Tuesday, January 31, 2012

A Whole Lotto Lotto Favors

You guys, I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to think up a favor for our guests. Like a serious amount of time that could have probably been spent doing other things that were more important. In hindsight, I had no reason to stress about the favors. Our photobooth photos could have been our favor, as well as our Sweets table, but I just really wanted something fun at each seat to show our guests how much we appreciated having them with us!

Since I thought so long about it, I feel like it's only fair to share some of those options as well as the big winner. The runners up were. . .

Hershey's Kisses in spring time colors to match our wedding colors which were baby blue and sage green and chocolate (get it?!) brown (but obviously I'd eat all the pink ones to keep them in our color scheme).

Hershey's Pastel Kisses via Oriental Trading (Great prices there!)

Tazo Tea in Berry Bloom White or Tazo Zen Green Tea. Funny story, these are my two favorite teas EVER. I drink them constantly (as well as Tazo Passion Tea; those are my top three), and thought it was serendipitous that they matched our wedding colors. Yes, it's true, I almost handed out tea bags as favors. That is something I would love, but not everybody drinks tea.
... And then I wanted mugs! Custom printed mugs for our guests would have been awesome (back when I researched, Bargain Mugs had the best prices FYI). The only reason I didn't do mugs was I'd have to pay a lot of extra money in shipping to make up for the super short turn around time we needed (I know, I was totally last minute on this one) But that was also very close runner up. They would have been amazing.

As you can see, a LOT of indecisiveness here. Well, I finally stumbled upon this image, and - be still my gambling loving heart - I knew that this would be the favor for our wedding.

I know, right?! I instantly started Googling for some more inspiration photos, and found out that there's even been talk about lotto favors on the Weddingbee Boards! And Jellyfish made some too!

Google told me that most brides had been using Glassine Envelopes (like int he above photo) or lottery ticket holders.
Lotto Ticket Holders via Oriental Trading

Well. . . I didn't want either of these options. I didn't want to have to order and wait for envelopes, and I didn't like the look of the paper holders.

I went to Hobby Lobby, looked around, and came back with jewelry making bags. They were buy one get one free so I got 200 small ziplock-type bags for $2.59.
Personal Photo

I tried to find scratch offs in our wedding colors, but after a few stops to different stores/ Gas Stations, I decided that the dark blue on the Money Pot was close enough! It was easy enough, all we did was put the ticket and a penny into each bag.

Personal Photo
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Remember our wedding invitations?
Personal Photo

Well, I designed labels to match. On one side they said, "A Whole Lotto Love" (Hardy har har, other options included 'thanks a lotto' and 'if winning ticket, return to bride & groom'), and the other side had our names the same way our invites did, and also said "Thanks for sharing our special day."

Personal Photo

Personal Photo
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I also put color cardstock, cut to size, in the back of each baggie. It covered up the ugly back of the ticket, and gave the bags a little more weight. I almost didn't do that (because of the extra work), but it made a big difference, so I would really recommend this if you're using baggies for a project like this.

I was super happy with how this project turned out. . . As was my grandpa who won $7! Success!

I was so relieved to find a (relative inexpensive) favor that I loved, especially after stressing about it for so long. In the middle of the favor hunt? How's it going?

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