These came in the mail the other day:

Yay! I actually got them from The Knot’s wedding shop when they had a sale. There’s no way I was paying $35 for 100 matchbooks, but I ended up getting 200 (100 in each color) for a total of $30 after a sale they had plus a coupon code. They came out really well, though I’d advise anyone thinking of doing it to do it well in advance of their wedding. They estimated they’d ship in 5 business days, but it took almost 15 business days before they were shipped out!

Either way, they’re a nice little detail to have for the reception. Are you doing any small favors or extras like these for your guests?

So I seem to spend more time lately swooning over pictures of butterfly wedding supplies online than I do actually buying them and doing crafts for my own wedding. But with 2010 almost here, I’m trying to get myself back in gear and start doing and not just dreaming.

BUT, before that happens, I found a TON of really great butterfly wedding favors on the site Daisy-Days.com and I wanted to share some of my favorite pieces of inspiration!

If you want a less DIY approach, I like this whole Butterfly Dreams Wedding collection. They have four popular colors and you can get all the accessories like the ring bearer pillow, flower girl basket, etc. If it gets down to the wire and I’m still missing some of these things, or haven’t found anything I really want to make, I might pop back over and pick some of these up.

Next up are some fantastic jewels you can use to dress up your bouquet. I’ve seen other brides do the little crystals in the flowers, but what about crystal butterflies? I love the idea of that extra sparkle in my flowers, and it will tie my look in with the rest of the theme.

I’m not going to do individual place cards on each table (just place cards at the door with their table number, not assigned seats), but if I was I would use these butterfly name cards. They are so freaking cute. The little pieces of glitter they have in the sample pictures on the site just add to the overall adorableness of that table!

Finally, the creme de la creme: butterfly candy favor bags. DREAMY SIGH. The candy buffet is happening, but I still need bags for people to take the candy home in (or I could just tell everyone on the invitations that pockets are required… lol). We could do them in our colors, with our names. Look how hot these are:

I can’t even handle it any more. I need to go lay down and recover, ha!

Has anyone else ever gone into wedding inspiration overload? How do you not end up buying/making every cute idea you see?

I’m a big fan of beach weddings. I know, I’m not having anything that even remotely resembles a beach wedding, but I adore them anyway. NEPA BIL and his wife were married a year and a half ago on the beach in North Carolina and it was a simple, yet breath-taking ceremony.

As per usual, I was browsing around for all things wedding and i came upon QualityShells.com. The best way I can describe them is a ready to go beach wedding in a box!  From bulk shells for decorating (think – filling a large hurricane vase with them as a base for a candle) or even large shells that could serve as the focal point of each centerpiece.

If my family could travel easily, I’d probably blow off a lot of this wedding stuff and just have everyone gather at the beach during sunset for a quick ceremony. Then we could sit at tables draped with seashells and candles and enjoy the night. As much as we all probably love combing the beach for shells, it would get pretty exhausting to gather enough shells for 20 or so tables.

What kind of ideas have you had for a beach-themed wedding? If you could just run off to the ocean and get married, would you?

We’ve been tossing around ideas on what we could give the boys as a thank you gift for being in the wedding party. Some of our favorite ideas are cigars & cigar holders, or flasks. The problems there are  that 1. they don’t all smoke cigars, and 2. half of them already have flasks.

Though I argue – can you ever have too many flasks?

All that aside, I know cufflink sets are a popular groomsmen gift. I don’t know if the boys would actually use them, yet, but I’ve been checking them all out and I’m starting to get attached. We could get half of the guys these Philadelphia Eagles Cufflinks:

Ok, these work for everyone but one guy. I don’t want him to be mismatched, so maybe we need to go in another direction. I’m sort of partial to these Homer Simpson Cufflinks, hehe:

So what do you think? Has anyone else given cufflinks as a gift? Did they love it?

I’m still checking out all kinds of favors and goodies, and I came across another great site I wanted to share: Westport Favors.

In particular, I’m stuck on the inventive wedding favor packaging they have on their sites. There are all kinds of little boxes, tags and bags for your favors, bridal shower, and bridal party gifts. LOOKIE:

That’s actually a box! I love it. As important as the gifts are, I also have a thing for having them wrapped up in pretty packages. Have you ever seen some favor packaging that just made you drool? How are you wrapping up your gifts?

I’m on the hunt for cute favors and accessories again, which let me to Sweet Memory Creations. There’s a lot of really cute stuff here so I wanted to highlight a few things that I’m drooooooling over.

The first thing that caught my eye are these cute little towel favors. I’ve started to see things like this pop up on some different websites and I like the functionality of this gift. Some guests could probably use it at the reception if they are messy, and then it could make a nice hand towel in your kitchen or bathroom. I think they are awesome, though they don’t really match our colors or themes. Maybe someone can use them since I’m not!

Next are the rubber duck bride and groom. I don’t know that they’d make good favors, but I want them for my bathtub. Actually, I think they could make really cute prizes for a bridal shower, or gifts for flower girls/ring bearers. Maybe you could use them for some sort of game? Write numbers on the bottom of a bunch and give out prizes? I don’t know exactly but I might actually try to find a way to use these!

Then finally, the motherload: butterfly theme favors. They are singing my song! There are favor boxes, place card holders, candle holders and confetti! I don’t want to go overboard on the butterflies, but this isn’t making it easy!

If you’re not following the Broke-Ass Bride, you had best get over there right now… cause she’s doing…

Dana at Broke-Ass Bride is giving away SWEET prizes all week long. I’ve entered about half of them (geographic limitations are all that hold me back from some) and I’m anticipating the results with baited breath. Who wouldn’t love free favors or a custom map of your wedding location? Get your butts over there and sign up now!!

I got an email yesterday confirming my order from Lush is just about to ship! If you haven’t heard of Lush, they sell amazing handmade cosmetics and soaps. This time around I stocked up on some bath bombs, mostly because I know they won’t melt during shipping.

I want to include things I love in my wedding (hey, that’s how I got this far, isn’t it?) and I looooove Lush. Just imagine how elegant it would be to have little slices of Honey I Washed the Kids soap wrapped up at each place setting as a wedding favor! Maybe I’d even do baskets full of bubble bars at the reception so people can grab them on their way home at the end of the day!

There’s just one problem with using Lush as a wedding favor. They cost a pretty penny! It’s well worth it if you want to treat yourself, but it’s gonna be difficult to treat 100 of my friends and family.

Outside of making them gifts for my wedding party and part of my wedding day beauty routine, I think I’ll need to find a soap alternative if I want to use them as favors. The Wedding Favor Bar has some really cute Popsicle Soap Wedding Favors that are much closer to my price range. Check it out:

Does anyone else know of some cute, unique soap wedding favors? If you’ve done them, I’d love to see how they turned out!

I’m taking a break from our regularly scheduled ring posts to share a contest I just found. I’ve had wedding favor fever recently, and I’m shopping around for the best deals. PWPOnline.com is giving away $50 worth of free favors if you tell them how you’d make your own DIY favor! All the details of the wedding favor contest are on their blog. I wish I’d found this sooner, it looks like it ends on 5/31/09.

I like the idea of DIYing my own candle or food favors. Now I’m going to have to really brainstorm! Once this is over, I’ll be sure to share  my entry with everyone here.