My Lemon & Blue Italian Ceramic Tile Themed Engagement Party Favors (Part 1)

I got engaged recently (yay!) while in Dubai a little over a month ago, and a few of my friends decided to put together an engagement dinner with all my girlfriends (at least the ones that could attend) to celebrate this life event. This, in turn, gave me yet another excuse to get crafty and think of some creative yet thoughtful engagement party favor ideas to give out.

I wanted to do something cutesy yet affordable since I had initially 18 ladies confirmed to come to my dinner. But only 14 ended up coming so I did end up with a few extra favors! Ever since the engagement, I have been going back and forth with Michael on what it is I want to do in terms of a wedding and ceremony.

Despite planning and attending events, I actually am not too keen on having a wedding ceremony and would rather just have something simple like a Justice of the Peace then a getaway vacation to celebrate after (no venue, no ceremony). But I’m torn (and still am!) on what I should do. I did eventually decide on what theme I’d want my wedding to be should I ever decide to have one. and that is an Italian lemon and blue tile theme. Here’s some of my inspiration for reference:

While I do like the blue ceramic look, I don’t like that deep of a blue color. I’m more looking for a Greek or lighter blue (like that depicted in the last image above).

So my thoughts on a potential wedding theme and engagement party favors, was to include some or all of the following:

• Lemons (obviously!)
• A small bouquet of flowers (preferably containing blue hydrangeas)
• Single alcoholic beverage
• A thoughtful gift handmade by me!
• A scarf – because it’s a staple in every Italian wardrobe
• A basket or container of some sort to put it all together
• Ribbon(s)

Looking at this list, I knew it was going to add up really quickly in terms of cost. I tried to stick to under $25 per person, because with at most 18 people attending, I was looking at a nearly $500 total spend. But I’m generous when it comes to gift giving so the girl math side of this told me it would make for a great thoughtful gift for everyone, LOL!

When it comes to sticking to a budget and buying in bulk, I’ve been relying more and more on Shein! If I’m on a quick deadline, I opt for Shein over other affordable sites like Aliexpress or the more recent one, Temu. Shein is great because you’re guaranteed to get your purchases usually within a week or two.

Getting Inspiration – searching for the perfect baskets

Depending on my basket choice, this would decide how I could decorate and fill it with goodies.

There are so many options to choose from but I ended up going with a woven basket with two long handles.

Flower Woven Baskets: Buy here

Similar Products
Left: Straw Woven Round Basket For Home Storage And Display
Right: Vintage Woven Wicker Basket Storage Handbag, Gift Packaging, Rattan Weaving Box Storage Case

And when all 18 baskets finally arrived, this is what they actually looked like in person. They’re flimsy, slightly different and not as great of quality as I had envisioned, but for 5 bucks a piece, I can’t really complain. I was also surprised with how big they were. I thought they might have been small. But given the size, I knew I could fit a mini champagne bottle and something else and still have room.

The thing with these baskets is that I did not really like the “Flower” wooden engraving glued onto them. But later I’ll go over how I hid them since ripping them off would have ruined the baskets.

The Main Attraction – The Lemons!

Ok, so next came the lemons – the focal point of my engagement party favor idea! I searched Shein for both lemons on branches and related that were provided to me. I came across these really adorable napkin holders. I just knew I had to do something with these.

4 Pcs Lemon Decor Napkin Rings: Buy here

But if you’re not into napkin rings, try some of these other lemon-related ideas (such as branches, wall hanging floral decor, and other more simpler types of ring holders):

SIMILAR PRODUCTS:
LEFT: 4pcs/set Lemon Decor Napkin Holder Ring For Home
CENTER: Hanging Modern Green Wall Decoration Lemon branches
RIGHT: Lemon Fruit, 71cm Long, With 6 Fruits, Not Fading And Bendable

They were the perfect size, and my creative juices were telling me that I can possibly wrap some goodies in a scarf and close up the scarf with these napkin rings.

Here’s how they looked in person. These came in a pack of 4. My one issue with these – well two – were that many of them arrived broken. Some of the lemons were coming apart from the twine rings because they were glued together improperly. This was fine since I had some E6000 Glue which I used to fix all of the broken lemon napkin rings, and reinforced the intact ones with some extra glue just in case. My other minor gripe was that the leaves came squished. I had to use some elbow grease to pull apart the thick wiring so that the leaves spread out.

I laid these down on my breakfast table and set them aside for now. The glue needed time to dry anyway, so on to my next step!

Can’t go wrong with Ribbons

I’ve worked with many different styles and textures of ribbons before so I sort of had in mind what I was looking for. In terms of color, I wanted to stick to yellows, whites, and blues. As for style, I was torn between simple, mono-colored ribbon and patterned ribbon. So I chose both, haha!

After some extensive browsing on Amazon, I picked out two different one-colored ribbon in burlap texture. I like the flexibility and look of burlap because it looks expensive and elegant, yet it is easy to work with and can be easily shaped into a bow.

I picked out a blue & white floral printed, wired edge ribbon which I thought would be great for wrapping around the basket (to try to hide some of the basket imperfections and also to hide that “FLOWER” stamp. I couldn’t decide on yellow or white, so I purchased both colors in burlap. I planned on making front bows with these ribbons:

LEFT: 6 Rolls of 30 Yards Blue Chinoiserie Wired Edge, Retro Blue White Peony Rustic Decorative Ribbon
CENTER: White Burlap Natural Jute Burlap 2.5 inch Roll Jute Ribbon
RIGHT: Yellow Burlap 2.5 inch Natural Jute Burlap Roll Jute Craft Ribbon

Throw in some Goodies!

Lastly, can’t forget the goodies that go into these baskets!

I kept it simple and not super heavy. The baskets themselves aren’t super sturdy so I didn’t want to put too much weight into them. I added a small bottle of Amour Sparkling Brut in each of my girlfriend’s baskets. I also gave each one a blueberry cheesecake scented candle which I made with a small glass jar & glass lid and some decorative felt!

I also added in lemon themed disposable straws to go with the champagne bottles! I thought that they paired perfectly!

And lastly, to wrap this all up, I purchased blue floral printed scarfs to put everything in and wrap them into the baskets, and a small bouquet of blue peony and hydrangea flowers. Here’s where you can find the flower bouquets and the scarves:

LEFT: Peony Flowers Silk Hydrangea Bouquet Wedding Decoration DIY Wreath Material
RIGHT: Simple Printed Bandana/Scarf/Belt Accessory For Women, Spring

So now that I’ve got all the materials and design theme all laid out, I’ll go over how I put everything together in my next post! Stay tuned for part 2!

You can read Part 2 of my Engagement Party Favor Ideas post here!

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