easy green favors
Things That Glow. The 'green' bride might love the romantic flicker of hundreds of tiny votives, yet feel uncomfortable with paraffin or beeswax candles.
A popular alternative is the soy candle, which has the advantage of burning cooler, and longer.
Soy votives can be bought at many places, but the hands-on bride will consider making them herself from an ultra-affordable block of soy wax.
Things That Grow. What a great fit for the green bride: something that lasts for years and years, while adding its bit of fresh oxygen to the air. If you want to give something living as a remambrance of your day, consider:
Bulb Wedding Favors. Tuck bulbs in an attractively textured bag (try unbleached muslin, hand-dyed jute or burlap, and stencil a monogram or picture of the flower in front).
Potted Flowers. Do you have a sixth sense for sales? Can you find clay pots or small containers inexpensively? Kill two birds with one stone by cultivating easy-to-grow flowers for your wedding: try poppies, morning glories, shasta daisies, marigolds, or mexican sunflowers. These gorgeous blooms will beautify your reception and make for irresistible favors. In the unlikely event you have any leftovers, your neighbors will love them.
Lucky Bamboo. For a eco-conscious, Oriental-style favor, you can buy a few in advance, and propogate a bunch more!
Seed Packet Wedding Favors: design and print your own labels.
Handmade Paper with embedded wildflower seeds: buy, or make your own.
Tree Seedling Favors. That wonderful, earth-friendly trend.
Tree seedlings can be bought for $3 each from the Arbor Day Foundation, which is a wonderful place for a favor budget to go. These two-year-old seedlings are practically and hardily packaged.
If you love the idea of seedlings but don't quite have the budget for $3 each, try tree seed kits instead. They're equally attractive and run a little cheaper. Here are several:
You can even make your own tree seed kits for rock-bottom prices by buying peat pellets in bulk and inserting tree seeds (both can be cheaply bought online). You'll need to be creative about the packaging, and be sure you get appropriate planting directions for your choice of tree (some must be planted in fall; some in spring) but this can bring your costs down to nearly nothing!
