Wedding DIY-Part III: Washi Tape Coasters

One thing that I really wanted to do for our wedding was to show our guests how much of an honor it was that they chose to celebrate our wedding with us.  To show this appreciation, I decided it was important to me to make favors for our guests.  I wanted them to be handmade, lasting, and meaningful.  I threw around a few ideas, but ultimately landed on making Washi tape coasters.  I used a variety of tutorials from other blogs to help, but ultimately it was pretty straightforward.

Materials:

• White ceramic tiles from Menards (found here)-I bought about 200 because I wanted a set of 2 for each family: $0.14 each, $32 total
• Washi tape (navy blue damask, dark purple, vertical blue lace, and silver)-2 rolls each @ about $3 per roll: $24
• Mod Podge(medium-sized container, gloss finish): about $7
• Self-adhesive felt pads (the smallest size): about $15 for enough for 200 coasters

Total cost for 200 coasters:$78 (That’s less than 50 cents per coaster!)

I had a lot of help from my bridesmaids, mom (and mom-in-law), sister-in-law, and even my brothers, dad, and Kevin for a bit  The first step was to create different patterns on the coasters using the Washi tape.  This is where the creativity of my helpers really impressed me.  I had a few ideas for patterns, but these went largely unused because the ladies had fantastic ideas about how to arrange the tape.  Then, we covered with a layer of Mod Podge.  I have to admit, if I did it all over again, I probably would have sealed it with some kind of spray to make it more waterproof.  Hindsight is 20/20, right?  The last step was to stick the felt circles on the bottom of the coasters.  We put these on so we wouldn’t have any unhappy wedding guests with scratched tables. I’ve also seen tutorials that use felt squares or cork.  Any of these would work as long as there is some buffer between the rough bottom of the tile and whatever surface the coaster is placed on.  And with that, I had a beautiful way of saying thank you to our guests for less than 50 cents per guest.

For more wedding DIY, check out my posts on centerpieces and place cards and place card holders.