A Denots Bride is a Happy Bride!

What is she talking about, you may ask?

Well, let's just say I concentrate better as a Denots bride. Example of concentration taking place: I got my escort cards done today. They're pretty delicious looking, if I may say so. Also, I FINALLY was able to get more itty bitty purple bows at Michaels. The last THREE times I went, they didn't have any. The sales clerks could literally see my dismay when I left Michaels empty-handed. They're so used to seeing me buy something! They kinda look like this, but they have a little pearl on them.

With a new pack of bows, I could finish gluing them to the tops of the little lilac favor boxes. Now I just need to print out one more sheet of favor labels and cut them to size so I can also glue them to the front centers of the favor boxes. This was another of my DIY projects because I realized that the only way I was going to be able to pass out favors for my guests was to buy stuff real cheap and make my own. Granted, we only have 65 or fewer guests coming, I think (hope) guests think it's a cute gester of creativity.

The favors are just lilac boxes that came flat. Kevin ordered them off of Oriental Trading Company. You know who I'm talking about, ladies! Buy one product off the website, and you're getting monthly catalogs every month for the rest of your life. They were $3.99 for 24 boxes. We ordered three boxes of 24. The total was $15.99 and that included shipping! I got them in the mail fairly quickly and it took me less than half an hour to fold 72 boxes into actual boxes.

Then I decided how I was gonna decorate them. I wanted a thin piece of purple ribbobn to go around the width of the box, and some kind of accent on top. I decided on the itty bitty purple bows to adorn the tops of the boxes. Amazingly, they were very comparable to the color of the ribbon I chose. I hot glued the ribbon on and hot glued the itty bitty purple bows on the top. The bows were $3.99 for 60, so we got two bags of those. Right now, our favor budget was looking pretty sweet!

So I decided that we would order those little M & M's with our names and our wedding date in purple and lilac. We haven't ordered them yet because we want them to be super fresh when they are put in the boxes. But I got a coupon for ordering online so it's gonna be awesome because they will be cheaper with the online discount. I thought to myself that I didn't want to just fill the favor boxes with the M & M's because I was afraid that they would melt with all the candles at the tables. (I know, I think of everything!) So, Kevin and I went to Walmart and got some little baking cups that would fit in the 2'' x 2'' sized favor boxes. Perfect! And they were made by Wilton, which is a very reliable brand of baking stuff!

I put the little cups in the bottoms of each of the favor boxes and that way the M & M's will be sitting in the paper cups all night. Whoo! The final step was to design and print a favor label for the boxes. I opened up a blank Word document and I just drew a text box and gave it a purple border. I typed our name and wedding date in the same font that I used for our invitations and escort cards.

I found a little rose on Google and copy and pasted it onto the square label I had created. This little rose has become the motif of the whole wedding. The stationery has roses, the flowers are purple roses, our programs and address labels have the rose on them. It's a great rose.