Made some progress today with the bombonieres, or what is more commonly known locally as favours. Although not common in solemnization ceremonies, we thought it would be sweet to give people a gift to thank them for the attendance. Not that we're spending a bomb on them - on the contrary, but I think our wedding is gearing towards as little wastage as possible. How many times have you brought one of those silly salt-and-pepper shakers home and dumped them in a corner (or in the bin)? And I still have a fruitcake-in-a-box rotting away after several months (I think. Could easily have been a year.)

We're making invites that can be re-used as bookmarks, and bombonieres that are fun - a spruced up bottle of seeds! Initially we wanted to use love-in-a-puff, but I only have 300 seeds which amounts to 6 per person - it'll only look silly - and it's a pretty uncommon plant so buying them will cost a bomb. Yanxian got hold of a hundred of these nice glass bottles, and she and my mom spent the evening tying pretty blue bows on them. I'm in charge of doing the seed mix, which will be mixed with vermiculite. Apart from looking pretty, the vermiculite will be soaked first in a concoction of vitamins etc so they can act as slow-release fertilisers. Right now I'm thinking of a whole list of stuff to mix, including balsam, love-in-a-puff, cosmos, zinnia, marigold, sunflower and a few surprises. Will be fun for people to grow them and see what comes up!