Wedding favors are small, but lovely wedding gifts that the wedding couple leaves for each guest at the wedding reception. These trinkets are usually set at each place setting and may be incorporated into the place setting as the name holder.
When deciding on what type of wedding favor it is important to remember these 7 tips.
Tip #1 - Know your budget. If you will be inviting 100 guests to your sit down dinner reception and you only want to spend $100 on wedding favors you know that you need to look for wedding favors costing about $1 apiece. While most favors tend to run in the $3-$5 range each, don't be discouraged. One dollar per wedding favor can be done! There are tons of ideas out there. Purchase small gift bags that have been decorated and personalized as a place card. (You or a friend can do these by hand.) Then, large containers of items - beautiful pebbles, shells, candies or potpourri can be used as centerpieces for the guests to take home a memento of your wedding day.
Tip #2 - Use the wedding favors as a way to represent your wedding theme or colors. Small snowflake picture frames, ornaments, or coasters would be an elegant way to enhance a winter wedding.
Tip #3 - Whenever possible, incorporate the wedding favor as a cardholder for the place setting. If you have chosen assigned seating for your reception save yourself the time and expense of purchasing and arranging dozens of place cards and wedding favors. There are many wonderful favors that will serve double duty.
Tip #4 - Think outside of the box. A wedding favor is a gift, but there is no rule that says it has to be in a box all wrapped up and topped with a ribbon and a bow. You can save so much time, energy and worry. (Your worry, but mostly your bridesmaids time and energy, as they would probably be assigned the daunting task of wrapping those hundreds of gifts!)
Tip #5 - Be aware of the current trends and fashions. Wrapping candies in a circle of netting material and tying it with a personalized ribbon with your names and wedding date on them is so 1990s. There is no reason to despair even if you are completely lost for ideas. There are so many resources. You can search the Internet for ideas, join an online community of other people who are planning weddings and share ideas, or thumb through wedding magazines. If you can't afford to buy them, go to your local library and browse through the current and past issues for ideas.
Tip #6 - Use the newest technology to really make an impression on your guests. You have probably been to a wedding where disposable 35mm cameras are left on the table for guests to use, but are you aware that they make disposable camcorders now? Each guest could record their wedding wishes to you and take about 20 minutes of footage. The cameras are returned to the store where you purchased them and a DVD is made of each camera's contents.
Tip #7 - Enjoy the entire experience. If the idea of finding wedding favors puts you over the edge then you are taking on more than you can handle. The secret to staying sane while planning a wedding is to enjoy every stage - even the difficult ones. Planning and pulling off a large ceremony and party does take quite a bit of organization and a huge sense of humor. If you are acting as your own wedding planner try to make each decision and task as joyful and fun as possible. Yes, there will be stumbling blocks, but there is also a lot of festivity and amusement that goes along with planning a wedding. So, savor every moment.
