Fun ideas for wedding favors?

[saw]

DD is getting married this spring, and I'm helping to think of wedding favor ideas. They're thinking personalized bookmarks, small candles, printed cookies or similar. Trying to avoid anything too bulky as almost everyone is travelling from a distance and anything that is just going to end up as clutter. Has anyone seen any really fun not super-pricy useful yet exciting wedding favors that you would be happy to get? 

[Rebel]

I got a small tote bag as a wedding favor once. I used it for years.

[Hannah]

Personalised leather key ring with the name of each guest stamped into it.  These were used for place settings.  You could also do them in wood.

 

 

Edited March 7 by Hannah
Corrected my poor English

[Hannah]

My daughter got a small jar of coffee with the words "it all began with a cup of coffee" and the couple's names and date of the wedding.

This got me Googling, and these diy ones with a coffee scoop are cute.

For the couples you could do some tea - and giggle the whole evening.

Edited March 7 by Hannah

[mum]

My dd got married last year. They didn't do favors. The majority of her peers also did not. Personally I am relieved, I have never received a wedding favor that I wanted. I have seen individually wrapped cookies done (bakery or home made) and always thought that was nice. Is your dd attached to giving favors?

[Toocrazy!!]

I read somewhere about pictures of the guests. Everyone is always so dressed up and looking their best, a picture memento would be nice. But I’m not sure how costly that would be. I like the consumable gifts- coffee is cute. Around here we see mainly cookies or chocolates. 

[TrulySusan]

59 minutes ago, Toocrazy!! said:

I read somewhere about pictures of the guests. Everyone is always so dressed up and looking their best, a picture memento would be nice. But I’m not sure how costly that would be. I like the consumable gifts- coffee is cute. Around here we see mainly cookies or chocolates. 

We went to a wedding that gave guest pictures. The bride had a friend doing mini Polaroids right before you were seated for the ceremony. They took one for her guest book and a second one for the guest to keep.

[Carol in Cal.]

I personally would find Cadbury eggs exciting, and after all, they are in season.

[saw]

Just now, Carol in Cal. said:

I personally would find Cadbury eggs exciting, and after all, they are in season.

Just bought my first Cadbury egg of the season yesterday! Only problem would be that, if I were the one responsible for the eggs, I would eat them. I have one idea for a cookie that represents one aspect of the bride's background, and this would represent another (English) side. I like the idea of doing a small gift bag that includes consumables that are connected to their backgrounds. 

[saw]

12 minutes ago, TrulySusan said:

We went to a wedding that gave guest pictures. The bride had a friend doing mini Polaroids right before you were seated for the ceremony. They took one for her guest book and a second one for the guest to keep.

I love the idea of pictures, especially as everyone is dressed up and people will be with people they see infrequently. I think we are doing a thing where we have a QR code so everyone can upload their photos, and then everyone's photos will be available to everyone. 

[saw]

1 hour ago, mum said:

My dd got married last year. They didn't do favors. The majority of her peers also did not. Personally I am relieved, I have never received a wedding favor that I wanted. I have seen individually wrapped cookies done (bakery or home made) and always thought that was nice. Is your dd attached to giving favors?

DD generally yes but her fiance quite likes the idea. They don't want to do something just randomly for the sake of giving favors though but want to give something thoughtful. 

[Innisfree]

We went to one wedding where the favors were cookie cutters with a favorite recipe attached. It seems like a good idea, but twenty years later, we still haven’t used either… too many favorites of our own to make already. Maybe that just makes me an unmotivated baker. 

Edited March 8 by Innisfree

[busymama7]

I have had 4 kids get married in the last 5 years (they were born in 5 years too 🤣) and none of them gave favors. It wasn't even on our minds.   I don't think anyone missed them.  We did have photo booths at some(all?) and I think a way to share them.  I do like that idea a lot and if someone has a nice printer it wouldn't be that expensive or just send the digital file to them. Nice background and a pro photographer would be awesome.  

This isn't relevant but the most used favor we ever received was a mix CD.  It had a picture of the couple printed on the front and a variety of great songs.  We played that thing in the car for years.   But alas that is outdated 🤣

[Faith-manor]

We have been to many weddings, and nearly every single favor was a flop/waste of money. If something must be given, I am a fan of a small tulle bag of candy kisses or M&M's. That said we have ONE favor we use. It was from a niece's wedding which had a very laid back reception - pizza buffet - and they gave out pizza cutters. It is a decent cutter, and was a little better than the one we had so we kept hers, and took ours to goodwill with a load of stuff.

Mark would use a tea ball and loose leaf tea. But I think that would be expensive.

[kbutton]

I like the idea of inexpensive consumables. I’m scratching my head trying to remember what we did for ours, lol!

Interesting ideas I have seen otherwise—playing cards with the couple’s name/date on them and flower seed packets.

[Kassia]

Matchbooks with the couple's name and wedding date on it were big when I got married in the 80s.  We didn't do those for our wedding, but my in-laws did them for our wedding reception that they hosted for us (we had two receptions in different states).  I still have some of those, but those wouldn't be good now.  For our wedding, we had very small glass bowls with our names and wedding date on them.  I still use mine to hold my wedding ring when I'm in the kitchen and handling food or using cleaning products that I don't want on my ring.  It's very small - not really a bowl but I don't know what else to call it.  

 

ETA - maybe about the size of these tealight candle holders but they were decorated on the edges and had our names and wedding date in script on them https://www.amazon.com/PINIWON-Tealight-Holders-Wedding-Centerpiece/dp/B0BG78D8TX/ref=asc_df_B0CHB9KY5W/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=680523312848&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18016317812781120870&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9015255&hvtargid=pla-2245582204976&mcid=15e8acefa7323cf09bb11f849dbea60b&gad_source=1&th=1

Edited March 7 by Kassia

[saw]

3 hours ago, Kassia said:

ETA - maybe about the size of these tealight candle holders but they were decorated on the edges and had our names and wedding date in script on them  https://www.amazon.com/PINIWON-Tealight-Holders-Wedding-Centerpiece/dp/B0CHB9KY5W/ref=asc_df_B0CHB9KY5W/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=680523312848&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18016317812781120870&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9015255&hvtargid=pla-2245582204976&mcid=15e8acefa7323cf09bb11f849dbea60b&gad_source=1&th=1

Those are pretty. DD's fiance has mentioned candles as one option he likes, so this might be a good one. 

[Beth S]

We've never given wedding favors (not expected by our guests), & usually don't actually take the ones given when we're guests.

But our favorite choice was our niece's favors---she married a wonderful guy whose last name was the name of a popular candy bar!

We all went home with a candy bar.  Very fun.

ETA = Another easy option is to make the centerpieces the favor that guests can take home.  (Trying to do double duty!)

Edited March 7 by Beth S

[KungFuPanda]

One of dd’s friends gave out a tiny jar of honey with a small wooden dipper. It was cute and consumable so nobody had to store it.  I think you can even get away with intentionally having extra cake and sending people home with a piece of cake. I did that at DDs baby shower and the kids (young adults) loved it. 

[saw]

17 hours ago, Beth S said:

But our favorite choice was our niece's favors---she married a wonderful guy whose last name was the name of a popular candy bar!

We all went home with a candy bar.  Very fun.

I like this! For fun I googled future SIL's name and food stuff but unfortunately all I found was sausage links and patties lol. 

[Kareni]

At our wedding, we gave Jordan almonds wrapped in tulle and tied with a ribbon.

My sister gave an engraved bar glass at one of her children's wedding showers.

Regards,

Kareni

[Ottakee]

I think doing nothing is perfectly fine.

i do have one that I still use 12 or so years later.  It was a casual wedding in a barn/country setting.  Each guest had a glass mason jar with handle at their table with a sticker on it with their name.  It was used as the water glass and later for other beverages at the wedding as well as a place card.  
 

it was triple duty…place card for seating, water glass, and party favor for those who wanted to take it home.

[DawnM]

Something specific to them?

I have gotten the following:

1. A bag of dry soup mix from a couple who loved soup

2. A small bag of flower seeds from a couple who loved flowers and gardening

3. Small mugs with the couple's photo on it (pretty sure those went straight to goodwill for most people though!)

Honestly, I haven't been to too many weddings with wedding favors given anymore, so nothing would be fine.

[Pippen]

6 hours ago, Ottakee said:

I think doing nothing is perfectly fine.

i do have one that I still use 12 or so years later.  It was a casual wedding in a barn/country setting.  Each guest had a glass mason jar with handle at their table with a sticker on it with their name.  It was used as the water glass and later for other beverages at the wedding as well as a place card.  
 

it was triple duty…place card for seating, water glass, and party favor for those who wanted to take it home.

I have some of these mason jars, only the name of the couple was on them. The names started wearing off fairly quickly in the dishwasher.

I had one other favor that I used for several years. The bride loved to crochet and crocheted dishrags in white and black and tied them with a ribbon, giving it a bride and groom look. 

 

[Halftime Hope]

Amazon has all kind of really adorable tiny soy sauce or sushi dipping bowls some in pretty hammered glass floral shapes, some gorgeous cherry blossom ones in pale pink ceramic, others made from adorable melamine or wheatstraw ones in pink, red, multicolor hearts, and so on.  I'd adore having a tiny bowl or tiny heart-shaped container to take home. 

Dd's husband's MN family always ate lemon drops at grandma's when they were kids. Lemon drops were a feature in the extended family, too, so they did tiny wood-grain-printed paper cubes with a clear window, filled with lemon drops. (The wedding was at a lovely, very rustic campground, so the decor worked.) It really tickled his grandma that "her" lemon drops were a feature at the wedding, and I think someone in the wedding party explained the significance and honored her for the memories she created for all her grandkids.