Wedding favours

We're having a few little games that guests can play during the reception or down time between stuff. So we went on Aliexpress and bought backsacks to put it all in (plus this will be something that people can use later as well).
For the games we're having tarot themed cootie catcher "fortune tellers", a matching game with little wooden nesting dolls that we're going to paint with different colours & designs. The goal of this game is to have guests who wouldn't normally talk to each other mingle a bit. Whoever finds their match gets a "prize" of a handmade recipe book with recipes collected from both sides of the family, as a symbol of the families joining. We're also having a photo scavenger hunt, and the list will be included in there with the facebook group's QR code for people to post/browse through pictures. As for favours themselves, we're having leather weaved bracelets (that we bought on wish in bulk for 25¢ each) along with a personalized handwritten thank you note. Since we're having a few kids attending, we'll probably throw in a few colouring pages with crayons and maybe a fidget toy in their bags. We're also setting up a selfiebooth that will be listed on the scavenger hunt, and a "lock & key" game that people make a donation of their choosing to a charity per key and try to unlock the "treasure chest" to win 2 bottles of our dinner wine (we haven't decided on a charity yet, but will just decorate a mason jar with the name on it for the donations & signage explaining the game).

My 1st wedding i didn't do anything like this for favours, and instead just set up a basket full of dollar store wedding bubbles next to our wishing well card holder. I found that most people didn't take any though, and ended up with most of them afterwards that just went in the garbage.It really depends on the couple and your crowd. As this is my 2nd marriage, most of our guests are going to be late 30's to 60's, and am not foreseeing dancing being as much of a focus for weddings with most guests being in their 20's to 40's, which is why we're having other activities that people can choose if they participate & when.

Hello,


My family was more traditional and definitely wanted me to do favours. To curb the expenses I did some DIY for my favours. My husband is an avid reader and I enjoy my wine/beer from time to time so I made two favours to reflect both of us. I made my own bookmarks (Blacks) and added tassels (Amazon) to them and had a friend help me put together the key bottle openers with tags (Amazon). They turned out well and it was nice to have a favour that was appropriate for children as they were in attendance too at the wedding.

My husband and I didn't want to do weddings favors as they would just be an extra expense that was not necessary. We wanted to shut away from all the "traditional" stuff. We ended up just giving away little slices of Jamaican rum cake (typical at jamaican weddings) because my father in law wanted to do something extra. Didn't cost us any additional money. So long story short. It's your preference, your friends and family are there to celebrate the union and shouldn't fuss over whether they got a wedding favor or not.

We are having a Photo Booth as our favour, the average age of our guests is 57 and definitely not a part of the selfie crowd. They get a photo of themselves to take home on us …

We created our own cookbooks using our favorite recipes, printed, laminated and bound them ourselves. The books were placed on the tables so that each couple/guest would get one.

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Thanks Allison!

View quoted message We will put it on the card/gift table. You could also make a small sign on each guest table as well. We won’t be having assigned seating since we are doing an evening ceremony/cocktail reception.

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Allison - where did you plan on putting your sign? Receiving table? I may change my mind and go this route

We are going to donate to a charity instead of doing favors. Probably about $150-$200 to a local dog rescue. I never take a favor at a wedding and if I do I rarely use them. At least this way I know that money is being put to good use. My sister did this as well and nobody complained.
We will be putting a sign out stating “In lieu of traditional wedding favors, we have made a donation in your name to: __________.”

View quoted message Thank you!!!

View quoted message We had a small wedding (around 60 guests) and I approximated $2-3 per person. We decided to donate $150 to a charity. We didn’t disclose to our guests how much the donation was and honestly no one asked. I say do whatever you’re comfortable with!

View quoted message Random side question for you, I was going to do the same but was unsure how you gauge how much to donate so I thought I would ask what you did to determine a number?

We are doing wildflower seeds with a tag "watch our love grow" with a single chocolate on top of the small box. I've been to many weddings and usually favours unless I can eat it end up god knows where lol

We're planning a small intimate wedding as it's a second marriage for both of us. We are planning on some type of edible favour, probably a small bottle of olive oil as I'm from an Italian background and olives hold a significance for my fiancé.

We are doing lip balms. They’ll have our names, a quote and our wedding date on them. We wanted something people always need that aren’t cumbersome.

We are going to mini jars if honey since the it will be right in season for our wedding! I think if you're doing wedding favors you want to be careful to give them something they'll actually use. Favourite items I've received were a succulent, and a little jar of jam. Things like cozies with your initials on it, or those bottle opener keys don't go over so well because lots of people at this point have a few of those keys, and a lot of people don't use cozies. I suggest sticking with something they can eat, or those photographs that everyone has mentioned sound like a great idea! Whatever it is, try to stay away from "stuff". We live in a tiny apartment so if it doesn't have a use it would get thrown out. Not everyone has space for wedding nick nacks, and I think you'll find that that is the case for quite a few people.

Rather than favours we made a small donation to a non-profit organization that was meaningful to us. On our guest book table we had a sign that read “In lieu of traditional wedding favours we have made a donation in your honour to …”. It went over well, we had a few guests comment on it.

View quoted message Thank you!
Took a bit of time to diy them all, but totally worth it

We're having our local maple syrup company make little bottles for us. It's special because their maple grove is on the same mountain my fiance proposed to me! It's also where his family's camp (cottage for you southern Ontario folks) is located!

View quoted message This is actually what my fiance and i are doing for wedding! Photos from our photobooth. And thats it + they’ll be well fed anyways 😊

We decided to gift our guests a photo of themselves from our photo booth- who doesn't want a nice photo of them with their significant other?

We did a number of wedding favors, as we were a small wedding of 35 people. We wanted our guests to have mementos

of all kinds, as many travelled from different provinces. We did small honey jars with our own honey, featuring a custom tag. We had a plush terracotta blanket for each family at our ceremony (outdoor fall wedding in the mountains), and a metal name marker. As we work at a machine/welding shop, we created these beautiful markers, which can be used as Christmas ornaments in the future. We stamped the name, on the front, and day & place on the back. Here are a few pictures. Our guests really liked the personal touches, and it will be items they will have for a very long time, which I think in the long run is more thoughtful.

View quoted message Wow what a great idea!!!

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Thanks for the tip. Costco slipped my mind yet again LOL

View quoted message Yay happy to help! Tip for welcome bags - costco now/during Christmas chocolate sales. We got individually wrapped Godiva chocolates, Bubly sparkling water cans, hot chocolate mix for the kids (just my nieces and nephews) all from Costco. Can't remember what else was in them now haha. Pretzel chips maybe? They were really appreciated.

We did give a crystal tealight motive holder with the Thank you cards to avoid shipping after the wedding. The favours were written by family households, couples, and individuals invited.

It seems favours are based on couples who feel it's their way to give back in edible desserts or actual gifts format. You decide what works best for you and creating stickers or tags is another thing to have your names and dates for Thank you gesture of having your guests attending. If your budget is tight and can't afford the cost of it, avoid it in whole and will be fine.

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You definitely did not offend! You made a better suggestion, IMO. I may just omit the chocolate idea I had, leave the polaroid station for them and do hotel welcome bags. (I didn't even think of this). Most of our guests are all driving a minimum 1 hour & 20 minutes away and all staying at the hotel we be blocked rooms at.

I asked the same question when I first joined the Wedding Wire community, I've been reading people's comments and watching wedding tiktok and a lot opt out of doing it. A lot are also switching it from a take home item that people will end up throwing away to seeds that they can plant in their gardens, succulents they can bring to work or have by a window, thank you cookies, little chocolates, popcorn that they can eat in-between meals, or a treat that they can eat on the way home or hotel as a late-night snack for the road.

I liked that idea of a cookie they can save and eat later, or if they get hungry during the reception it's there. My cake girl will decorate T+C 09/30/2023 on them. if there's leftovers great and if not that's okay as well. I've seen people buy a bottle of liquor and fill little bottles, with a cute little not saying we've tied the knot, now let's take a shot. so many ideas. I just wouldn't waste money on a bottle opener, coaster. but something they can eat or drink.

We did favours that also doubled as placecards. Guests were allowed to choose their entree which meant I had to let the serving staff know who was having what. I found candles at ikea that matched our colour scheme and then used my cricut to add the guest’s name to the candle and an icon depending on what they were having.
I also used my cricut (and print and cut) to make new dust covers for the candles. Since we met on tinder we added matches to the backs of the candles, but this definitely wasn’t necessary.

Out of 106 guests we had about 10 left behind, but most have reached out that they forgot and still wanted it so I’ll call that a success!

View quoted message Your very welcome! I'm happy I helped and didn't offend. I will say, we did have a lot of guests staying at the hotel across the street we had a room block at so we did have welcome bags for them. We also hosted dinner for anyone staying the night before.

We are doing favours still, but something edible that can be used vs a trinket.

View quoted message Well said! I think I’m with you on this. We are also having a four course meal, with dessert, open bar and late night snack. I haven’t priced a Photo Booth, but have been to plenty of weddings where taking a memory home like that is worth it!
Thank you for the comment and advice