When we got engaged and started planning our wedding, one of the first things I thought about was favors. What would we offer our guests? There were so many ideas out there, and admittedly I pinned a lot of them. Here’s a sampling of the ideas I thought were cute.
Image via Lover.ly / Photo by Gem Photo
Take-home cookies! I love these. (OK, I just love cookies.) There are plenty of options on the food theme—I also saw popcorn, candy, and honey options that I loved (among others).
Image via Lover.ly / Photo by Carlie Statsky
Image via Lover.ly / Photo by Craig Paulson Photography
Image via Lover.ly / Photo by Nathan Westerfield Photography
Miss Camera also posted some awesome inspiration pictures for her s’mores favors—can’t wait to see how those work out! A lot of other ladies on here have done some neat things with favors, both edible and inedible. (I loved Mrs. Wallaby’s test tube tea favors!)
For us, it came down to two factors: price and practicality. Even just two or three dollars a favor adds up when you have over 100 guests—and we really didn’t have much (any?) of a budget for favors!
We also didn’t want this to be a waste for our guests, something they wouldn’t use or wouldn’t appreciate having. I went to a wedding over the summer where the bride carefully prepared over 150 little boxes of jelly beans that said “Thank you for be-an here with us!” and set them out for the guests. Unfortunately, hardly anyone took them! When we were helping to clean up afterward, there were over 100 left. I’ve seen similar things at other weddings—my cousin had enough bags of pretzels and chocolate-covered coffee beans to eat for months after his wedding!
I read this blog post and several others over at A Practical Wedding about favors. Here’s my take on it: Choosing to do favors is just that—a choice! You are not a bad bride if you decide not to give out favors. You are also not a bad bride if you do something simple like a handwritten note or something elaborate like homemade butter in a cute jar.
For us, our choice is not to do favors. Price-wise and practically, it’s just not fitting into our wedding. I believe brides should not feel obligated to provide favors, nor should they feel guilty about their choice. What about you? Did you do favors? If you did, what did you do? (I love hearing about unique ideas!)
We didn’t do favors. I didn’t see the point of giving our guests something they might not want – and spending money to do so.
On the other hand, we did do welcome bags with snacks and water, which I know was appreciated because it saved our guests money at the hotel!
We are making a donation to several different charities instead of doing favors. The different charities have provided us with a sign explaining who they are and where the funds will go in terms of supporting the community!
We are most likely not going to do favors for pretty much the same reasons you’ve outlined: I’ve been at too many weddings where the favors were ignore/left behind, and it doesn’t fit nicely into our budget (we could make it happen but it’s not seeming worth it right now)
We didn’t do favors. When we initially made up our budget, we didn’t include them. Eventually, Mr. T decided he wanted to do local popcorn favors, but when we priced it out, it came out to at least $300. We decided there were better places to spend that money.
Our dessert/candy bar was our ‘favor’ and I was more than happy with that decision. The extra time and money to make favors would have been a waste.
My boyfriend it´s Peruvian but he’s living in Canada, and i´m from Mexico. So we want to put desserts/candies of those 3 countries in a table to mix the cultures.
Good for you Miss. Lemur for deciding to do what is right for you! Favors are nice, but they definitely aren’t necessary!
As Miss. Manners said: “Who told you that you had to give out wedding favors? Etiquette has never thought of weddings as comparable to children’s birthday parties, where the guests might need consolation for not being the center of attention.”
We are still on the fence about favors, now when I say ‘we’, I mean my fiance and I are on one side and my mom on the other! We are already providing a FREE open bar for the duration of the reception to our guests and we really didn’t set aside any funds, but my mom showed me this link: http://www.arborday.org/shopping/gifttrees/weddings.cfm
Now, I really love this, we are getting married in September, our invites have a tree on them, we are doing the tree thumbprint guest book, I went to school for biology, I love trees, what can I say, but that price!!! JEEZ! We have a 200+ guest list! But now those ‘favors’ are all I can think about… decisions, decisions!!
We’re getting little chapsticks with a custom label (made by me!) made from this indie seller that used to be on Etsy. My mom and I have gotten a bunch over the last few years from this seller and she has great customer service and great flavors as well!
My mom is looking forward to this because the woman lives just one state away and shes always wanted to meet her! I got really lucky though, my mom offered to pay for the chapsticks (at 2.10 a piece and at least 100 guests its a pricy decision)
I was with you in that I have been to so many weddings where they have given gifts that I just didn’t see practical. I mean I love my friends but do I really want pencils, bookmarks, etc with there names on it? We decided early on if we did favors, they would be something people could actually enjoy. My FI and I are both candy OBSESSED.. and when I saw the 1/2 pint chinese take out boxes cute with ribbon and labels I knew I HAD to do it.. So we are doing a candy buffet as our favor.. It was not cheap by any means.. In fact between boxes, ribbon, labels, jars (I have 16 plus those pricey dishes that spell out LOVE), candy, scoops, and materials to make the labels I have spent over $300 which comes out to be about a little over 2 for our 130 person wedding.. But it was one of our few splurges and something I am super excited about!
We did not do favors. I’ll be honest, I didn’t even remember that I should. Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t try to take another project on! But seriously, none of our guests ever mentioned it to us, so hopefully no one felt cheated out of a favor.
Here, here! While there are lots of cute favor ideas, too often I see a ton of leftovers. We’re also not doing favors, and instead will be providing take-home boxes for our guests to fill with mini desserts from our dessert bar.
@Miss Airplane: Yeah agreed! There are always leftover favors, and especially when it’s cheap plasticky stuff made overseas, it makes me kind of sad to see all that waste.
Good call, Lemur!!
@Mrs. Bracelet: This is a great idea! And I feel like it would be more useful than favors after the wedding when they’ve just eaten a full meal 
@her.royal.redness: I’ve seen this and I think it’s a great idea! Especially if you have already have a tie to a community and charity.
@SinfoniAXiD: I’m of the mind that if you have to make it work and don’t really want to, it’s not worth it! Nothing is required except a marriage license and an officiant 
@Mrs. Treasure: It doesn’t seem expensive when you see “$3 each” but then it adds up! There were better places for us to spend our money for sure.
@Mrs. Pony: I think this is my favorite kind of favor. Especially if you get to take some home!
@chica_b: I like this! It’s a nod to both of your cultures and you get to share that with your guests
@jm: Haha I love that quote! A Practical Wedding had something similar about “Here’s a potted plant, thanks for coming to my party!”
@abbyLtib: These are adorable! I love this idea, but you’re right, it gets so expensive 
it’s just a balancing act between what’s right for you!
@Andi: Awh, that’s great that your mom offered to do that! I think that’s sweet of her and awesome that she’ll get to be involved
@Brooklyn55: I totally looked at those too! We decided not to do a candy bar on top of a full meal and cake, but I love the candy bars with colors and cute decorations—Mrs. Unicycle’s was great!
@estella: I didn’t even mention that part of it. Unless we totally paid for someone to do it, I figured there would be at least some DIY involved. And I couldn’t take on another project!
@Miss Airplane: I think I’m going to invite myself to your wedding to get some of those mini desserts totally agree though!
@Mrs. Wallaby: Or even just all the packaging on basically anything you buy! I like the idea of doing take home boxes (preferably cardboard or something recyclable) because then you’re not wasting the food either.
I agree with you! I’d much rather see a bride-on-a-budget spend money on things that make her day special to HER and her groom than spend anything on me as a guest. If a bride is passionate about favors, go for it….but it should never, ever be manditory. I’ve never once left a wedding discussing the favors (even when they were cute or clever or yummy). Not once.
I was just at a wedding last weekend where they had adorable salt and pepper shakers as gifts. I’m pretty sure 75% of them were still left at the end of the night. The wedding favors I usually appreciate are the edible sweets. We have not found anything that is worth us making and then paying to ship to Scotland. I’ll focus my energies on hotel welcome bags and our photo booth. We can give our guests copies of the photo booth pics. We’re also providing a late night snack of cupcakes and Scottish pies which is also an added bonus for our guests.
These are some great favors indeed! I love the idea of cutesy food favors because it minimizes the cost of favors to the bride and groom, while allowing a chance to show your style through wrapping. My favorites that you posted are the little milk and cookie bags, and that delicious looking apple butter display!
Mrs. Lemur, Greenville, South Carolina Age and Occupation: 22, Graduate Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Security Officer Engagement Date: October 9, 2012 Wedding Date: May 2013 Venue: Pleasant Ridge Camp & Retreat Center About Me: I may fancy myself a doctor after too many episodes of House—but in reality I'm finally almost done with my degree in business administration (less than three months left!). My fiance and I met at school in undergrad hundreds of miles away from either of our hometowns and have been happily running and hiking together ever since. We're undertaking a long distance relationship as I finish school and we plan our casual wedding for a day after graduation—needless to say, it will be the busiest and most exciting weekend of our lives so far!
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