Unique favor ideas?

[wyndham]

Hi All,
Until recently, I was planning to skip party favors and just 'upgrade' my out of town guest gift bags. As I started trying to figure out how to deliver them, I realized that so far our guests are staying in 12+ hotels for our urban destination wedding, and I quickly figured out that delivering OOT guest gift bags would be a logistical nightmare. This has led me back to the idea of doing a nicer party favor and skipping the OOT gift bags altogether.

So, I want to know A) if you think this is a good idea, and if so, B) if anyone has any suggestions for a unique and memorable wedding party favor? A couple of perameters:

- I really don't want anything with my name or wedding date on it;
- I have a firm 'no clutter' policy in my own life so I want a gift that can be functional for my guests (as opposed to purely decorative);
- Budget is flexible, but right now I am targeting the $20-$35 apiece price range.

I thought about doing 1 GB iShuffles, but the issue is that we did a 1/3 1/3 1/3 guest split with our friends, my parents' friends, and my FI's parents friends, so those likely wouldn't be a hit with the older demographic (i.e. 2/3 of our guests). I would love to get the same thing for all of our guests, if possible.

I welcome any and all suggestions that you might have.
Thanks so much!

 

[mayachel]

What''s your idea for a budget per favor?

 

[wyndham]

Date: 5/14/2009 3:39:54 PM
Author: mayachel
What''s your idea for a budget per favor?

Hi Mayachel.

Budget is flexible, but right now I am targeting the $20-$35 per favor price range...have any good ideas?
Thanks!

 

[Fleur]

Does your wedding have a theme? That might help focus your selection.

 

[Italiahaircolor]

I really

the idea of using the iPod shuffle!

You could fill it with lots of the music that you''ll feature at your wedding! And, hey--even "older" people like music, and a shuffle is really easy to use!

And...if you order directly through Apple...they offer free engraving, so you could find a cute music/love quote like "if music be the food of love, play on" by William Shakespear

 

[wyndham]

Date: 5/14/2009 3:55:50 PM
Author: Fleur
Does your wedding have a theme? That might help focus your selection.

Hi Fleur,
We don''t necessarily have a theme, per-se, but our wedding is in a downtown hotel''s ballroom, and it''s half windows with a view of the skyline...so I guess you could say it''s a formal city wedding? Our colors are peacock blue/green, blush pink, ivory, and gold, if that helps...

Thanks!

 

[wyndham]

Date: 5/14/2009 3:58:07 PM
Author: Italiahaircolor
I really

the idea of using the iPod shuffle!

You could fill it with lots of the music that you''ll feature at your wedding! And, hey--even ''older'' people like music, and a shuffle is really easy to use!

And...if you order directly through Apple...they offer free engraving, so you could find a cute music/love quote like ''if music be the food of love, play on'' by William Shakespear

Hi Italia, I was hopping you''d stop in!

I wasn''t sure if the iShuffle would be too difficult for older guests to operate...I love the idea of filling it with music ahead of time, I wonder if Apple would be able to do that for us? Otherwise I think I''d have to load the songs on to them all manually and that would take forever!
Do you have any other ideas or would you for sure do this?
Thanks!

 

[mrscushion]

Date: 5/14/2009 4:13:00 PM
Author: wyndham
I wasn''t sure if the iShuffle would be too difficult for older guests to operate...I love the idea of filling it with music ahead of time, I wonder if Apple would be able to do that for us? Otherwise I think I''d have to load the songs on to them all manually and that would take forever!

That IS possible either via Apple or another vendor, but it might be expensive. We did this at work for a summit for 2,000 iPod nanos.

 

[mayachel]

How about custom wine bottles? When I think clutter-free, I think consumable. I know you said you weren''t interested in having your names printed on things, but how about a special quote on love?

Amazing truffles

Thinking from your digital idea: digital photo keychain

Maybe you could pre-load a shot or two on it from your engagement shoot? I would love one of these, it''s just the sort of thing I''ll never get around to buying for myself.
This particular brand works with both Macs and PCs and is supposed to be user friendly.

 

[mayachel]

OR

This is waaaay under your budget, but fits the consumable classy...

Sparklers done up with pretty packaging and monogram matchboxes?

ETA Link: Sparklers

 

[sunnyd]

I like the wine idea. You could pair it with wine chocolate. Or a truffle bar or something edible.

 

[cocolaw]

i am considering these for my destination wedding:

http://www.beau-coup.com/luggage-tag-silver.htm

i like the idea of writing their names on a paper inside and putting them on the tables

 

[Haven]

I love bottles of wine as a favor. Our good friends own a wine store, and they had a bottle of wine at each seat for favors.

The best part? The wine was called Mari Me. The bottles they used had a cuter label, but the link gives you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Punny *and* adorable.

 

[LadyBlue]

I like the idea of bottles of wine, or maybe a nice set of wine glasses!!

 

[katamari]

I am not sure about the Shuffle. I love them in idea, but I would worry that musical tastes among a range of guests would vary too much and all the work you put into them wouldn''t be appreciated. Plus, if your guests already have iPods or iPhones, they would just become clutter.

Consumables are always the way to go in my book. And since most people are coming in from out of town, I think some local flavor would be appreciated. Are there any local specialties specific to the destination? A local microbrewery? A must-try restaurant? You could get them giftcards somewhere with lunch reservations one day when there wasn''t wedding stuff going on.

You could also play into the city somehow. Is there something you can be sure they will want to do or visit? You could get tickets for that. Maybe a pre-paid museum admission. Or a sightseeing tour. . .

 

[NuggetBrain]

Where are you getting married? Is there something that your state is known for? Like if you live in Vermont, maybe give everyone perzonalized bottles of a really good maple syrup (it doesn't have to have your name on it, maybe something like "Thank you for being part of our day"). Or if you're in California, go with the personalized bottles of wine from a local vinyard and good wine openers. Or if you want to keep with the season, maybe give out cute little bags or boxes full of cherries and good, dark chocolates for the spring, or a really great bottle of cider for the fall.