DIY How to Make Fall Wedding Favors

Fall weddings may not use the soft pastels of spring weddings, or the bold abundance of bright colors you find in summer weddings, but autumn weddings have a beautiful color palette of their own. Taking as their inspiration the changing seasons, fall weddings often incorporate yellows, oranges, reds, and shades of brown and other neutral colors. These make striking decorations, but how do you make wedding favors that follow a fall wedding theme?

Here are three edible wedding favor ideas for fall weddings. All of these are budget-friendly, easy to make yourself, and add a beautiful autumn look to your fall-themed wedding decorations.

We’ll start with the homemade seed packets. Seed packets have been popular wedding favors for several years now, but these packets have a twist–they contain chocolate-covered sunflower seeds! Here’s what you need to make these seed packet wedding favors:

Start by measuring and cutting your paper into strips. You want them to be twice as long as they are tall. My paper was 12 inches square, so I was able to get four 4×8-inch strips from each piece of paper, with a bit left over. This yielded finished packets that were about the size of a playing card, and held almost a quarter-cup of sunflower seeds.

Time to fold! The first step is lay the paper, pattern-side down, and fold the two lengthwise edges inward about a quarter-inch. Next, fold just one of the widthwise ends in about a half-inch. This will be the top of your packet. Finally, fold the paper in half, bringing the bottom end so that it meets under the fold of the top of the packet. Confused yet? This will all make sense soon.

Now we just need to make a few cuts. Unfold your paper, and snip the paper 1/4-inch in from the edges where you folded the packet in half. Now you have small flaps. Next snip the top where indicated by the dotted lines–you’re trimming off the edges, and giving it a nice triangular shape like the top of an envelope.

For the bottom half of your packet, fold the flaps inward, then fold the packet up to the top. Apply glue to the flaps of the top half, then fold them around the bottom half so they seal the paper together and form an envelope.

Let the glue dry, then fill your packet with chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, making sure to leave room at the top so it can be sealed.

Apply glue to the top flap, then fold it over and press it securely to seal it. Once dry, punch two holes in the top and thread ribbons through them. You can tie them in a bow, or just cross them in back to form a nice loop.

You now have a beautiful fall wedding favor! If you don’t want to make the packets yourself, there are many companies online that sell blank seed packets to customize, however, it’s hard to beat the savings of doing it yourself. Making your own autumn wedding favors also gives you the chance to completely customize the design and colors of your favors.

Still not sure you want to commit to such a big project? How about an easier idea? It doesn’t get much simpler than rock candy! Rock candy has come back in style, thanks in part to its popularity in candy buffets. Sparkling rock candy is so eye-catching on its own, you really don’t need to do much to turn rock candy into a finished wedding favor.
I used lemon yellow rock candy and orange-flavored rock candy, and ordered them unwrapped so that I could package them together. They can also be ordered wrapped, though, if you want to skip this step and make your wedding favors even easier.

I suggest adding a ribbon and a simple decoration, like these monogram tags bearing the bride and groom’s initials. A small note wishing your guests “a sweet evening” would also be very nice. Packaging the rock candy and tying the ribbon takes practically no time, but the finished favors look stunning laid out on the table.

Finally, here’s a wedding favor for the chocoholics among us. Mold small fall leaves (or pumpkins, or whatever else is appropriate for your wedding) and package a few of them with other chocolates in a gift bag. In this case, I’m using colored white chocolate to make some autumn leaf candies in red, yellow, orange, and brown. Simply spoon different colors of chocolate into the molds, and gently swirl them together, then refrigerate them until firm.

Once the chocolate is set, turn them out of the molds and package a few leaves with other chocolate candies. In this case, I’m using the addicting chocolate-covered peanuts from Oh Nuts. Mixing them in with another purchased candy means you have fewer chocolates to make yourself, and it also makes them “pop” in the package against the darker candies.

Finish your bags off with a ribbon and a bright fall leaf! To really tie it together, use some of the same leaves to decorate your centerpieces or buffet tables.
If you’re looking for more fall wedding inspiration, browse these Oh Nuts selections:

All text and images (c) Elizabeth LaBau