed feeders for our guests to hang at home, and s'more kits for our guests to enjoy either at the wedding reception or at home. The feeders are a nod to my granny, who passed in February 2015 and loved watching birds from her backyard every morning, and the s'mores are just a snack that we really love when we're camping or enjoying a summer bonfire with friends.

For my birdseed feeders, I primarily referenced a how-to guide I found on The American Wedding, but after making just a few, they were easy enough for us to basically autopilot. 

The recipe calls for gelatin and birdseed, but we opted for vegan gelatin found on Amazon so that all our guests could take a favor guilt-free. You basically prepare your gelatin or substitute by dissolving it in boiling water, and then pour it over about a cup of birdseed, and mix. Then we used a spoon to pack the birdseed mixture into cookie cutter hearts, but you can use any shape. We found our cookie cutters at Dollar Tree, so this ended up being a super cheap project. The gelatin and birdseed will hold their form after you remove the cookie cutter, and take about a day to dry. You have to form a hole somewhere in your feeder while it's still wet to put twine or ribbon through in order to hang it. We started by cutting pieces off of plastic straws to stick through the birdseed mixture, but eventually realized that poking a hole with a chopstick and then moving on worked just as well. 

Here's our finished products, displayed from lit branches at our wedding reception. They were apparently a big hit with our guests, who enjoyed watching the new wildlife that visited their yards and balconies after hanging these babies up. We started making these about three weeks before the wedding, fell off the wagon midway through, and spent the night before the wedding with Mama Blue, Bridesmaid E, and our flower girl's mother making the rest. I think it was worth it to give our guests something from the heart, and I think about my grandmother every time I look at mine hanging outside the window. 

The s'mores were a lot easier because there is really no creating involved. Instead, it is just a matter of assembling the necessary materials and finding a block of time to put it all together. This is a project I completed with Blue Mom the night before the wedding, and the morning of the wedding (I know, I know, it was a little hectic). 

We chose clear bags, lilac ribbon to match my bridesmaids' dresses, and a custom label that I threw together in a Word document and printed on white stickers from Target. We used the same graphic from our invitations and programs to give everything a cohesive look. We also needed everything for a s'more, so two graham crackers per guest, a mini-chocolate bar, and two marshmallows. We packed these bags, tied the top with ribbon, stuck the label on, and knocked out 100 of them in about three hours total. Since Mr. Blue Moon and I did want everyone to be able to indulge in a s'more, we did do vegetarian (marshmallows contain gelatin), vegan, and gluten-free versions, and found the special food products for those dietary needs at Whole Foods. Overall, this project was beyond easy and people of all ages loved roasting their marshmallows and making s'mores, fancy wedding clothes and all. 

The favors were staged on people's individual dinner plates, like this, and then we set marshmallow skewers (which we found at a craft store) outside next to the s'more station on the patio.

Video still from Stratosphere Videography

I thought it would be stressful to finish all our favors the night before the wedding, but it ended up being a great bonding experience with family and friends. How many DIY projects will you incorporate into your wedding day? 

All photos by Amilia Photography unless otherwise noted.