Kate's Cure for the Common Cuisine: Wedding Gifts: Bachelorette Favors!

I have been lagging on food posts because all of my creative energy the past two months have been spent on wedding planning and work event planning. It has left little room to stay creative in the kitchen but I thought I'd post about a prominent and favorite part of the planning process right now - the gift giving! I wanted to share some of the fun things in the world of gifts for shower hosts, bridesmaids, the groom and more.

To start off this series of posts over the next few months, we have bachelorette party favors. My bachelorette party was this past weekend and my MOH's planned an incredible weekend in the Texas Wine Country! Two of the attendees are fellow hobby-bloggers and did their own recaps so I'll let their work over at Kitten and Pitbulls and Average Insanity give you a little peak into our fun. It was more special than I could have ever dreamed and I feel very blessed to have each of those girls in my life!

In preparation for the weekend, I wanted to create a fun little favor to thank my guests for coming and spending their weekend with me. I had a lot of fun brainstorming different options and this box of goodies was born. I was really lucky to find some great deals to help me do this on a budget, while still being able to make the most out of it for each girl. Each box consisted of a bottle of wine with personalized wine label, a personalized wine glass, a wine yoke, and a sleep mask. The grand total for this? Roughly $8.11 a person. HOW you may ask? Let's break it down...

Personalized wine glasses:

I bought wine glasses from IKEA and personalized each glass with paint pens. I did their initial with polka dots and then wrote "Fill it Up, Drink it Down, Repeat" on the bottom.

Wine Labels and Bottle:

I found a website that I could customize and order wine labels for just $0.99 each. I made a commemorative wine label and was so excited to reveal my tagline, "You Had Me at Merlot!"

I asked my MOHs to find out from each girl if they preferred Red or White wine and gave it to them accordingly. For the wine, thank heavens for friends in high places! I was able to work with a wine distributor who I've developed a great working relationship with. I told her what I was looking to do and asked if she would be able to sell me two cases at whole sale cost. She did me one better and GAVE me the bottles of wine! For her, it was promotion. For me, it was awesome.

I soaked off the front but left the back label with brand information on it so it didn't defeat her purpose of giving them to me. I then took the commemorative wine label and affixed one to each bottle. If you are going to soak bottles, the best method that worked for me was to fill a bathtub or kitchen sink with hot water to a shallow level. You only need enough to cover the label, not to submerge it. Squeeze a little bit of dish soap in, and place the wine bottles in, label-side down. Leave for several hours and use a razor blade to help remove the label and residue. My first soak was 4-5 hours, then I just decided to do them overnight and that was easier.

Sleep Masks:

I mean, who doesn't love some serious shut eye after lots of wine consumption? I spent some time googling and comparing, finally finding a fabulous site to bulk order these sleep masks. I got a fun hot pink color and I think they came in handy. I know I was able to use one on the way home when my lack of sleep caught up to me.

The Wine Yoke:

This was an impulse purchase, I had already finalized everything but I was in World Market and saw the Wine Yoke. I sat there and had a left-brain/right brain conversation to myself for about 3 minutes. I decided to leave it to fate and if I could find them online for under $3/each, I would order them. Sure enough, I did, AND they were pink which is only right for a girls bachelorette weekend! Order placed, shipped, delivered.

The Packaging:

Working in events, you bulk order a lot of stuff and know where to get some good wholesale prices for things such as crinkle paper. I was able to go to a wholesale store by our office to get a box of the crinkle to use as padding in the boxes and add some flare. The Duck brand corrugated boxes were ordered from Amazon.com and were easy to assemble!

Others: