Wedding Favors?

[Hippychickali]

For me, the alcohol and lottery ticket favours wouldn't work because there are many guests that we are inviting that don't drink for a variety of reasons and I don't support gambling and neither does my church. Both seem like really unique ideas, though, for those that could make use of them.

Ali

 

[Shugardrawers]

I know that you are only playing devil's advocate pearlieq, but I feel like I have to speak to this since we are giving a charitable donation. Please don't take this as an insult to you. Instead I am directing it to the people who would have a problem with my choice of party favour.

If people are offended by our choice of charity, to put it bluntly, too bad. I can't imagine any body being offended by us wanted to support a starving people (for example) rather than getting a chocolate truffle or something. A wedding is supposed to represent the couple and this gesture very much represents us. We give private donations weekly. I am going to technically work for a charity for the rest of my life. As far as charitable donations being self-serving - . There are many organizations that depend on people being self-serving, then. I guess you could say that it's self-serving to buy fancy, expensive favours. The couple could be seen as wanting to impress the guests. Honestly, if someone has a problem with this, they can go pound sand.

Ali

I have to agree with you here. While I think donations in someone else's name to a charity without their consent is hardly a "gift" anyone who has the gall to be offended by it is just an idiot in most cases. I suppose if the honoree is jewish and the donation is made to the Arayan Nations party then yes it's offensive but in most cases it's just people trying to do something good. You can't spend all your life trying not to offend anyone. There will always be someone who is offended by something no matter what you do. Even though I make money by creating favors, I have to say they are overkill in my book. The bride and groom have spent a great deal of money to include you in the celebration, usually paying for a sit down meal and drinks for you and your family. Shouldn't that be gift enough?

 

[princess pooh]

Our favor was kind of cheesy, but we thought they were cute and we got lots of compliments. We took about three Hershey kisses, put them in a plastic spoon, and wrapped them in tulle (just the "spoon" end of the spoon). Then we tied them with a ribbon adn had a little tag on each one that said "A spoonful of Kisses from the Mr. and Mrs." with our names and wedding date on the back of the tag. It was super cheap, I made them myself, and it was something that people could just eat and toss!

My mom is making those for our engagement party (without the "mr. and mrs." on the tag). We saw it in a catalogue and it looked like fun

 

[AlexandNessa]

Thanks for the tips! Lots of ideas here... now, if anyone knows a good Justice of the Peace or Notary to marry us in Southern Maine....

 

[Hippychickali]

The bride and groom have spent a great deal of money to include you in the celebration, usually paying for a sit down meal and drinks for you and your family. Shouldn't that be gift enough?

Exactly! We are offering refreshments for a cocktail hour, a lovely sit down meal at a fancy ballroom, a piano player for both the cocktail hour and the meal, and getting them discounts on hotel rooms to boot. If they are sad because we didn't give them a chocolate bar or a photo frame on top of that and instead spend the money on something infinitely more important, who is the one being self-serving?

Ali

 

[Daisy Duck 5]

I like the lotto ticket idea but make sure they cant win too much. Get the cheapest tickets you can so the top prize is less than $500. Then it wont be strange is someone wins big.

 

[SamRoc]

If you don't mind, could you tell me how to make the tea bag favor? It sounds like a great idea.

 

[SamRoc]

One more thing, Can anyone suggest any favors for a Cinderella themed party? Its a Sweet 16. Thanks.

 

[princess pooh]

One more thing, Can anyone suggest any favors for a Cinderella themed party? Its a Sweet 16. Thanks.

I've seen miniature glass slippers that you can fill with candy. There are also tiny ones that you can add to the top of a favor box. I've seen them on ebay recently.

 

[Shugardrawers]

One more thing, Can anyone suggest any favors for a Cinderella themed party? Its a Sweet 16. Thanks.

How about the little clear plastic high heeled shoes filled with candies. These can usually be found in the wedding section of a craft store. I once saw little carriages like that too but I'll be darned if I remember where. It's the wrong time of year for them or I'd suggest the tiny little pumpkins hollowed out with either candies or a votive candle in them too.

 

[IloveDMB]

Ilove deb...I see you are from south jersey......
Do you work at the Garden State Art center....The Christmas wedding I attended there is where I rec'd the ornament favor...it was so nice dirving to the reception past the holiday lights display..

No, I work in Pt. Beach. I'm sure the wedding up there was beautiful. I have heard many great reviews on that place. My ex used to do weddings up there and he said the weddings were cool during the lights display.

 

[justhat]

We gave out bars of white chocolate with our photo, names, and date printed on them. Also, our photographer brought a digital photographer and set up a photo area outside where he took portraits of each couple, printed them out, and handed them out during dinner. People loved this, after all who doesn't love a professional photo of themselves for free!?! It was expensive though. The chocolate was much cheaper and we got it at www.gocandy.com.

Our reception site said that a wedding of our size (about 180 people) could not 'name' the tables cause it was too confusing for the guests and servers. We did name them at our engagement party, which was in New Orleans where my husband is from, so we used French Quarter street names for the tables. There we gave out potpourri sachets from Pier 1.

My cousins and uncle did the lottery ticket thing at their wedding, which I thought was cute. They bought a quick pick ticket (not the scratch offs) for each couple and put them in a clear plastic picture frame, so it was kinda like 2 favors in 1.

 

[Hippychickali]

All this talk of chocolate is making my mouth water.

Ali

 

[Breezy_Carol]

The last wedding was my neice's in June 2002. Neither DH or I can remember if there were favors so they must not have been too important. I did go do a wedding of a co-worker about 20 years ago. They gave out bookmarks printed on ribbons, (like the kind you would win in a race) that said their names and date and a little saying. I still have that.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We didn't do favors. To me, they are an unnecessary added expense and since I was footing the bill, they were first to be cut. Thankfully, in my area, they are not expected so no one even noticed. Maybe half the weddings we've attended had them - if even that. Probably less, actually.

I have yet to attend a wedding in which I bothered to take home the favor... DH and I don't like milk chocolate, so we leave the kisses and other popular chocolate favores behind. Lots of other little things have been left behind, as well. I truly felt sorry for my best friend after her reception because I went and collected almost all the little favors she had worked so hard on... they're just not big in our area, and most people left them behind.

A few have been mentioned that I would have gladly taken home and used - like wine, candles, wine stoppers, etc. But those are pretty expensive to have, but very cool if the budget allows!

I think the best idea is a charity donation - to a charity of the couple's choosing. It's their wedding, they can pick whatever one is closest to them, and donate in their guest's name. I can't imagine that any guest would feel offended by a gift in their name to a good cause - esp when the couple has every right to choose which they would like to donate to. I'd much rather give up 5 Hershey Kisses or a couple cookies to help a local food bank or women's shelter. But that's just me. I wish we had had $ in our budget to do such a thing at the time...

 

[twojo21]

we are still deciding on our wedding favors for the reception, although we do have nice silver frames for placecards. we are also gifting each family a welcome bag at check in and each child a gift bag for our wdw destination wedding.

i like the other favor ideas suggested too. some of the favors we have kept was a personalized cd, a black mask for a halloween wedding we even won our tables centerpiece a pumpkin with leaves (threw away pumpkin but kept one leaf next to couples wedding picture in a photo album), christmas ornaments, flower seeds, hot salsa, ghiradelli chocolate (ate & gone now but enjoyed) and charity donations (good cause). its the thought that counts, favors arent mandatory, sharing in the special day, is really what counts. our favorite favor though was a camera & the great pictures we got from it of the wedding & destination location.

 

[Disney Hot Mama]

Because we're getting married in Vegas, and DFi and I met at a casino, we're doing playing cards that are personlized with the names/date. At least they're functional.

DFi actually wanted to do loaded dice....

Great idea. Do you have a contact of where to get these ordered. I am planning a big event next year and thinking of having playing cards as one of the favors. Not a wedding event but a casino night.

 

[DisneyJules]

I think it was Gwen Estefani who gave Krispy Kreme donuts wrapped in plastic and a pretty bow to all of her guests. I thought that was cute and yummy to boot!

 

[Rowena]

My wedding favors really only work for the month of December. We got some very cheap restaurant bread baskets, painted them gold and filled them with gold, burgandy and forest green ornaments with while ribbon/gold print of our names and date (free from invitation printers, with order) used them as centerpieces on the tables AND favors. We also had birdseed, tied up in tulle. We got compliments on that idea, though it may now be dated, I got married in 1992.

 

[Amberle3]

Great idea. Do you have a contact of where to get these ordered. I am planning a big event next year and thinking of having playing cards as one of the favors. Not a wedding event but a casino night.

Yep, here you go - we're going to be ordering them from Branders . Their website lets you (kind of) pick the colour of the cards, the colour of the printing you want and then upload a logo and view what the cards will look like online. Kinda. The logo part doesn't work all that well, but the sales rep told me that when placing an actual order they'll do up a proper mock-up of it and email it to you for approval prior to printing.

We haven't ordered ours yet, but will before too long.

I also found a place online that does custom poker chips too.