Anyone ever heard of wedding favors stolen?

I don’t really know that taking multiple free gifts, for free, is considered stealing. Rude? Yes. A thief? Not so much. They were purchased to be given away to guests and a guest took them, I guess I don’t see why this is the end of the world.

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Agree. If they are favors for guests to guests to take, it's not stealing. Also most favors get left behind, even edibles. But someone must have liked yours. Consider it a blessing since many favors go straight in the trash and the couple wastes their money.

Almost every wedding I have ever anywhere from half to most of all favors are left behind. It is equally common for someone to ask, do you mind if we take extra favors and be told , help yourselves, as it is for a fer people to scarf them up at the end. People see them as giveaways, not a small gift from you that you might want back if unwanted. what makes we nuts is people thinkig they can pick up and take flower arrangements, and the borrowed $50 to 200 vase they are it, or large memorabelia or displays, never being given away. First time I was at a wedding where a caterer stopped a group people, 6-7, with hundreds in flowers but thousands in crystal vases, I was stunned they just shrugged and said, it is well known, centerpieces are for giveaway, no problem by 40ish women. Yeah, a candle and a table number held up by a cardboard fairy, okay. But Stuff from Waterford Crystal, where is this idea coming from? I am sorry you were caught unawares, and people likely had no idea you were not giving them all away.

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Yes it is for them to take, say distributed among all the guests. But we just didn't expect one person to take an entire bag of 20... which is what the venue people said happened.. oh yeah and they seemed to say they were "taking it for us", which does make it sound like they did feel a bit self conscious for taking such a big bag of favors.

Hi Tracey! It is very odd for sure! Did the staff provide any description of the person? I wonder if a guest did have the intention of sending them to you or your mom and perhaps left them in their hotel room and they got lost from there. I could see an innocent spouse thinking it was garbage and the other spouse being like “that were the leftover favors!!”.
It’s been 6 months since our wedding and I’m still uncovering wedding things 🤦🏻‍♀️

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No my mom never thought of asking for a description right then and there because she was busy with other things and also she just thought someone would contact us later. And by the time we found out it was after the honeymoon so some time had passed, and we didn't think it important enough to trouble the venue people with. No one actually stayed overnight because most were local and we also finished up pretty early. Although it is possible that they were intending to send it to us but forgot.

It sounds like a guest helped themselves to the leftover favors. Is it that big of a deal? There’s literally nothing you can do about it, wedding is done and the chocolates are probably eaten. Move on.

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Well we never did anything nor plan to do anything to find out who did it. It's not a big deal. I just wondered if this was a common occurrence with weddings.

View Quoted Comment Gotcha - I would’ve assumed the same like your mom. Hope the mystery is solved just for curiosity sake - makes me curious for you!

Reminds me of a friend of a friend who had a 25 person wedding at their house. The card box was stolen, but the couple just assumed someone must have tucked it away in the house and would find it eventually. Well months later the bride was vacuuming under the guest bed and found all their cards and envelopes opened! They were shocked and couldn’t believe someone so close could do such a thing.

A year later, bride found all cash returned in their mailbox (no name, no explanation). To this day they don’t know who it was. They figure someone must have been in a very desperate situation. 🤔

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Haha I do find it curious too but I recon we will never know.

Our situation is very different from the stolen card box! That sounds pretty traumatic. I'm glad they got everything back.

I'm not sure we want the chocolates back a year down the track haha, might not be all that nice to eat then. Although it would be nice to have one of the favour boxes back as a keepsake.

You'd be surprised at how uncouth some people are...like the people who smuggle food from a buffet in their purse, take salt/pepper shakers from restaurants, etc. My mom is a chocoholic and I could seriously see her taking extra chocolate favors (especially Sees truffles) off the guest tables at a wedding. Look at the bright side, someone appreciated the favors while most people don't.

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This almost never happens. Same for stolen cards/gifts which very rarely happens as well.

Whatever their original intention, once they had one bite of such a treat as those chocolates, could they stop? 🙂 The point of favors is to spread a little happiness, and that you surely did. 🙃

It’s also quite possibly an honest mix-up. Maybe the person took it to the wrong car, and then those people assumed someone wanted them to have extras? Or the box was set down on the way to your car and someone else threw it out?
I ended up with like 40 koozies from a friend’s wedding once (I still don’t know how!), it didn’t even occur to me they might want them back since they were favors anyway?

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I think guests taking extra favors when there are clearly leftovers is probably pretty common. And why not? They were purchased for guests for this event. So, guests at the event took them. I would reframe your "our favors were stolen" language and move on, if only for your own peace of mind.

In the years I worked as a venue coordinator I never saw a guest help themselves quite that much, but I have seen some come by at the end of the night and clear a table or two's worth of leftover favors when it was candy/snack food. I had one bride do succulents and she offered all that was left (25) to us at the venue, and even then I think we only took 5-10.

I would say this level of brazenness is unusual, but also not totally out of line. If I really like the favor and saw a ton bunched up I might help myself to a few more (not all, but I'm somewhat decent). Some people may not have that filter.

Also, second to whoever talked about people walking out with centerpieces. I've had to stop several guests from walking out with the rented centerpieces! Like, come on guys, get permission first.

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We don't mind anyone taking a few extras, but one person took off with all 20 + remaining. Ok granted, the word "theft" might be a bit strong but it's actually the word used by our remaining family members who didn't get a favor. It just felt to them like they were stolen from them. They were really keen to have the chocolates because they were part of the original day and part of the experience. Also, the wedding wasn't really over. Family members were tidying other parts of the venue in preparation for departure and the venue people were clearing the tables but there were plenty of people still mingling and tea and coffee were being served next. We just wished that the person who took them could've confirmed that everyone had indeed taken one before taking them all.

As I said before in a previous post, it's not a big deal to me, but I can empathize with the sadness felt by the family members who felt left out.

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People walking out with centerpieces is shocking!

Once I was at a friend's wedding and they had one-tier gluten free cake (the couple were gluten-free people) and some other non-gluten-free desserts. The guests ended up disliking the gluten-free cake and they had a lot left over. I'm gluten-free myself and loved the cake. At the very end I asked the newlyweds if it was ok if I took a big chunk (showed them what I meant) and they were like "go ahead, take more, we can't eat them all!". I must've eaten and taken off with like 1/6th of the cake lol.

I think the key is to get permission first. But then again in our situation there was a miscommunication. We thought it was obvious that the event was still ongoing so didn't need to communicate not to take all the favors because some helpers had not taken theirs yet. (Hubby and I were still around chatting to people). Whereas the person who took them probably thought that the event was over, everyone had taken theirs, so it was ok to help themselves to the leftovers. We didn't have a grand exit or anything to signal the end of the event. Maybe would be a good idea to get the MC to announce that but then again this doesn't seem like a common occurrence so future couples probably shouldn't need to worry about it.