Handmade Wedding Favor Ideas: 10 Small Gifts to Make

A favor does not have to be elaborate to be kept. What guests tend to hold on to is something small, useful or pretty that was clearly made by a person rather than ordered by the case.

These ten handmade wedding favor ideas are grouped by material, and each one notes the effort involved and roughly how far ahead it can be made. None of them involve cooking: the one edible option is purchased, wrapped sweets that you simply dress up.

How to Choose a Favor You Can Finish

Multiply everything by your count before you commit. A favor that takes ten minutes is pleasant to make twenty times and a real project at 120. Make one complete sample, time it, and then decide.

Fabric and Ribbon Favors

1. Dried lavender sachets. Spoon purchased dried lavender into a small cotton pouch and tie it with ribbon. Effort: low. The pouches can be made months ahead; fill them in the last week or two so the scent is fresh. The guide to fabric and paper favor bags has a flat pouch sized for this.

2. Ribbon bookmarks. Cut a 10 in (25 cm) length of grosgrain or velvet ribbon about 1 in (2.5 cm) wide, fold 1/2 in (13 mm) under at each end and glue it down, and finish one end with a small tassel, a bead or a cardstock tab. Effort: low. Make them months ahead and store flat.

3. Hand-stamped fabric coasters. Cut 4 in (10 cm) squares of heavy cotton or felt with pinking shears. Stamp a simple repeat with fabric paint, using a carved eraser or the end of a cork as the stamp. Effort: medium. Follow the paint label for drying and heat-setting, and make them a month or more ahead.

Paper Favors

4. Seed packets in hand-folded envelopes. Fold a 5 in (13 cm) square of text-weight paper into a small envelope: lay it as a diamond, fold the two side corners to overlap in the middle, glue them, fold the bottom corner up and glue it, and leave the top as a flap. Add a spoonful of purchased flower seeds and seal. Effort: low to medium. Fold the envelopes months ahead, and write the plant name and sowing season on each.

5. Small paper flower pins. Glue one small rolled paper rose and a paper leaf to a cardstock circle, then glue a brooch pin to the back, leaving the pin closed whenever it is handed out. Effort: medium to high in quantity. They keep for months in a box, so they are a good project to start early and finish a few at a time.

6. Matchbook-style notepads. Cut a cardstock cover 3 x 6 1/2 in (7.5 x 16.5 cm). Score it 1/2 in from one short end and 3 1/2 in (9 cm) from the same end. Stack ten sheets of 3 x 2 3/4 in (7.5 x 7 cm) paper inside the short fold, staple through the flap, then fold the long cover down and tuck it under the flap. Effort: medium. Make them months ahead.

Natural and Living Favors

7. Mini succulent or herb pots. Wrap a 2 in (5 cm) nursery pot in a strip of kraft paper cut about 1 in taller than the pot, secure the overlap with double-sided tape and tie twine around it. Effort: low per pot, but the plants need care. Wrap the pots in the final two or three days, water lightly well before wrapping, and keep them in light until they are set out.

8. Tied bundles of cinnamon sticks. Bundle three or four sticks and bind them with twine wound several times around the middle, finished with a knot and a tiny sprig of dried greenery. Effort: low. These are scented keepsakes for a drawer or shelf, not food, so say so on the tag. Make them a few weeks ahead and store in a closed box.

Wrapped and Molded Favors

9. A tag-and-ribbon wrap for purchased sweets. Buy individually wrapped sweets and leave them in their wrappers. Stack two or three, wrap a paper band around them, tie ribbon crosswise like a parcel and add a tag. Effort: low. Cut the bands and tags weeks ahead and assemble in the last few days.

10. Air-dry clay ornaments. Roll air-dry clay to about 1/4 in (6 mm) thick, press in a pattern with a piece of lace or a leaf, and cut rounds with a small glass. Pierce a hanging hole with a drinking straw. Dry flat for roughly one to three days, turning once, then thread with ribbon. Effort: medium. Make them a month or more ahead; the ornaments are decorative only and should be kept dry.

Packaging That Makes a Small Gift Look Finished

Presentation does at least half the work. A plain sachet with a lettered tag and a neat bow reads as a gift; the same sachet loose in a basket does not.

• Small, hard or loose items sit well in a box. The tutorial for cardstock favor boxes covers a pillow box and a small cube.
• Anything with a ribbon or twine tie can carry a tag. Hand-cut favor tags take little time in batches and hold your own wording.
• A favor that needs explaining, such as seeds or a clay ornament, benefits from a tiny folded note. The base method in handmade wedding cards scales down to a 2 in card.

Matching the Season and Your Palette

Seed packets and herb pots suit spring and summer. Cinnamon bundles and clay ornaments feel right in fall and winter, when an ornament can go straight onto a tree. Lavender sachets, bookmarks and notepads work in any month.

Color does the rest. Keep the favor itself neutral, in kraft, ivory or natural clay, and bring in your palette through the ribbon and the tag. That way one roll of ribbon ties the favors to everything else on the table.

How Many to Make and How to Set Them Out

Decide first whether there is one favor per guest or one per couple or household, since that can nearly halve the count. Plants and coasters are natural shared favors; bookmarks and sachets are easy to give individually. Either way, add about 10 percent as spares.

Favors can sit at each place setting, where a tag can double as the place card, or together on one table in trays, shallow crates or baskets lined with fabric.