Choosing your Wedding Favours
Wedding favours are a fun part of the wedding where you can really show some creativity and personality. Favours came about in the 16th century – French aristocrats gifted favours, called bombonieres, to their party guests. Often they were opulent boxes decorated with precious stones and metals and filled with sweets as sugar was believed to have health giving properties. At weddings, candied almonds were given and represented the bitter sweetness of marriage. They believed that because a wedding was a sign of good luck, the bride and groom gave gifts that represented bestowing good luck unto their guests.
Wedding favours have evolved into a token of gratitude and appreciation that you present to your guests to thank them for sharing in your special day. There are plenty of options when it comes to choosing your wedding favours – from the traditional sugary treats like cookies and candy, elaborate gifts such as custom coasters and picture frames, to meaningful donations to charities – couples are choosing favours that represent their style and preferences.
With so much to choose from, where do you start? Here is a bit of a guideline to follow when choosing your wedding favours.
Budget
Your budget will determine the type of wedding favour you will give to your guests, so you will want to determine what you want to spend before you start your research. You don’t want to fall in love with an idea only to realize that the costs far out way what you really want to spend. Brides spend on average $500 on their wedding favours. Depending on the number of guests you are having, that comes to around $2 to $3 per person. Don’t forget to consider the costs for shipping, assembly, and enhancements like tags and wrapping.
Style
Couples want their wedding favours to represent their style – long gone are the boring match boxes that your parents received at weddings. Today couples are opting for unique items that really compliment the style of their wedding and their personal taste. Something edible is always a great option – chocolates, cookies and candy in unique boxes are always great. Some couples take it a step further and offer their guests cookies and milk for the ride home. Customized koozies and coasters are very popular, with some couples pairing it will their favourite beverage. More low key? Many couples choose to provide a donation to their favourite charity and provide signage at the wedding to let their guests know of the donation made in their honour.
Functionality
What do you want from your wedding favours? Do you just want to give guests a small token of appreciation for being a part of your big day? Or would you prefer to give a memento as a reminder of your wedding? Maybe you want to provide something tangible that they can actually use. Either way, you will need to determine what the function will be. Typically anything they can use later will cost more than something edible like a cake pop or French macarons.
Order or DIY
Once you finish all of the above, you will need to decide if you will get your favours custom made locally, order them online, or do a DIY project and make them yourselves. DIY is a huge trend and can save some money when you decide to create your own. You will need to consider how much time the project will take, and if you have the time to put into making multiples of favours. Making one item might seem super easy, but when you have to make a few hundred, the task can become quite stressful and not so fun anymore. You will also want to ensure that your favours, whether you make them yourself or order them, are finished and ready to go one week before your wedding day. Favours tend to be that pesky project that is done at the last minute.