Wedding Favours

Wedding favours are one of the easiest ways you can say thank you to your guests for helping to celebrate your special day. Traditionally guests would receive a small bag or box containing 5 sugared almonds representing the five blessings of Health, Wealth, Happiness, Long Life and Fertility. Now, of course, your wedding favours can be almost anything to reflect your own taste, budget and personality.

If you are having a large affair with dozens (or even hundreds) of guests, it’s an element that can quickly spiral out of control.

Fear not! Like anything, there are some tricks you can use to make sure your wedding favour budget stretches as far as possible and you can still wow your guests with a gift they are able to take home with them.

Become a packaging guru

If you have your heart set on a certain item, but the budget won’t stretch to include the packaging – do it yourself! The main element of paying extra for the packaging is not the boxes of the bags themselves, but the hours put in by staff to fill and to tie the perfect bows.

Anyone can do that. You can find organza bags, boxes and ribbons in colours to match any wedding theme in places like Hobbycraft or online on eBay. It’s really easy then to save money and still give the gift you had your heart set on.

Two for the price of one

If you can use your wedding favour as a reception place card, you will be onto a budget-busting winner.

There are a number of ways you can do this, including having coasters with the guest’s names on them, photo frames with the guest’s name or photo inside, personalised candles, or even miniatures* of your fave tipple.

Anything you can think of that would suit your theme and look lovely on a table is an option and remember, if you can’t engrave or put a label on it, you can always make some cute hand-written tags for a personalised touch.

*check your venue allows alcohol favours before ordering.

Sharing is caring

When the majority of your guests are couple or families, it seems wasteful to be gifting a favour to each individual. What use does one family have for four of your candles?

Instead, you can consider giving one gift per couple or family, while single guests get one all to themselves.

Make it your centrepiece

This is another idea to give your wedding favours another purpose to keep costs down. Creating centrepieces out of gifts your guests can take home is also a great way to reduce wastage.

You can use things like little pots of succulents, a jar of colourful lollipops tied with ribbons, bouquets made from mini-poseys or a vase of individual flowers that guests can take home.

Make a donation

If you really can’t decide what to give your guests, you can present them with a warm and fuzzy feeling by making a donation on their behalf to a charity you support. Most charities offer wee cards that you can put at each place setting as favours.

This will not only fill your guest’s with a great glow but will also allow you to donate an amount that’s within your budget.

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