Just curious - spin off of several wedding favor discussions

I like candy/cookie favors or matches. Seriously I had matches from a wedding that I snagged a couple books of and they worked great. Heck my matches from the wedding (2 books) lasted longer than their marriage. Honey has friends who did matches and they still have TONS left over (she always offers them to him when he leaves) so I can see where the extras could be annoying.

Otherwise Jordan Almonds, while cliche are yummy and really make the wait for your turn in the buffet line, or the wait until your table is served much easier to handle.

I think we may skip favors all together and just feed them and thank our guest in person and with hand made (by me) thank you cards after.

This is a really great question. It is hard to make a final decision on favors because we all want everyone to like them, take them home, and use them. Favors are a small piece of ourselves, a token of our appreciation, and a keepsake from the most important day of our lives that we extend to our guests. It does depend on the couple, and whether they want to pick edible favors, kitchen type favors, multi-use favors, picture frames, etc.

If you are thinking of personalization to make them more unique, you can choose something like Personalized Tags, Stickers, or Label Clings that can be removed without damaging the favors. This way you guests may be more likely to use the favors.

Unique Ideas: "Olive You!" olive oil bottle, measuring spoons, candy scoop, kitchen timers, ice cream scoop, etc.

Edible Favors: cupcakes in a favor box, candy in a personalized box, brownie mix, lemonade mix, Cosmopolitan Cocktail Mix (fun idea), etc.

It's a great opportunity to be creative & have fun

We're doing a photobooth for our guests (because they're crazy fun and our theme is black and white photography).

my aunt did little scratch off lottery tickets slipped under the name cards (her theme was "Lucky in Love") and I liked the idea because it was clever and one of the wedding guests won $50

I honestly don't remember anything else we've gotten from weddings. I personally think something with your and your hubby's face or names/ monograms plastered all over it is tacky. Who would actually use the favor? Do whatever you think fits your family best.

One of the nicest things I've seen is the bride and her party baked cookies and bagged up 4 in little bags and sent each guest home with cookies and little bottles of milk to have before bedtime Since there was time and care put into them, i really liked that idea too

Good Luck!

Oh! I just thought of another one that I loved seeing. The bride and groom loved to garden so their centerpieces were garden boxes with small evergreen seedlings in little burlap sacks (the seedlings were about 8" tall with the burlap bottom). The bride had little handmade tags that said something along the lines of "Love grows" I thought it was cool because the guests could plant the trees themselves and any leftover trees were planted at the bride and grooms house.

Almost everyone at our wedding is family and if not they are very close friends. If any one of them had a wedding I would want a keepsake from it. Our favors are little silver picture frames with a heart. Our names are not on them, the idea is to put a little picture to remember the day. However, if they don't want a picture of us they can stick someone else in the frame. That way we aren't forcing our name and date on anyone.

I honestly DON'T like getting food as a wedding favor because it is gone and I don't have anything from the wedding. Then I will take a program or a personalized napkin home. Maybe I am too sentimental...

Most weddings I've attended have had edible favors, which get taken and consumed. In my experience, little knick-knacks either get left at the reception or thrown away when people get home.

Things like notepads or kitchen items would probably get used. I agree with those who have said that favors don't need to be emblazoned with your names/wedding date, etc. That just makes them less likely to get used.

Our destination wedding is relatively small (about 40 people) and our budget is rather large, so we are going with either a Flip video camera or a Kindle for our guests.

One thing I've seen other people doing is making donations to a cause they care about and giving guests one of those rubber bracelets. I think that's a great way to make a difference and raise awareness. Something to consider.

Lucia

I've been to a couple weddings where the couples gave out measuring spoons or cookie cutters with a cute recipe for cookies that adds in a cup of love, or a half a cup of patience, etc. I just the spoons all of the time. As far as consumables, my friends gave out wine, and I think that's usually a good choice, too.

I hate clutter and I normally leave the nick knacks behind. If I can eat it I will, maybe on the way home or for a snack the next day. Donations are nice but they mean very little to me. That being said I would rather the bride and groom spend the money on a charity instead of a picture frame I will never use.

My vote is an edible that is from the location of the wedding.

We've had a bunch of ideas, but I think we're leaning towards a favor box for a cupcake and a to-go coffee, tea and hot chocolate station.

@Michelle C. LOL. I am the one that is using the reusable grocery bags.

They carry out our ingredients for a successful marriage theme. They will have a favor tag insted of a monogram on them.

When I posted, I already had my idea but I have always thought this curious. I am quite sentimental and have favors from weddings I attended literally decades ago. I only go to weddings that I really want to remember the couple and/or wedding so the favors, Programs, & stuff mean a lot to me.

Thinking about these comments though, I wonder why many people have favors at all. If anyone is considering places to cut to save money, I would strongly suggest no favors!

If anyone had wine bottle openers as a favour, I would seriously ask the bride and groom if I could pick up any extras that were left if they didn't want them. We are ALWAYS losing ours! That and bottle openers. We can usually use more of those as well.

Salt and Pepper shakers were a big one in my mom and dad's day, there would be a seating chart and each guest that was a "couple" married or not... would be seated next to each other and one would have the salt shaker favour and the other would have the pepper shaker. Single friends would be given a different favour... like a cheese knife or teacup and saucer or something.

This is one of the sets my mum and dad got from a wedding. Only some of the shaker sets ever matched, so usually each couple would end up with a different one from everyone else.