When it was my turn to get married, I wanted give-aways that were not usually seen in display shelves of party shops. We wanted something unique, but we didn’t want to spend a lot of money.
So my then fiancé and I decided to make our own souvenirs. About three months before the wedding, we shopped around for one-of-a-kind items that we could just decorate and put our names on. It took a number of experiments to get the look that we wanted, but the outcome was beautiful.
In one of the department stores, we found star-shaped bottles about 4 inches tall, with an opening on one side. They were on sale because the original trimmings already looked old. We thought that we could just take out all its decors and put in our own design. We bought everything that was available, which numbered to 100. It was actually enough for our number of guests.
When we took the bottles home, we took off the trimmings and poured out the contents. There was nothing that we could do with them anyway, so we just discarded them.
The question next was what to fill the bottle with. I first thought of plastic beads that were colored red and gold, which was our color motif for the wedding. It will be topped with a cut up piece of red tulle, fastened together with a red ribbon, and attached with our “thank you” card that was tied to the ribbon with a golden string. It turned out that the plastic beads would cost a lot because each bottle would contain at least half a pack of beads. So instead we looked for a cheaper and bulkier alternative. What we found are potpourri that were colored red and yellow.
Here’s what I did:
1. Glue one red bead on a piece of yellow potpourri. Do the reverse on the red piece of potpourri. Let dry.
2. Fill the bottle with a mixture of the red and yellow potpourri that don’t have beads on them.
3. Then carefully insert the potpourri with beads on the sides of the glass that can be seen.
4. Cover the opening with a wide clear tape or plastic to prevent molds and mildew from developing on the potpourri. (The potpourri inside the bottle will not serve as air freshener anyway. It will just serve decorative purposes.)
5. Cut a piece of red tulle, just enough to cover the opening and fall down the sides of the bottle’s mouth.
6. Secure with a small rubber band.
7. Tie a red ribbon with gold glitters on top of the rubber band to cover it. Make a bow.
8. Attach a prepared “thank you” card on the bow using a gold string.
The give-away is done. Red and gold flowers may also be glued near the red bow for accent.
It took a lot of work on my part but our guests loved it. They said it was unique and ingenious.
