WEDDING FAVORS

[NY SPARKLE]

What kind of favors are you giving to the guests at your wedding? I''m trying to think of classy, but unusual favors. I think I have one too many of the usual favors.(don''t want to say what it is cuz I don''t want to offend anyone)

thanks

 

[PetRockLuuurv]

Hey there! I was thinking the same thing. Check this site out: plantablepaper.com I found the site when I was looking for X-mas wrapping paper, BUT they have these really cool wedding favors that can be planted to grow real wildflowers. They're unique and classy and they aren't too expensive $2.50 each. Let me know what you find, too, since I'm still lookin, too!

Thanks!!

 

[pauls girl]

Up until last weekend I really didn't know what I wanted to do....I don't want to give the usual favors, cause I know that when I get them they are basically just dust collectors. I knew I wanted to give a food favor, because I always love to get those. Then last weekend, I was at the hairdresser, sitting waiting for my highlights to take hold, and was reading an old copy of a bridal magazine. One couple had a pretty strict budget, so they had a candy maker make chocolate rectangle bars, with a nice border made of chocolate, etc. They then had the names of each of their guests written in white frosting on these individual chocolate bars. These bars were used for two purposes: the placecards, and the favors. Now, they had a smaller wedding, like we will (aprox 85 people), so this seems like such a great idea. The favors ended up costing them something like $1.25 a piece, and it killed two birds with one stone.

I just really like this idea, because I haven't seen anything else that really strikes my fancy, so unless something even better comes along, this is what I am going to do.

 

[jenibear]

My FMIL and I are making the favors. We are getting married outside and we havea garden theme.

The favors are mini terra cotta pots we painted with flowers and filled with seed packets. We them made little flower shaped notes pasted on green wire we'll stick in the pots. The notes have our names and date on the outside - that I have to write - and open up to a cute poem about planting the seeds. Less than .50 a person (SALE SALE SALE)

and so cute!

 

[DancinGirl]

I haven't decided yet... I am SO behind!

It's Nine months from TOMORROW (Friday!)

SO MUCH TO DOOOOO!!!!

 

[sxn675]

This may not be what you had in mind, but we gave a donation to charity in lieu of favors. You could indicate that in the program if you'd like. "In lieu of favors, Jack and Jill have made donations in your names to the Whatver Society in memory of Jack's late mother Joan". Or something...

If you want to give something, how about something like a rose on every plate? I've seen that done before and it looks very nice. If you get the roses online, it's not too expensive either. I'm also a huge fan of food favors!

Good luck, and let us know what you decide!

 

[XvvOrlyBearvvX]

I am giving out little stuffed bears from The Little Bear Co...they are soooo cute and you personalize the cloth Tag attached! You know like Jack and Jill married march 4th 1999.
http://www.thelittlebearco.com
thats their site its sooo cool!!!

 

[Mara]

We're doing CD's with some of our favorite music on them. Probably one with dance and fun music on it for me and classical for Greg. Homemade CD labels and sheer envelopes tied with ribbon.




Favor pet peeve: I hate it when people give away ridiculous things that you either a) can't eat or b) can't use. My girlfriend got married last year and gave these little damask covered treasure boxes with candies inside...with their names and the date on the outside. I mean, what do they think? I want to keep that and put it where? In my house? I don't think so!!! I threw them both out, we didn't even eat the candy which I think were chocolates.




Hence us not wanting to waste any $$ on something like favors because I know how people are. CD's are things that people can use...and who cares if they throw them out, they are something like $1 each when all is said and done.




Food favors are good as long as they are eatable. Also once you eat it, it's gone. Nothing to throw away. I love cookie favors. Same with something like seeds because then you can plant them and be done.




Hehehee.

 

[jenibear]

Mara - I agree with you on the favors - I usually hate them and throw them away. So we tried to find something most would enjoy. Most will keep the pots considering we made them - they're cute for paperclips and the like for work or home. And since we're in the burbs most people have gardens or window boxes - so we figured many would enjoy the seeds.
We figure if people really hate our favors they can toss them and it won't be much skin off our back.

My least favorite favor (no offense) are golf balls. WTF?

 

[NY SPARKLE]

I found a great web site that gave me some new ideas. Check here to let me know what you all think. I personally like the cookie mix and the cookie cutters--especially the pumpkin one.

I like the thought of a food aspect to the favor. we'll see though. It sounds cheesy, but take a look at them.





www.psaessentials.com

 

[NY SPARKLE]

I like the thought of giving a CD, but 3 of my friends gave them as favors this year.

 

[Mara]

Yah, I don't mind that the CD thing is being done all over the place...it's cheap, easy, useful and we love listening to music so it just fits the bill. Favors are the thing I want to worry the least about anyway. Everything else is stressful enough!




Plus our guests are all getting gift bags in their rooms since it's a destination wedding which will include flip flops, a towel, sunscreen and a bag of our favorite Kauai coffee for their mornings, so the CD favors are kind of an additional thing that doesn't make much difference to us...we just wanted to have something cool and low-key to put at their place seatings.

Golf balls?! Maybe in Miami!

 

[PetRockLuuurv]

Oh, jeez Mara!!! Don't curse me with golf balls just cuz I'm from Miami

I have a question re: the CD favors..what did you do for the covers? I think I have a program on my computer that has an actual CD "layout" in it (you know, the spine, the front, the back, the inside and the circular sticker to go ON the CD) but what do you use for images? A favorite pic of you two? Or cool artwork outside, just the wedding date inside? Or an ordered list of the songs on them? I'm totally curious as to the design...

 

[Mara]

PetRock...okay no golf balls!!




I haven't designed the covers yet but I want to use something like maybe our cool sunset picture from Kauai, or a picture of one of the Waimea cottages, or something from our original trip, but in a 'watermarked' look which means the text on top will be visible and the picture is barely visible as a watercolor underneath. Hard to explain

It will be something subtle, and I don't want pictures of ourselves on it either...no friend should be subjected to that daily...hee hee!!




I have seen the programs that do the covers for you as well....we'll get one of those.




For the sleeves I waffle between a glassine envelope tied with ribbons or similar....OR this amazing idea I saw on www.remoteassistance.com using Envelopments, where they put the CD into an diamond shaped Envelopment and then tied that with a ribbon to close it; then put cardstock with the entire list of the songs on the outside and tied the ribbon through that too. Really cool. I am considering doing that but it's another $60 or so for the Envelopments. But it looks SO COOL.




Here's the picture and how to make it:


http://remoteassistance.com/creativecorner/samples/cdholder.htm




We'll see.

 

[fire&ice]

Geez, just found this thread. I *am* a dinosaur. In my day we received gifts - not the other way around - maybe matches. I did not have any favors. That said, we gave away all the flowers to anyone who wanted them.

 

[Kay]

I saw a cool idea for CD favors on the Knot, but unfortunately I do not remember the link. The bride used an envelopment for the wedding programs and there was a diagonal pocket on the inside back cover that held the CD favors.

I've considered CD favors because they are cheap and not as likely to be useless dust collectors in people's homes after the wedding. Of course, not all of my friends like my taste in music -- a few of them have accused me of being stuck in the 80's.

Is anyone concerned about the copyright issues of using CDs as favors? Particularly if you are putting your names and wedding dates on them (i.e., Exhibit A for the plaintiff)?

 

[Mara]

Just put your first names and wedding dates...hee hee no one can prove anything.

 

[derekinla]

How about these as part of a wedding favor?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2972341458&category=20937

 

[Mara]

Haha cute idea Derek!!

Esp for an asian-themed wedding or similar.

 

[winyan]

A long, long, long, time ago...we gave small bottles of Portugese wine as our wedding favors. I don't know if that's still being done.




win

 

[iceprincess]

Just found this fun thread...I'm so out of the loop! Personally, I like the CD favor idea. I went to a wedding this Oct. which was a Cinderella theme (groom is an employee of Disney Corp.). Great centerpieces with a pillow tower and a glass slipper on top. This was likely expensive to put together so we had to play a game and the winner got to take home the centerpiece.

Anyway, the groom proposed to the bride on a vacation to Hawaii so the CD cover had this great color photo of him throwing her up in the air behind this gorgeous Hawaiian sunset. This was an actual pic taken of them immediately following his proposal, as he had asked a friend to capture this precious moment on film. The CD is a collection of the couple's favorite songs. I tell you, I still listen to this CD in my car and I think of their wonderful story.

Another inexpensive favor item my brother had at his wedding was a candybar idea. It had a photo of him and his bride and a cute list of ingredients for a happy couple on the back: lifetime of trust, handful of memories, love...etc. A little corney, but still cute. Even if you don't eat the chocolate, numerous guests told us they saved the wrapper for future favor ideas.

 

[sumi]

Ours was a very small garden wedding, so we knew we wanted the favors to be something related flowers. We gave paperwhite bulbs with bulb pushers as our favors. The bulb pushers were actually very small vases that we found at Crate and Barrell. The paperwhite bulb fit perfectly on the lip of the vase, and we thought the vase could be used for other things in the future. My sister planted her bulbs in the bulb section of her garden so I get to see my paperwhites bloom each year.

 

[redjenn]

We are using small tree saplings from a local greenhouse. It works out to about $2.00 each...

I didn't want to give something "useless" so we came up with the small tree saplings..

I also like the idea of doing pouches of wildflower seeds.

Jen

 

[jenny]

This is a great thread! I was just talking w/ my mother about this last nite! We were thinking of the box of choc. or since the wedding is at nite we may just get simple plain votives w/a vanilla candle and a little ribbon tied around the the votive i would want the candles to be lit on everyone's plates. but i'm still thinking!

 

[Beansy]

oops

 

[Beansy]

Okay,

So I'm not engaged, but have the wedding planning in the works. It's just too much fun. Anyway, here are a ton of favor ideas I have been working on with many themes involved. I hope it helps someone...

FUN- playing cards from catalogcity.com, custom tile with names and date from exclusivelyweddings.com

IRISH/ ST. PATS- lucky soap from romanticflowers.com

CHRISTMAS/WINTER- drages in poinsettia flower shape from yourweddingcompany.com, old fashion tin ornaments from romanticflowers.com

GARDEN- dragonfly place card holders from beau-coup.com, silver leaf ornaments from beau-coup.com, lucky bamboo from romanticflowers.com,
pastel terra cotta pots with favors inside from romanticflowers.com, pear place cards and soaps from romanticflowers.com, pin cushin with cute flower on top as place card from beau-coup.com, robins egg nest from romanticflowers.com and wedthings.com

BEACH- dolphin bottle openers from exclusivelyweddings.com, sand shell bottle from islandweddingshop.com, sea shell silver keepsake from favorsdirect.com, sand dollar cookie bucket from luluscookies.com, chocolate shells in favor box and or bag with sugar to replicate sand from favors-to-treasure.com, sand castles from islandweddingshop.com, candle in a sea shell from favorsdirect.com, sea shell pace card silver from favorsdirect.com, starfish candle from exclusivelyweddings.com, blue fish place card holders from bridalpeople.com, sailboat votives (THESE ARE MY FAVORITES) from bridalpeople.com

FOOD-chocolate puzzle from exclusivelyweddings.com,
cookie cutter favors from weddingpalace.com, chocolate covered pretzles from romanticflowers.com, fancy cookies from beau-coup.com

ROMANTIC- country candle lanters (could use flowers too) from beau-coup.com, heart bell place card holder to ring for B and G to kiss from exclusivelyweddings.com, heart tealights from catalogcity.com, delicate rose petal soaps from romanticflowers.com, silver mint julep cups from beau-coup.com, candle tins from beau-coup.com, silver picture frame as place card and favor rom exclusivelyweddings.com

 

[mountainrocks]

I'm planning to use little tins of loose tea, personalized with our names and the date, we might even think of some cute name for the tea blend, but that's still undecided.

We're using www.adagio.com, they have a huge selection of great teas, and the price is right, (we're doing 150 tins of an herb tea for less than $2 each).

 

[aliciamt7]

We are giving everyone scratch-off lottery tickets for our favors! One company has lottery ticket holders that have your names and date printed, saying "Lucky in Love: Wishing you riches from the new Mr. and Mrs. ....", and altogether the favors will cost us about $2-3 per person (depending if we get $1 or $2 scratch offs!) We are going to have them put out at everyones plate, and hopefully someone will get lucky!

Alicia

 

[Mara]

Yeah okay I am doing so much other stuff for our guests (welcome bags with sunscreen, personalized travel candles, flip flops, kauai coffee, and itinerary, orchids on their pillows and in their gift bags, and a special rehearsal dinner luau for everyone the night before) that we decided to go really easy on the favors.




We WERE doing personalized CD's but that was too time intensive for me...so we decided on clear glass candy tins from www.blissweddings.com with red-hot heart candies inside and a personalized little label on top. Cheap and easy...the tins are 40 for $38, buying candy in bulk either online or at Costco, labels from BlissWeddings are something like $15 for 40 of them.




My real find was the travel candles in the gift bags. Found a girl on eBay who makes them in tins, and asked her if she could make me 20 of them. They were only $1.50 each and she has tons of scents. I chose 'fresh peach' and 'lilac' and she put the fragrance label on the bottom. I am getting labels from BlissWeddings that say something like 'Keep the fires burning' and 'Greg & Mara 5/12/04' underneath, to put on the lids of the candles. I'm only giving the candles to the gals, razors or something to the guys.




One tip for gift bags, eBay is a godsend! I got 40 small bottles of suncreen for $20 total including shipping! They even have small aloe vera bottles for around the same amount. Flip flops are $2.50 on sale at Old Navy. Kauai coffee from lioncoffee.com was 30 small bags (8-10 cups of coffee) for $35.

 

[Mara]

Our favors...they have mints in here which I love but can't seem to really find! So we are doing red-hots with just our mongrammed initials.