Weddingbee Blog

Originally, when thinking about the details of our wedding that I wasn’t going to stress myself out over, favors leaped to the forefront of my mind.

Yes, I admit it. I was planning on not giving our guests anything to take home with them.

Why? Well, I’ve been to more than one wedding where all the time/effort/money spent on making or ordering favors ends up being a colossal waste because, let’s face it, most of your standard wedding favors are pretty run of the mill and end up getting left at the reception or thrown out. My argument was that the favors aren’t going to be the stuff of memories and that’s what any great wedding is about for guests: the memories.

Well, in true bride-like fashion, over the two-year-period of our engagement, I totally changed my mind.

This happened when I was struck by a moment of brilliance and thought: make the favors something that fits in with the theme and will help create awesome memories. My answer to that was: masquerade masks!

Just a sampling of our 90 completed masks

You see, in the drama department of our university (where we met, of course!), it was a yearly tradition to have a Masquerade Ball, where everyone busted out their old prom or homecoming dresses, since we were of course too poor to buy new dresses, and usually hand-crafted masquerade masks to complement their attire. This was always one of my favorite events of the year! And since about a third of our guests are Hofstra alums, they’ll totally get it. For everyone else, it will be a beautiful new experience!

Me, Fairy Bridesmaid, and Blonde Bridesmaid at our Junior year Masquerade Ball

(Photo by Mister Star)

We’re planning on having “Masquerade” from Phantom of the Opera play and having everyone dance with us and their masks. I think it’s going to be a truly magical moment.

From Phantom of the Opera (Photo Credit)

So, for a bride who didn’t originally want to do favors, I’ve ended up spending my spare time over six months hand-crafting 90 masks, none of which are exactly the same. The benefits, as I see them, are many:

1. They’re totally unique favors, which is important, since homogeny is one of my biggest favor pet-peeves
2. They’ll help create a really magical and unique moment that is very US!
3. We’re planning to set them out at place settings, which will make them do double-duty as table decor
4. Umm, they’re beautiful!

I’ll post a basic how-to and our favor budget at a later date, for those who are interested.

We have two boxes full of masks lovingly packed with tissue paper!

How have you changed your mind about incorporating something you originally planned on leaving out? Also, what are your creative ideas for making your favors do double-duty as more than just something that gets taken home at the end of the night?