Guest gifts

I'm in the same boat as you- the only things I've used are wine glasses and coozies.

I'm going with food as favors- prepackaged or a candy bar for guests to take treats. Probably to be consumed that night or the next morning!

We decided to donate to a charity, in their names, instead of doing a gift. Like you, we felt all the gifts we'd gotten were a waste, so we thought this would be better.

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That is a nice idea and many of our guests work in non-profit fields anyways, I sure they would appreciate that

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I am with you there! Food is always excepted right?

Favors are no longer expected and most trinkets (unless edibles) are thrown out. Save your money. Guests appreciate enough good food & drinks. That’s all you need to provide.

Yeah, I usually see cookies. We didn't do favors and I don't think anyone was upset. Edible things or donations to a charity are probably your best bet. Even things like koozies, shot glasses, and wine glasses are a gamble. Most people don't really want something with other people's wedding date on it.

Yep, you’re absolutely right. Some favors are last minute, cheap pieces of junk (which is a horrible way to show thanks). Those types of favors feel like an afterthought and slap in the face. So they get left on the table.


Favors that can be consumed work best. Guests don’t want something personalized with the bride and grooms name on it or a dinky item that they’ll never use.
We’re doing mini champagne bottles with thank you tags at each place setting. Additionally after the ceremony (when entering the cocktail hour), men will be handed cigars but I’m still figuring out what to hand the ladies 🤔

Food or alcohol. Tiny bottles of wine are probably my favorite favor. Otherwise make a donation to a charity that means something to you. I 100% agree with you, no one wants favors to collect dust at home.

Wine bottle opener with a word from our theme- “Harry Potter” on it is what we are looking at. Or
Luggage tags, that have the slip of paper to put in and the “Always” or “Hogwarts Crest” symbol on the back.

My brother and his wife had mini candles custom made with their names at the front. They're very classy looking so it doesn't scream "someone else's wedding" and they actually smell good. A lot of were taken but also many still left behind. (So my fiancé and I took extra! :-P) I'm really considering ditching favors completely but doing some special for out of town guests (there will be many).

We are not doing traditional favors, but most of our guests are OOT. We will be putting local items & such in our hotel welcome bags for those guests. We initially had a lot of ideas, but that got too expensive. Right now we are thinking:
- water bottles for everyone in a room
- salty snacks (like vending machine bags of snacks but from Costco) for everyone in a room- mini bottles of vodka for our adult guests plus Polar seltzer orange vanilla cans as mixers (1 per 2 adults, not local but my personal favorite as known by most guests). By the way, our local liquor store offered a deal on mini bottles based on volume so they’d be less than $1 each, we will check back in with them as we get closer. - chocolate candies (semi-local, the nicer chocolates from the company aren’t local but the company is) - at least 1 per person- Local maps and brochures if we can find from the visitor’s center- personal notes & printed agendas & local things to do/map
These will be put in 2 for $1 white bags from the Dollar Tree.
We figure this will cost us $4.50 per adult couple, give or take for a single adult or a couple kids.

Apologies for the formatting, wish they’d fix the paragraphing when someone replies with multiple lines with returns/enter pressed between!

Edible has always been the best.

I just went to a wedding in Vermont where they gave out maple syrup and I thought that was nice.

Truthfully, I don't want anything with a couples name and date on it - I don't have anything with our name and date on it! But I was always happy to share their day.

We ordered extra cupcakes n will have takehome containers for them

We’re not doing favors at all but honestly the only ones I’ve ever enjoyed are the food items.

I skipped the traditional party favour and will go with donating in honour of my guests. A friend of mine did this and everyone absolutely loved it because most of the guest list knew someone from or was from a war- torn country that had lots of displaced citizens so the donation went to refugees, injury aid, etc.

If you dont share similarities, you can pick to donate to an animal shelter or something that will be non-controversial with the guests (avoid political campaign donations) and they'll all love it. The best way to implement this is to put a place card on everyone's chair saying something like " we have made a donation, in your honour, to ___(charity name)__ instead of traditional party favours. Thank you for celebrating with us"

Favors are not a necessity. We chose ours because they had symbolic and funny meaning to us. Our guests really enjoyed them but no one would have though less of us if we didn't have any. Do what works for you.

I like prepared food (cookies, coffee, etc.) when you leave, I think that's a nice touch! We got a beautiful Irish wine stopper from a wedding (not personalized) and we use that a lot.

No. Skip it and put money toward food/drink or music.