Wedding Favors

“Do I need to give out wedding favors?”

No. While wedding favors are definitely a nice sendoff for your guests, the truth is, you’re already hosting a lavish event for them. A lot of money goes into your wedding and your guests will absolutely understand if they don’t get a favor on their way out. If you do choose to gift a little something, we have a couple suggestions for wedding favors that are sure to leave a lasting impression.

Wedding Favors Your Guests Will Love

1. SOMETHING EDIBLE. Your guests may be traveling from out of state and unfamiliar with nearby places to get a treat. Leaving them with some Krispy Kreme donuts or a custom frosted cookie with your wedding hashtag is a sure way to leave guests on a sweet note.

2. SOMETHING DRINKABLE. Whether you decide to dually purpose your seating  assignments as a favor using mini champagne bottles or if everyone is leaving with lemonade from an old family recipe, your guests will be happy they have something to sip on when they leave the reception or even on their flight home!

3. SOMETHING PRACTICAL. By now, I’m sure you’ve seen, or received, a bottle stopper or drink coasters from a wedding. Now these are practical, and frequently used items. The key is to not overly personalize something that would be displayed on a regular basis. Avoid giving out coasters that have your names and wedding date on them. Your guests will not likely display this at their home, since the details are specific to you, not them. A non-personalized coaster with maybe a generic love quote or image would work best.

4. SOMETHING IMMEDIATELY USEFUL. Your guests have likely been drinking alcohol for the last 5 hours (if not more). To avoid any “messy” hotel cleanup fees, I suggest leaving your guests with something that may help them that night. “Hangover Kits” are super popular. You can include anything from gum or mints to Advil, hand sanitizer, mini water bottles and eye mask so your guests get the best sleep possible.

5. SOMETHING THAT IS USEFUL LATER ON. Candles, scarves, seeds/succulents to plant, handkerchiefs, bath bombs, notebooks, Stabucks gift card, and other generic items can be used at a later date by your guests or even (I have to say it) re-gifted!

6. SOMETHING PHILANTHROPIC. Many couples have a cause that is near and dear to their hearts: an animal rescue, an organization that raises money for diseases, or a group that assists a specific group of individuals. On behalf of your guests, you can make a donation. Let your guests know with a simple card that in lieu of a favor, you’ve donated to [insert organization] in their name.

Personalization Exceptions: any wedding favor that can be used/consumed right OR a wedding favor that is not meant to be displayed in a home can be personalized. i.e.: Koozies are something typically used in a laid back environment and not usually set on display in a home, so go ahead and personalize these and give as wedding favors! Custom water bottle labels or bags sealed with a wedding logo or sticker can be appreciated and then (likely) tossed or repurposed for something else.

My Personalized Wedding Favor

My husband’s initials and mine are A & W. Now, neither of us has ever been a frequent drinker of pop [insert: soda, for all you non-Midwesterners]. The one carbonated drink that I’ll happily use for floats or with a juicy burger is root beer! We felt it only natural to incorporate a little A&W Root Beer into our big day. I purchased a couple hundred bottles of the drink (this was a feat in itself, since the particular bottle style was only carried in certain stores, with limited amounts). I measured the labels and contacted a seller on Etsy who could recreate the A&W label to look virtually the same as the original, with some hidden personalized touches. Matching the exact same fonts, our label replaced “Aged Vanilla” with “Aged Awesomeness”. The logo now contained our wedding date and last name. My favorite part was creating the nutritional facts and ingredients list to pertain to us:

Serving Size: 1 Happy Couple. Love 100%, Sarcasm (made with natural and artificial bad jokes) 200%, Loyalty 100%, Friendship 100%, Respect 100%, Jiu Jitsu Moves 100%, Percent Daily Values are based on commitment from this day forward

In addition to the actual ingredients, we added “combined in Tampa, Florida” (where we met) and “prepared for final production at the Ritz-Carlton Ft. Lauderdale” (where we had our celebration).

We replaced the comment hotline number with “Questions or concerns? That’s nice. You have the right to remain silent” (my husband is a police officer, so this made our guests laugh).

“Serving Suggestion: with pizza & a movie, cuddled with a four-legged friend”

We additionally gave our guests “Hangover Helpers” created with a custom stamp and mini canvas bags with mints and Advil.

Are you inspired to find something fun for your wedding favors? Have a look at some of our past weddings and check out the ways different couples incorporated themselves into wedding day details and unique wedding favors.

© Sweet Memories Photography