Memorable Wedding Favours

[NFLDERS]

We had a card at each place setting with a scratch off lottery ticket, shiny penny attached to the corner & the card said "We feel lucky you were here" (or something like that)... We thought it was fun & since we our honeymoon was in Vegas it made even more sense. A couple people won a couple of dollars but no big winners.

To coin a British term Brilliant!

 

[barkley]

20 odd years ago we chose not to do favors b/c as many have mentioned-the ones we received were something that was immediately tossed (not into Jordan almonds, HATE potpourri (gives me a migraine), not a fan of silk flowers (in the 90's it seemed to be popular to give one red silk rose with a ribbon of the wedding colors on it). we ended up getting gold foiled chocolate coins and scattering them on the tables as decorations-the were gone by the end of the night so it seemed to work.


recent weddings I haven't seen favors as much, and when we went to one where I knew the bride had spent every evening for weeks making these 'roses' from Hershey kisses (wrapping wire stems, adding leaves, wrapping the kisses in cellophane....) I had to wonder if it was a bit disappointing to her to see them torn to shreds in minutes and her tables littered with all the stems she put so much hard work into.

ONLY favor I remember hanging onto for a few years was very creative. bride and groom served some Japanese food at the wedding, and the favors were 'sushi magnets'. they took the yarn used in latch-hook rugs and bunched it by color to look like a sushi roll-wrapped the whole thing in dark green aluminum foil, and attached it to a magnet (also had their names/wedding date on a little tag). it was just SO unique it went on the fridge and stayed there


honestly-I would rather see the money it costs for favors saved-esp. when at the same weddings (in addition to a gift table) there are multiple money trees with themes ('help us pay for our honeymoon', 'help us get furniture for our home'....).

 

[DisneyMim]

Honestly most favors I've received were not very useful at all. The ones that I remember the most and liked best were: box of Godiva chocolates, and my niece's. Her husband's family is from Canada and they are maple sugar farmers. They gave each guest a bottle of Maple Syrup. I thought that was very nice and I really liked the way they incorporated his heritage in the favors. Also I like when they donate to a charity. My husband's cousin made a donation to breast cancer. Her husband's mother had died from breast cancer. I thought that was a wonderful. Made me cry that she wasn't there, but it was a very thoughtful thing to do.

 

[FireDancer]

One of my friends gave every guest a stemless wine glass that was designed by a local artist. It served as both their glass for the evening and also to let them know which table they'd be at. I think it is the best favor I've gotten at a wedding.

I also got an instant lottery ticket once and managed to win $2.

 

[jamiesmom07]

DH and I have a sugar house. We were married almost 4 years ago this April (right at the end of sugar sesason). We gave small bottles of fresh maple syrup. I have had so many compliments and people telling me how much they loved it.

We also had a candy buffet. HUGE hit with everybody. There wasn't one bottle of syrup or one bit of candy left at the end of the night.

 

[Disney Doll]

I always like the edible ones- some of the best were boxes of Godiva chocolates and boxes of chocolate truffles. Also liked bottles of wine that the grooms father made himself with cute labels on them. Lottery tickets at each place setting were cool too!
Ones I don't care for are glasses with bride and grooms names on them-I mean what in the world are you supposed to do with those?? I don't like trees since I would never plant one on my property it would just be a waste. Picture frames-have more than I need already.

I have wineglasses with the bride and groom's name on them from one wedding we went to.

Those are the glasses I take to "travel"...if we're going away, we usually like to have a bottle of wine in the room and it's nicer to drink out of the wineglass than a plastic cup. If we go to a cabaret style event, I take those glasses...the point being, if they get broken, it's not a tragedy.

Truth be told though, those glasses have travelled quite a bit, been jostled around quite a bit and are still going strong, so they must be pretty good quality. Thanks Steve and Trisha!!!!!!

In general though, I prefer and edible gift of some sort...candy, cookies, small bottle of wine or other alcohol, the maple syrup thing a PP posted sounded great too. I also like Christmas ornaments. I seem to recall being at one wedding where the centerpiece was actually a grouping of small potted plants, very cute, and everyone got to take home one of the pots at the end of the night. I would also like the sapling thing because I have a yard and so would have a spot to plant a sapling but I can see how for some guests that could be a problem. CDs are good and I just hope the bridal couple has the same musical taste as I do. So far, the couple of times I have received CDs, they've been nice and I have enjoyed having them.

Candles, picture frames...eh...not so much.

Ouor wedding favor was a small round mirror that I glued lace around, with a ribbon with our names and wedding date and a magnet on the back to make a refirgerator magnet. I figured that at least it would be handy for people to tack something up on their fridge. One of my DH's friends thanked us for the "coke mirror" on our wedding video. It was pretty funny.

 

[tinatark]

Our friends did the "wedding day" Yankee candle votive with a personal label - their names/wedding date, wrapped in tulle.

I'm not sure we even gave favors at our wedding (26+ years ago) - but surely we did!

 

[Lorelei Lee]

My cousin is an environmental scientist. When she got married, back in the 1990's, she decided that cut flowers would not be used at her wedding. She had potted plants (something with flowers) as centerpieces, and packets of seeds as favors. We were encouraged to take home the plants and the seeds.

I didn't have a wedding favor when I got married.

 

[quandrea]

We did miniature apple butters (it was a country wedding in the fall). Tied the names around them to have them double as namecards.

My cousin did miniature bottles of scotch. That went over well.

Great idea. Rather than useful I go for consumable. We had a four piece box of Godiva chocolates. For our vow renewal I did personalized m& m s in our colours. My parents did individual bottles of champagne for their vow renewal. I would always aim for something consumable

For my daughter's communion we had a tea so the favour was tea and honey. My twins' baptism had chocolate caramel apples for eCh guest. From Rocky Mountain chocolate factory. They were amazing.

 

[htmom]

We had a picnic for our reception. Our favors were sunscreen mini bottles, bottles of water, and our centrepieces (mason jars with sunflowers mix). It was funny because even our "extras" got taken home. We also had decks of cards on the tables for people to play with, those were taken too! My family jokes that I am the queen of usable favors. For my baby shower I had antibac bottles with little holders, every single one is on my families purses.

 

[Kachina]

As favors, we had wedding cake shaped cookies iced in our colors and with our names and wedding date on them. Since a lot of guests were traveling in from out of town, we also made up some gift bags with all sorts of goodies in them. Maps, meet-ups, things to do, snacks, sunscreen, etc.

 

[JaneBanks]

We gave donations to St. Jude in the name of the 4 children in my family who have passed away. We also gave a small beeswax candle for the guests to have something to take home.

 

[kacaju]

I know that no one gives out the engraved book of matches anymore, but darn I liked to have them around for when I needed an emergency match.

After 23 years of marriage...I think I am finally out of our extra matches and all of our friends matches...they really were good favors!!