How Much Should You Be Spending on homeware?

[Bev Eyman]

Flowers, plants and seeds as wedding favours are becoming more and more popular with brides these days. They make really cheap wedding favours and give a personal touch to wedding, particularly if you've grown and nurtured the plants yourself.

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Green or garden wedding favours also work really well if you're having a country theme, romantic theme or garden party. For the guest, they're a useful present and if the gift is living then the memory of your day will live on too. And best of all they're great for the environment!

Here's some ideas to get you started:

o Plants seem to be very popular at the moment. You can nurture these yourself or buy them from a garden centre. The cheapest way to do it is buy seeds and nurture them yourself. Once the seedlings are big enough, place them into plastic pots preserved flowers and you've got the basis of your gift. You'll need time and lots of prior planning to do this.

o You could take cuttings from your garden (or one of your relatives - ask first!). Again, just plant the cuttings in a plastic pot and you're done. Easy and very cheap wedding favours.

o You could also use seeds from your garden. Simply harvest the seeds from pollinated flowers, dry them out and then package them for giving as favours at your wedding. They'll make a nice surprise for the guest when they decide to grow them.

o If you're not green fingered, then you could just buy seed packets. You can pick these up easily at any garden centre, superstore. You could then wrap a ribbon round the packet or leave it as is. You can get personalised seed packets as well, so your guests can remember what seeds they planted and why they planted them.

o Dried flowers make a great gift. You could harvest flowers from the garden, dry them out and then pop them in a favour bag. If you or a friend or relative have a garden then this is a great cheap wedding favour. Rose petals, jasmine and lavender all make great dried flowers and naturally smell beautiful. The guest can then use the favours as clothes fresheners.

o An alternative is to use pot pouri. Already dried and scented, this is a quick way to create the same affect as above.

The finishing touches

With all these gifts, a great way to finish them off is to include a personal message. You could use luggage ties or cut paper tags yourself. Write a personal message for each guest and attach it to the favour. You can easily do this buy using a hole punch to make a hole and threading a small piece of ribbon through the hole. Then tie the ribbon to the bag, packet or pot. Secure with a bow or a glue dot.

To disguise plastic pots, simply use a piece a ribbon or wrap paper round the pot. You can then secure this with a glue dot as well.

Voila! Lots of ideas to get you started.

Also known as 'English lavender' and 'French lavender', lavender's fragrance is so mesmerizing and ubiquitous that it has captivated the entire world. Lavender gets its name from the Latin word 'lavare', meaning 'to wash', most likely since it was often used as a scent in baths to help cleanse the body and spirit. Its botanical name is 'Lavandula angustifolia', and it is widely used throughout the globe owing to its ability to cure various illnesses.

Lavender plants are found in the mountainous areas of the Mediterranean, owing to the sunny and stony habitat. Today, it grows throughout the south of Europe, the United States and Australia. Lavender is a greatly branched petite shrub that grows up to a height of about 60 centimeters. Its wide rootstock bears branches with upright, rod-like, green, leafy shoots. The aromatic fragrance of lavender comes from the blue-violet flowers in the herb. These flowers are arranged in a spiral formation of about 6 to 10 blossoms.

This herb is a natural remedy for several ailments ranging from insomnia and depression to anxiety and mood instability. Various parts of the lavender plant serve different purposes. The fresh flowers give out essential lavender oil as an extract which is used for medicinal treatment. In order to combat restlessness, pillows are filled with dried lavender flowers. This is due to the fact that lavender slows down the movement of the nervous system, thereby improving sleep quality, promoting relaxation, and lifting the mood of people who suffer from sleep disorders. Lavender is also used to treat headaches, exhaustion and nervous disorders. Also, massaging the scalp with essential lavender oils is said to result in significant hair growth.

With the help of essential oils and dried flowers, commercial preparations are produced which are available in different forms such as bath gels, infusions, lotions, tinctures, extracts, teas, aromatherapy oil, soaps and whole dried flowers.