what would you want to see as a wedding favor

foxyforce

I loved the idea of doing the plantable seed packets or bird seed things that they could put outside when they got home but I didnt have money for them at the time..You could also do a candy or popcorn bar and let them pick and choose the candy and things and the amount they want to bring.Really all depends on your budget.

our budget is next to nothing

also, it is a fall wedding! don't know if that will help

everyone's suggestions are so great, keep em coming

foxyforce

We put personalized mini hershey's on the table and did mini photo frames which doubled as a seating card.

the frame idea is very cute...

foxyforce

The favors from friends/family weddings I've ended up enjoying/using the most were:

- Personalized Chico Bag with a logo of their initials ("M&L"). Super handy and doesn't look like a wedding favor.
- Personalized Spice mix in a jar
- Chai tea in a little tin (I liked it so much I asked the bride where to order more)

The key is for the favor to be sufficiently useful that some people are willing to take more than one home to offset any folks who left theirs behind. I have three M&L bags, for example :-)

i hear this, my fiance and i received a ceramic serving tray (nicest favor i have ever seen), and we use it all the time.

aSunflower

Friends of ours gave out pine trees! Yup, actually trees, they were about a foot tall. Some guest could not plant them and gave them to others. We had just built a house with not one plant or tree. We went home with four trees and the mother of the bride gave us another four that were leftover. Well, 14 years later those trees are over eight feet tall.

kr1stadee

I made my own chocolate suckers, they were a HUGE hit!!

I'm a sucker for personalized books of matches. We just went haywire looking for a match so I could light a candle.. none in the house!!

The 2nd last wedding I was at, the favors were personalized shot glasses with the bride and groom's favorite jelly beans in it. Very cute!

Syderelli

my colors were black, green and white we got bamboo plants from Ikea, they were like $1 a piece there.. and included a little notecard talking about how bamboo is considered lucky.. or something.. (haha I didn't really see what the cards said... my family pretty much planned my wedding..)

foxyforce

do you guys think it is in bad taste to give out shot glasses to people in recovery? we have a couple that will be attending, and id love to do shot glasses but i feel awkward about giving this to them...

LeRevCooper

do you guys think it is in bad taste to give out shot glasses to people in recovery? we have a couple that will be attending, and id love to do shot glasses but i feel awkward about giving this to them...

What about coffee mugs instead of shot glasses?

auntiemsgr8

My cousin and her husband gave out single pot sized ground coffee packs and put their wedding info on the side. Used simple return address sized labels for the info.

I'm not sure about anything alcohol related unless they have been recovering for many years. I think then it would be safe and if they felt uneasy they could give it to another couple or leave it.

All of these ideas are great. Something to keep in mind if I ever have to plan a wedding.

daffodilsoup

I can't say I've ever kept a favor from a wedding or really remembered it all that much. Maybe stick with something edible, but if you're on a limited budget, nothing says you have to do favors.

_VoV

Candy or tiny bottles of Woodbridge chardonnay

bebreli

I think candy is the way to go also. We did little boxes that looked like presents on each place setting that said Thank You and it was full of mints and chocolates. They got eaten up while everyone was drinking before dinner and some took them home.. these are also great for little ones to sink their teeth in.

Laura_Suzie

A gold jet ski.

walkdmc

I've been to a lot of weddings and the only favors I like are food, usually chocolates and those mini bottles of wine. You don't even need anything fancy, maybe M&Ms in your color scheme.

This is going to sound really mean but once, the bride made some candle holder with fake flowers glued to a mini white bird cage-thing. That favor became an inside joke and it was mailed around from house to house for special occasions/holidays. Don't craft anything, IMO.

RaeLB

Charity donations are my preference. My sis did one for a tree planting organization.

The best tangible wedding favour I have seen were 4 little jars filled with different spices (curry powder, turmeric, chilli peppers and something else... can't remember). They had little labels on them with cute & silly names revolving around love.

MzBug

I helped my girlfriend do her wedding on a very slim budget. We spent days making her favors. They were little scented potpourri balls tied with ribbbons in the wedding colors. We cut hundreds of little squares of white netted lace and dumped a bit of the potpourri in the middle and tied them up in bows. We used rose scented with pink and purple ribons for the gals and pine scented with black and white ribbons for the guys. She also had small dishes of custom colored butter mints and mixed nuts on every table and along the bar for people to munch on during the reception with a DJ. She didn't have a dinner, but did serve coffee, tea, soft drinks and champagne with the cake.

My other friends have done things like small flowering plants, small decorated Christmas trees and embossed pencils and pen sets. I think the most expensive favor was etched glass champagne flutes.

schell81

I just got married in July and we did little cute boxes full of jelly beans and a fortune cookie. I wish that we had just bought a scratch and win lottery ticket for each person. I would have been much easier and not much more money at all

chachylove

we are having a vintage wedding on a boat at sunset so in a suit case we are gonna put wayfarers sunglasses with a sign saying. don get blinded by our love....kinda cheesy but i think cute. and they can use them that day and any other time

chachylove

you can buy them cheap at wholesale cost

neverstray

I was a pro wedding photographer for 7 years, still do it sometimes. The best I ever saw was flip flops. It was required when people walked into the reception that they take off their shoes, and put on a pair of flip flops. They had pink ones for the girls and blue ones for the boys. It was awesome.

Another good one was a nice wine stopper.

coliema

I'm having a vintage wedding in a massive beautiful barn I don't have the wedding favors picked out yet, but I'm working on it, I'm trying to narrow down all the options I have picked.

All the people on this thread have had good ideas!

Expialidojess

If you're making them pay for their own drinks, cash bar coupons. Hardly anyone actually keeps wedding favors anyway.

Bentley2718

I recently went to a wedding where the favor was a charity donation, nothing to take home, just a card at the table letting everyone know. I LOVE that.
No one needs junk to take home and throw in a drawer

^^ This. Personally I'd much rather see the money go to a good cause than to some trinket that I will most likely throw out. The only wedding item I've ever kept was a tiny framed picture of the bride and groom, and that is in a box somewhere mostly because I feel guilty throwing out a picture of someone. If you feel that you must do something, a single piece of relatively nice chocolate seems nice to me. Nothing super fancy, just a simple piece of chocolate in a pretty wrapper.

Bentley2718

I loved the idea of doing the plantable seed packets or bird seed things that they could put outside when they got home but I didnt have money for them at the time..You could also do a candy or popcorn bar and let them pick and choose the candy and things and the amount they want to bring.Really all depends on your budget.

our budget is next to nothing

also, it is a fall wedding! don't know if that will help

everyone's suggestions are so great, keep em coming

If your budget is tight, skip it or go with the simple piece of *nice* chocolate/candy. Seriously, I'd be relieved to sit down at a wedding and not see some stupid trinket I don't need or want that I feel obligated to take home and deal with. Even "useful" things are useful for everyone. I might not be the person to take wedding advice from though, as my entire wedding cost roughly $500.

Peaches516

My sister gave out Christmas tree ornaments for her wedding favor. Another wedding I went to had little picture frames (as in, not bigger than 2x4 inches, and used them as place cards. Brilliant - those two are the only wedding favors that I really liked. The others were not as memorable.

3dogsrunning

Wedding favors are not required, so if budget is tight skip them.
In my opinion, edible is almost always the way to go and generally tend to be well received. I would hesitate to go with something they would take home as often people don't take/use it. To me, its just a waste. With food stuff, its easy to find some use for it Although friends of ours did the beer cosy thing and I loved it.

As for donations, I have no problem at all with them. However, if you ask on wedding etiquette boards, the consensus tends to be its a dont. Just an FYI if you are concerned about that. Some people are, some aren't and it may depend on your social circle. My only suggestion on charities is to choose carefully since some can be controversial.

valerieschram

I went to a wedding once where the couple had small bottles of wine with their own label on it. They created and bottled it themselves--not sure where they did this. I can see brewing your own beer too. It was memorable and not a trinket to junk up your house.

FitGma63

We did shot glasses with our names and date, filled with custom M&Ms in our colors with our names/love sayings imprinted on them. We ended up with some leftover, but overall our friends loved them!