The last wedding I went to, which was 5 years ago, the bride and groom gave out (I kid you not) phone cards with their picture on it! :eek:

I can top that. I've been to 3 weddings where the favors were less than desirable.
Wedding #1 gave the guests a pen. Not a fancy pen w/their initials or date engraved. Just a regular BIC ballpoint pen. :eek:
Wedding #2 gave us lifesavers w/a poem. :eek:
Wedding #3 gave a stick of gum. I kid you not. A stick of gum. :confused: :rolleyes: :eek:

FYI: Favors are still given out. We're handing out disposable cameras so each guest can take photos of the wedding they can keep. Make the favors personal to the couple. It adds a nice touch. ;)

you know looking at the above magazine and with carnation's daughter's theme.....i just love the idea of a small present box with something not to expensive inside....a keepsakes box with perhaps a poem or a little charm, or a flat ornament...like a silver dove

it just looks so elegant

of course for my favor's I think I will make small hand made taper candles in my wedding colors, scented.....that could be a good idea...to small candles in the wrapped box

We gave out favors that were a HUGE hit. We gave out decks of personalized playing cards that were in our wedding colors (navy and silver) and had:

our names
wedding date
Las Vegas

We didn't want to do anything that was terribly junky like a little trinket that no one would use. We got personalized fortune cookies from weddingthings.com (you can make 5 personalized fortunes) and mini chinese take-out boxes to put them in. It is really inexpensive, and people will eat the favor and won't have some little cheap thing hanging around that will collect dust. We couldn't afford a lot of the really nice favors with 200+ guests, and I love the fortune cookie idea.

I think most people do favors, but it's another thing to not stress over too much. I good friend didn't have any at her wedding and I didn't even notice until we were discussing mine - a YEAR later!

I'm doing little tins of dried Michigan cherries (where I am from) and little Puerto Rican candies (where he is from). I always think food is good, because it gets eaten.

Wow, LOVE is in the air!! Congratulations to all the brides-to-be!! I've enjoyed reading all the posts and have had a good laugh over some of them, like the bic pen for a favor!! That is too funny!!

My best advice would be to book everything NOW or ASAP like florist, photographer, etc. Depending on your area things can book up faster than you realize! I planned my wedding over 18 months in advance and we still didn't get the day we wanted, the DJ we wanted, etc. A lot of people/services/locations were booked solid way in advance!!

And make sure you get DETAILS (including pictures and samples if possible) of everything that is going to be provided which I think a few people kind of mentioned. Our interpretation of a "FULL" flower centerpiece and our florists turned out to be totally different. The pictures she showed us and what we got were completely different, but we had no proof because she just showed us pictures at an appointment.

Enjoy it all, this year will go by way too fast!

I was at a wedding this summer and they gave all the women lotion and lipgloss. I forgot what the guys got.

Chinese weddings often give out chopsticks to signify fertility. The word for chopsticks in Chinese is pronounced "fye jee". Fye can also mean quick, and jee can also mean child. (though chopsticks have nothing to do with kids....unless you want them to be messy!)

We made personalized mix cds of music we liked (one per couple or thereabouts). They were fairly inexpensive, but somewhat time-consuming (burning cds, putting everything together, etc...) We got a lot of great comments on them and, over 18 months later, people still say they listen to them a lot.

Last wedding I went to, I got mints in an envelope. But I also got to keep my placeholder frame, which was a cool silver 2x3 frame. (At least I think that was mine.)

I've thought about having the favors at my future wedding be a donation to a charity of my future hubby and my choice. That way you don't have to worry about if the favors will arrive on time or if they will be made on time. Just place small cards on each plate and say "A donation of $X.XX was made to XYZ Charity in your name."

I don't think this was already mentioned (sorry if I missed it)....

FAVORS - I heard of a few people giving out instant lottery tickets at their wedding (could do one/person or per couple to save money). Then they have everyone scratch them off at the same time and a few people actually won big $$$. I thought that was kind of a nice idea. Although not that exciting if you're not the one winning the money!

My experience
 

Ritziest favors: homemade gel candles with tiny seashells in them

Most redneck favors: beer cozies silk-screened with the bride & groom's names

Cutest favors: chocolates in the shape of a cello and a sax (from the wedding of a middle school orchestra teacher and a high school band director)

I'm sorry I'm still kinda wondering what a cookie table is....is it just a table of cookies? When would it be laid out? I'm Indian and as fun as our five day weddings are I feel they could use some new ideas here and there. I have three weddings this summer and as they're all close cousins I would love to do something different for them.

A cookie table is exactly that...tons of cookies! When my cousin married two years ago, he married a girl who was Italian. They had a huge cookie table with all kinds of Italian wedding cookies on it.

For our wedding, we had cameras on the table for guests to take pictures with during the reception. We also did jordan almonds--5 in a little tulle bag. According to my aunt, who did my matron of honor toast, they stood for:

family
friends
fun
future...

and...fertility ( my aunt added that at the last moment, and Mother said "Amen!!").

I've heard of a lot of people doing cookie or dessert tables lately. Lots of cookies and fancy desserts....Yum!! Kind of livens up a boring wedding cake!

At my wedding, after we served wedding cake we had the hall set up a big table of coffee, biscotti (I'm Italian), and baklava (my husband is Greek).