Wedding favors
 

Speaking of weddings....what do you think about wedding favors? I think they are mostly a waste of money b/c I usually take them home and after they sit on my counter a couple days I throw them away.

The two exceptions I have enjoyed are: a little bag of nice chocolates and my favorite was a 3x5 picture frame.
This was a Nov. wedding and in December we all received Christmas cards with a wedding photo of the B&G so all we had to do was cut off the bottom where it said "Merry Christmas" and put it in the frame. If I remember correctly they enclosed their thank you note with the xmas card.

Back in my day wedding favors were never more than a book of matches that said the B&G's names and the date.

For daughter #2's wedding, we made little metal bells to ring instead of the glass clinking. They were decorated and many friends use them as christmas tree ornaments we have been told. :)

Easy and cheap!

I honestly I am not sure what favors we will be using. I was thinking if we do anything at all it will be something edible. Right now my favorite idea is to do some caramel filled chocolate apples in boxes since we're getting married in the fall.

Cute idea! We went to Lindt Chocolatier (cheaper than Godiva) and handed out mini boxes of 3 truffles each. Which we had personalized there with our names and wedding date on the ribbon (which matched the color of my girls' dresses). Each person got a box, rather than one per couple. I figured, who doesn't like chocolate and why send someone home with another paper weight?

Also, if you want to make your own, they sell the truffles individually wrapped and you can make your own little gift bags and tie them with the chocolate inside.

We had chocolate roses tied with a bow at each table. A guest made the favors as our gift. It was cheap, fit with the theme and people seemed to like it. One of my sister-in-law's family has honey bees and they gave away jars of honey. My favorite gifts have always been disposable. I feel guilty throwing away the gift, but would feel horrible leaving it.

I've been in a wedding that had a bunch of candles left at the end. The MOB tried to get me to bring some extra home. They ended up sitting in a drawer for a "rainy day."

When picking out the favor, try to think of what the masses would like...and what you really enjoyed when you got a favor at a party.

We came from the same "day." I had never been to a wedding with favors until the last year or two (except for, as you note, the old matchbooks or napkins.) They seem completely pointless to me . . . I associate favors with a kid's birthday party.

I really don't want to take anything home from a wedding. Even the very nice chocolates we brought home from a wedding last summer went to waste -- we ate one each (of the 4 or 5 we each had in a box) and the rest went into the refigerator, where they remained until we found them 6 months later and threw them away. Of course, they were pretty much lost on me -- I'm not a big chocolate fan at all -- but even my wife and kids forgot about them.

My advice as a frequent wedding guest: Forget about favors.

The best favor I got at a wedding was a CD burned with songs the couple loved. There were dance songs, jazz, reggae and classical. And, they played some of the songs at the reception. I still listen to that CD.

When my oldest son's godfather got married they had a special "favor" for my kids- a bag filled with coloring books, crayons, stickers, etc. It kept the kids entertained at the table during dinner and the toasts. I'm pretty sure they had similar favor bags for all the other kids there as well.

My favorite adult favor has been a silver picture frame that holds a wallet sized picture. It originally had the placecard in it, but now it sits on my windowsill with a picture of my kids in it.

Not exactly wedding favors, but along the same lines-- I went to a desination wedding in South Carolina and we all had gift baskets in our hotel rooms. The groom was from Ohio and the bride from Maryland so the gift baskets had a little bit of both- Maryland Utz Crab Chips, Ohio Chocolate buckeyes, plus sunscreen, chapstick, and it was all put in a sand bucket with a frizbee as a lid.

My mom and my fiance's mom both were full of ideas for favor, but I personally think they are sort of a waste. Who wants some little trinket with someone else's name and wedding date on it? Seriously, if someone even keeps it it just sits around collecting dust.

So my condition for favors was that it must be edible/useable. We're going to be doing something involving chocolate golf balls. Both of us golf and we're having the reception at a golf club. We will also incorporate golf tees personalized with our name and wedding date. Relatively cheap, and a lot of our friends are golfers so they will get used. And if someone throws theirs out, not a big waste.

And there are to be no bells of any kind at my wedding, lol. I have been to several where they were favors and the constant ringing drove everyone crazy, including the bride and groom, who couldn't even get down a bite of food. IMO, the bells just encourage people to ring them. People forget to clink on the class, but if the bell is sitting right there...

The most recent weddings I've been to had CDs of the couple's love songs, or wine glasses with the couples theme, date, etc. on them, just like from prom. The CDs are always nice, but the wine glass? It's nice, but I haven't a clue as what to do with it, so it's wasting away in a box with all my prom/sorority formal/etc. glassware.

This is what we did for our wedding four years ago. They were all songs that had meaning to us as a couple, but they were mostly alt/adult rock. People seemed to like it then.

We went for the simple route of small boxes of fudge. Nothing special but very cheap and easy!

There was one wedding were bells were given... and every time someone rang the bell, the bride & groom would have to kiss. It was cute at first, but then it got pretty annoying b/c everyone kept ringing the dang bells!

Another wedding I went to, guests received a cookie cutter and a note that said something like "<bride> and <groom> were made for each other". Whhaaaaaat? What am I supposed to do with a cookie cutter? I don't even bake!

I really like that idea of donating $x for each guest to a charity

lilsunshine - I love the idea of those favors. And hey, chocolate is ALWAYS good.