Favours

Hiya

We are having charity pins. For the women we are having breast cancer pins and for the men pancreatic cancer pins. We have chosen these two charities as we have both lost family and friends to these diseases.

we are pinning them to cards which explain why we are doing this - this will also double up as place cards.

We only have a make-shift sample of what they will look like, if we get organised I will post them.

Minitatures always popluar and will be lest likely to be left behind.

I didn't have favours. My opinion, but I think they're a waste of money.

In the last 4 years I've been to 7 weddings and can only remember the favours from one (H's cousin, who had a little bucket of choccies, and yes everyone left behind the buckets) and hadn't even remembered that until H prompted me! I couldn't even tell you what my brother had, or what my cousin (who I was a bridesmaid for) had.

Really, all favours are a little keepsake from the day. If your guests want that, they can take their place card. The only worthwhile favours, IMO, are charity ones. At least your chosen charity benefits from them.

I agree with Mel, although I might be a hypocrite and have some but only if I can get the one possibility which our faces printed on m&m's - they only ship to US though, so need my friend to forward them on to me and it might just be toomuch hassle and postage costs for it to be worth it. Otherwise I see it as another £100-200 that can be saved and spent elsewhere.

H's cousin had the little buckets (painted to match the colour scheme!) with chocolates in and I don't think anyone took the buckets with them, but they are the only favours H can remember from the dozen or so weddings we've been to in the last 5 years - so I'm not sure if that helps you?

What Mel says .... agree that they are an expensive waste of money on the whole .... other than the charity thing of course .... but even then you could not do the pins and simply let your guests know you've made a donation to something instead of giving favours - not everyone will even take their charity pins home so ....

As an alternative, we did a free bar for our reception but had a charity bucket on the bar which we invited guests to make a donation to whenever they got a 'free' drink. We made over 900 quid, which when you think our bar bill was just over 1000 quid for the night, is a pretty decent return!! And Maggies and Project Scotland were both very happy with our donation ....! And people were interested in what we'd raised - I got heaps of people ask me afterwards what we'd made ...

Hi justengaged

I always put in a little note when I send my favour orders out suggesting that the groom add a couple of sentences to his speech - something along the lines of 'The little ### on the tables are a little gift from my wife to say thank you for sharing our special day, a little reminder for you to take home'.

The feedback from the brides has been that the favours are always taken.

Hope this helps

Heather HIB

OMG Charity pins is such a good idea!! Thanks!! I have been racking my brains trying to figure out what to use!

x

Heather - The mention in the speech is a good idea. I love the charity pins for favours as well. Definately something memorable and a worthy cause.

I do personalised chocolates and candles which are inexpensive and something a bit different. Prices start at just 20p for the wrappers only and go upto £2 for the most expensive candle. Chocolates are between 40-50p for green and blacks or kitkats. My details can be found in the directory as a new HIB or in my signature should you wish to have a look.

Happy planning everyone.

I was going to do miniatures for the men but found out the other day that my venue don't allow them so I have decided on uxedo keyrings for them and compact mirros for the women...I'm also doing the sugared almonds (h2b loves them) and maybe some choccie hearts (depends on the price though).

We are doing whisky miniatures for the men but only cos FIL can get them for virtually nowt. i need to think of something for the laydees (was thinking something lavender related but i can't decide).

only reason we aren't doing charity pins (which was my original idea) is cos we are not having a gift list at all and doing a charity collection instead - thought it might be a bit preachy to do both.

We're being boring and doing heart-shaped chocolates.

I figure that even if they get left behind, there's at least 22 of us staying at the venue who will have hangovers to feed in the morning!!!

We did Marie Curie keyrings for the ladies, which were those ones with coins you put in shopping trolleys. For the men we gave them lottery tickets. I think a couple of the men won £10's.

The keyrings went down really well and we still see them on people's keys over 2 years on.

Hey

We're making our own fudge for favours - it's something we have been doing for a year or so now and so we're fairly practised! This should keep it fairly cheap and I think it's nicer as it's a bit more personal.

xx

Could'nt agree more. We did'nt have them. We had a silly awards ceromony during the meal- most metrosexual male etc, more memorable to us and our guests than a few sugared almonds ?.

Good luck with your planning- i really enjoyed it x

What a fantastic idea - and so very generous of your guests ? ?

I'm having hand made chocolates from this site:

http://www.polkadots.co.uk/

I'm having small boxes of leaf shaped chocolates with a name tag on each box to act as a place name.

Ali x