The tradition of giving your guests something to remember
the wedding by has been around for hundreds of years. Most couples
are familiar with the idea of sending a piece of wedding cake to any
absent friends and family members or asking guests to take home the
table centres or flowers. However, some cultures take the favours
a step further and gifts for guests become pivotal to the day.
Here are a few ideas for your own keepsakes that range from the traditional
to the more original and the exclusive to the budget. But just remember,
your guests are there to see you marry, not to bankrupt you!
Bonbonnieres
These are the traditional sugarcoated almonds given as Italian
favours. Just like the ingredients of the British wedding cake,
each almond either symbolises health, wealth, fertility, happiness
or long-life.Often enclosed in decorative net, you can buy or make
shaped boxes, cones, fabric blooms, top hats or baskets to match your
colour scheme. Brides from some Italian cities also include a piece
of china or silver gift.In Italy, it is traditional for the bride
and groom to take around the basket of favours to hand out personally
to each guest. This is a good way of speaking to everyone but it can
take up a lot of time so why not use your favours to double-up as
place cards?
Candles
The opportunities are endless! Some ideas include:
Floating candles to match your colour theme, wrapped in or coordinating
tissue paper. Match these with bowls of floating candles as table
centres
Give each of your guests a small candle tied with ribbons in your
colour theme
Have your guests form two lines outside as you leave your reception
and light their candles. It makes a beautiful last scene to your
day
Buy some small terracotta pots, paint to suit your colour theme,
candlewicks, a block of candle wax and items for decoration. Spray
paint the pots, boil the wax and pour into the pots, inserting a
wick into each. To prevent the wax from leaking through the hole
at the bottom of the pot, cover with a penny from the year of your
marriage
Add a twist by using essential oils to make scented candles
Buy simple, cheap candleholders add a candle in your colour theme
and display as centrepieces at your reception before your guests
take them home
DIY
Pick a verse, quote or book extract that you think is suitable
for each guest and handwrite them. Costs virtually nothing but shows
a lot of thought
Fill small glass bottles with potpourri in colours to match your
theme, decorate with ribbons or flower buds and finish with a cork
stopper
Have a local printer make up pads of paper with your names and
wedding date
If you have the time to sit down and relax during your wedding
preparations, why not cross-stitch a small wedding design and either
make into bookmarks or put into a picture frame?
Use rubber stamps to print an image onto small tiles and add the
date of your wedding. Glue magnets on the back and wrap in cellophane
and ribbon
Lottery tickets or scratch cards could win your guests a fortune!
Food, Glorious Food
Individually-wrapped chocolates or miniature boxes of chocolate
make tasty and simple favours. Be clever and incorporate your wedding
theme like teddy bears, hearts, stars or a strawberry and cream
flavour
For a more personal touch, why not make your own sweet treats?
You could even attach a wooden stick and wrap it in cellophane to
create chocolate lollipops
Alternatively make personalised wrappers stating your names, wedding
date and the guests' initials and simply use to cover small bars
of chocolate or sweets
Fun-packs of mini-bars make great, budget favours
Bake some shortbread biscuits or your favourite cookies, pack
in cellophane with a colour-coordinated ribbon
Fortune cookies can contain the traditional fortune message or
even a small blessing or poem if you make your own
Label baby jars of chutney or relish as 'Home-grown by Sarah and
John'
Buy small jars from a bottle manufacturer, have a fun afternoon
fruit picking, a day of jam making, and evening of decorating the
jars then add a name card for a different and very personal favour
Fun Has Just Begun
A deck of cards makes an unusual but reusable favour and the packs
can double up as place cards by adding a named label
Cans of Play-Doh are a child's delight, but what fun it would
be to see your guests make models of the bride and groom. Why not
offer a prize for the best likeness?
Glasses
Champagne glasses can be used for the toasts with a message attached
telling your guests that they are theirs to keep
Or use to hold traditional almonds or chocolates and decorate.
Spray wine glasses in gold craft paint to create authentic looking
goblets for a mediaeval theme
You can buy some fab little shot glasses, and even use a permanent
glass pen or etcher to decorate them
Living Memories
Seed packets and bulbs give pleasure for years to come. Pack two
or three bulbs in a box filled with some mulch and decorate
As with seeds and bulbs, tree seedlings make everlasting memories
of your wedding and are easy to find in your local garden centre
and wrap in a fabric to match the colour theme of your wedding
If you have a favourite charity, why not donate an amount per
person and place a certificate at each place setting for your guests
to keep?
Do a favour- give each of your guests a small card containing
a promise of a small favour from you. This could be anything from
taking Auntie Elsie out for an afternoon in the country to babysitting
for an evening for a friend who really needs a night out
Perfect to Personalise
Wedding
Bubbles make fun favours because not only can they be used instead
of confetti and add a bit of sparkle to your photographs they can
be used to blow during the toasts
Have fountain or fancy ball point pens engraved
Toothbrushes personalised with the names of your guests
Golf Tees or golf balls
Miniature wine bottles or spirits with personalised labels - perfect
to toast you at a later date
Printed T-shirts
Guest scrolls make wonderful keepsakes. Print a verse or message
onto each one and either use a wax seal or ring to keep them rolled.
Matchbooks printed with your wedding details
Picture This
Ask an usher to take instant photos of each of your guests as
they arrive and hang with ribbon on decorative tree branches set
in a large pot. As your guests leave, they can hunt for their picture
and take it home with them
Miniature double photo frames containing a picture of you both,
perhaps as children, make a lovely keepsake favour
Ask a caricaturist to draw little sketches of each guest on the
day
Send a little picture of the two of you on your wedding day with
your thank you letters
Ringing in the Changes
Wedding bell favours create a wonderful photograph opportunity and
can be decorated to suit your theme. The miniature bells are handed
out to your guests to ring in your new life together as you leave
your wedding venue or reception or even during the toasts. Small
poems can be attached to explain their relevance:
May laughter and joy fill this room,
As we toast the Bride and Groom.
Take this tiny Wedding Bell,
A sign of love to wish them well,
Ring it loud so all may hear,
When the Bride and Groom are near.
No rice or seeds to toss up high
When groom and bride are passing by,
But wedding bells rung strong and clear
Resound 'good luck' to all who hear.
So when the bride and groom depart,
(to wish them joy as life they start)
Ring this bell with all your might
'til the happy couple pass out of sight!
Seasons Greetings
Easter
Easter eggs or bags of mini eggs are obvious choices
Supplied in egg cups, your guests will have a lasting reminder
of your wedding once the chocolate has gone
Paint or decorate your own eggs
Summer
Use 'cool' paper fans for a hot, summer wedding
Make your own fans and add a picture of yourselves or your wedding
venue with your names and wedding date
Tie named luggage tags around lemons, limes and oranges and alternate
for the place settings at each table
Pick a favourite summer flower and lay one bloom on each place.
Sunflowers and gerberas are particularly eye-catching
Winter
Glass Christmas balls are the perfect favour for a Christmas wedding.
Purchase clear Christmas balls, print a photo of you onto clear
sticky-back paper. Join together and cut into circles. Attach to
a piece of invisible thread, roll around a pair of tweezers and
release inside the ball so that they can swing freely. Now your
guests will be reminded of your wedding every time they decorate
their tree
An easier alternative is to buy some beautiful glass baubles in
the colour of your wedding theme. Personalise by attaching a copy
of your wedding blessing as a tag and add your names and date of
your wedding, using a fancy script
Everyone loves Christmas snow globes and they make beautiful,
fun favours for a winter wedding. You can even include pictures
of you or details of your wedding day!
Miniature bags of mulled wine spices
Little Christmas stockings
Themed Favours
For an Oriental theme try your hand at origami
Fridge magnets - Whatever your theme someone, somewhere will sell
a magnet that will fit in with your plans, be it flowers, bears,
cars or anything else you can imagine
Figurines - inexpensive figurines can make wonderful themed favours
and can range from very inexpensive to the very costly. There are
many designs to choose from and they would provide a lasting memory
Key rings are a similar idea to figurines and make a useful favour.
One idea would be to have them with the initial of each guest, but
of course they can be obtained in almost any shape, design and colour
so you are bound to find something to fit in with your theme
Miniature love spoons make favours with a Welsh flavour and can
be decorated with ribbons in your wedding colours
If you choose an afternoon tea reception, then trawl antique fairs
for decorated teacups and saucers. Fill them with a small posy of
dried or fresh flowers and trim with ribbon
This is just a taster of what you can do. Why not let us know your own ideas by e-mail
?
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