Party Favors!

Party favors are an important element of weddings, birthdays, baby-showers and many other parties. Favors are often overlooked until the last minute because there are many other elements that one tends to think of when planning a party. But favors make the party your own and provide special keepsakes for you guests that they can treasure.

There are a lot of expensive ways to do party favors (just search online), however, most hosts have centered their budget around the venue, food, flowers and other elements of their party. So one great way to ensure that your party favors don't get ignored and are still affordable is to make your own.

Kristie McDaniel-Price has some great tips on how to make your Party Favors. She emphasizes planning your favors around a theme that is suitable to you. She asks you think about what is unique about the people hosting the event (or the event itself), what message would you like to convey to your guests, does the favor follow the theme of your event, and finally do you want your guests to keep the favor or just eat it.

So thinking along these lines, if you are doing a wedding and going to Hawaii for your honeymoon you could choose Hawaiian themed favors. Once you have a theme it's easy to start brainstorming ways to show that off. For example for a Hawaiian theme you could use silk banana leaves and tropical flower candles from your local craft stores such as Michael's or JoAnn's. If you were doing a baby shower you could use recycled baby bottles (with different colored tops), clean them out and print the date, name of the parents to be and so forth. There are a number of easy and cheap customized party favors that you can do with a color printer (or go to your local copy shop).

Focusing on these ideas should help you design and make your own affordable party favors.