Scrabble has always been one of our favorite board games. It was a game that we loved to play when Dean and I first became friends, it played a role when Dean first asked me out, and it even came up again when Dean asked me to marry him. I knew that I wanted Scrabble to show up in our wedding somehow, but in a way that was sweet and meaningful.

In the end, I came up with the idea of making Scrabble tile magnet favors. Each favor was a four-letter word related to love (hope, kiss, true, wish, etc.), and our favor tags read, “Some parting words of love – db.”

To make our favors, I first scoured the internet for bulk Scrabble tiles. I ended up buying a thousand Scrabble tiles on Ebay, and then I was faced with the not-so-fun task of sorting all the letters and taking inventory of exactly how many of each letter we had.

what 1000 Scrabble tiles look like

sorted tiles

After we knew how many of each letter we had, Dean, my sister, and I set to work coming up with as many 4-letter word combinations as we could (related to love!). This might seem kind of tedious and totally not fun, but it was like a giant game of Scrabble for us! Here are some of the words we came up with:

4-letter words (the good kind!)

After we figured out enough words, I ordered Neodymium rare earth magnetic online (known for their super strength) and hot glued each magnet to a Scrabble tile. The magnets were held in metal slide-top tins that I bought in bulk online. I cut out pieces of patterned paper and used spray adhesive to attach them to the tops of the tins. (Make sure you adequately cover every inch of your work surface and floor…my table and floors were sticky for weeks! Not fun.)

I then sanded the edges of the paper to make them appear old and vintage-looking. The favor tags, which we letterpressed along with our other stationery, were attached to the tins with lavender ribbon. The whole process took a while, but with the help of several close friends, we were able to get them done quickly and efficiently. We even hid two special words in our favors – “word” and “suns” that stood for things that Dean and I love. “Word” referred to my love for word games and “suns” referred to Dean’s love for the Phoenix Suns. Our two guests who received these two favors were gifted a Scrabble game and mini basketball. It was our “wish” that all of our guests would be able to take a little piece of us home with them!