A favor idea for a Tuscan wine country themed wedding.....

by Traci
(Arkansas)

You wouldn't think of Arkansas as "wine country", but we have a perfect climate for growing wine grapes, and have many wineries in central and northern Arkansas.

The "wine mentality" spills over into the rural and residential areas, where you will often find grapevines growing unencumbered in the yards of the residents. My friend has a yard thick with Muscadine grape vines, so for my Tuscan wine themed wedding, we dug up small vines from her yard a few days before the wedding and wrapped the root balls in burlap, tied off with raffia dyed in the colors of my wedding, and computer printed tags with the species and care instructions.

I thought of using brown paper bags instead of burlap to save even more money, but I loved the texture of the burlap; and, it was on sale. :-)

We also brought more burlap to the table decor and added grapevines into the floral arrangements, which worked so nicely with the white and silver place settings.

It cost me $13.70 and just a few hours of a day to make 100 of these! I had originally wanted to give each guest a bottle of wine with a custom label, but when I added up the costs, it proved to be way too much.

The FREE vines looked beautiful, added color and foliage to the table, and brought a rich, organic look to the table settings in a way that a bottle of wine would not have done.

Because I chose the vines over the wine, I completely rethought my table settings and table decor, also, and I wound up saving more money there, too!

The "oohs" and "aahs" from my guests were confirmation that my choice was a good one, and I had more budget left to spend on other things!