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3.06.2012

{wedding wednesday}

I’m really excited for my first Wedding Wednesday in two weeks!

Today’s post might seem a little off-putting to some, but we need to get real here. We need to get real about wedding favors. Because honestly, how many of us have thrown a favor they’ve received from a wedding? I can’t lie, I know I have. So, before you choose your perfect favor, here are a few guidelines.

Favors

{bag, coffee, honey, wine, cigars, cookie, apple}

I only have three “rules,” but I feel kind of strongly about them. It’s hard to see a couple spend so much money on such a beautiful day, and choose favors that probably cost a bit of money, when nobody really wants them. And I have to say, I’m guilty of this at my own wedding. I didn’t want to do favors, but I was told I had to, so I boxed up some chocolate covered almonds and put a cheesy tag on them. They most definitely weren’t meaningful, and they weren’t beautiful. To me, it was a waste of money and time, and I honestly wish I would have gone with my first instinct to not have any at all.

Which brings me to another point: these days, favors are 100% optional. You do not have to have them at your wedding. Let me repeat that. You do not need to have favors if you do not want to. You’re already planning a lot, providing food and dessert and fun {hopefully}, so you really don’t need to worry about anything else. Especially if the anxiety of providing favors is causing an unnecessary amount of stress, or if you plan on half-assing it {sorry, it best described what I needed to say…}.

At all the weddings I’ve been to, both as a guest and as a planner, I know that the only favors that I’ve enjoyed are the ones that fit at least two of these rules. For example, at my cousin’s wedding last summer, they had Diddy Riese cookies for their guests. It was meaningful because he and his wife met at UCLA, they were quickly consumed, and it was a cookie so it didn’t really need to be beautiful. The packaging spoke for itself. It’s these types of favors that your guests will really appreciate. Because I can’t lie: I’ve thrown away way too many personalized CDs and engraved shot glasses to believe that these are worth the time, money, or effort involved.

So tell me, what is your opinion on favors? What are the best and worst favors you’ve gotten at weddings? I’m interested to hear.

Oh, and be sure to link up your own Wedding Wednesday posts below!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

The best favor I got at a wedding was this beautiful blown glass wine stopper. I'm not sure about the worst, but probably hershey kisses or something similar.

For our wedding, we are doing a practical gift... bubba cups, to be used at our destination wedding. And then I am making personalized tags to go on them. For our At Home Reception (200+ people), we chose to skip favors... They are expensive, and the majority would probably get tossed in the garbage, or left behind.

Jenny said...

Best favor, Himalayan pink salt. Random, yes. But it totally matched with the color scheme of the wedding and the bride and groom really enjoy cooking. They were packaged beautifully too. Because I was the photographer, I was one of the last to leave, so they gave me a bunch of the extra ones and I've used them all up.

Cait Emma said...

what good rules! haha i love that everything needs to be consumable, thats great

m_b said...

here in italy, everyone gives favors and it's considered taboo if you don't! since my boyfriend has this cute phrase, "love is like grass, it grows everywhere," we want to give our guests a little plant with that saying written on a little tag and wrapped up somehow. a favor i loved: a little wooden matchbook with beautiful green matches. i use it all the time!

Holly said...

The best, and most recent, wedding favour I got was a cupcake. That was pretty cool. Everybody likes them! :)

Jenna said...

One of my friends had a winter wedding in the mountains and so did blanket favors for the girls and little individualized liqueur favors for the guys. I thought it was so clever!

Thanks for your tips!

xxx
Jenna

Sarah said...

This is helpful! I have yet to pick favors. We're having mason jars and swirly straws serve as both escort cards and guests can use to drink from obviously, but I'm not sure about another favor. Perhaps a personal treat in mini mason jars. Thanks for the tips! :)

jillian :: cornflake dreams. said...

we're still deciding on our favors.. we're going to have a dessert room so i dont really want to do candy.. but my mom is insisting on the jordan almond thing. i need to get creative fast! xoxo jillian:: cornflake dreams

Coordinately Yours said...

I agree - consumable is preferred. Coffee and donuts are a great way to send guests off.

Andrea @ Love is... said...

I totally agree with your rules!

For our wedding, those were the rules I used too! We ended up doing a peanut & candy corn mixture, in a cute little box. It went perfect with the feel of our fall wedding & it's my favorite fall snack! Plus, it was cheap & easy to put together! = )

Kate said...

I totally agree! Consumable is the way to go. Our favors were pretty simple, just a single heart shaped sugar cookie, with white frosting and clear sugar that my family friends were kind enough to make for me. I provided them with the packaging and they showed up with the finished product! It was one of the nicest things that anyone did for me leading up to the wedding.