Some Cool DIY Wedding Favors:)

My wedding was this past November, in Grand Central Terminal in NYC. ----(I will post later about how we ended up somewhere like that.)-----It was fantabulous, might I mention; very small and to the point: I Do, damnit. But I had to have the details that all brides end up whimpering about, whether they are in denial about it or not. I was sooooo in denial, but in my head I was like Flowers, and Colors and Dresses, Oh My! --so I was more-less a passive-aggressive bridezilla; the friendly bitch. 

I settled on an 'aged' theme. Ok let me just say vintage; the word 'aged' when used in reference to a wedding theme sounds geriatric, like we ran over to the nearest nursing home and crashed Bingo hour. hehe. I settled on a VINTAGE theme, and since I'm a huge Dorothy Dandridge enthusiast, that's who I wanted to design my whole look after. I wanted the waves, the tight waist, the mid-calf dress, a birdcage veil---ooh!
Since my entire business is around hand-crafting events, you can imagine I had my work cut out for me. I had favors to make, invitations to craft, a haute couture dress to design and have tailor made, and various trips to NY with my girls to shop for and design their hairpieces. In THREE WEEKS. My first mission: favors. They are often the most time consuming, unless I'm hand-painting invitations.

The Harlem Renaissance was a tad before Dorothy's time, but I went for that feel on my favors. The original location was supposed to be The Apollo Theater, but the producers couldn't book it because silly old Dreamgirls was being filmed there and they had the place on lock. They even tried to fit us under the marquee, but due to construction yadayada----we ended up in Grand Central. Now that is one beautiful, historical place, and quite exclusive, so I was NOT complaining. (Although I DID have a notion to walk across the Apollo stage singing to my fiance in a theatrical wedding march....)---"I Dooooooo" (In the Yahoo tune. lol!)

So back to the favors: I wanted something practical that people would actually use. I find nothing appealing about little bars of soap that might break me out in hives (unless they are made from scratch in the kitchen, but I'll post on that later, too)---- glass figurines, or other useless favors, and where do they end up anyway besides chalky with mothballs in grandma's cupboard.....?

I decided on coasters; uber practical, and kind of sexy. Very 'Put Wet Things Here', you know? I gathered the following materials:

1.) Wall Tiles (Home Depot) Get a 100 tile box for lilke $12 to make 50 favors
2.) Cork Backing (Art Supply Store)
3) Modge Podge (Art Supply Store)
4.) Decorative paper
5) Ribbon and embellishments

All you have to do is slap some modge podge on the front of the tile, place on top of that a piece of decorative paper (a tad smaller than your tile) and smooth another layer of modge podge on top of that. THEN you cut a square piece of cork backing and peel off the tape, and put that on the back of the tile. Put two together, tie with ribbon, add a trinket that says something sweet, and BAM, homemade wedding favors for about $2.00 each if that.
Here's what mine looked like:

The only extra step I took was cutting out pictures of Harlem Renaissance greats like Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington and modge podging them on as well. Then I made a stamp that said 'K & V Est. 11.09.09' ----so people in the future would know where these things came from as they sat their beer and tea alike on top of them. You like?!