Favours, do you have to give them?! and if I do i want them to be exciting!

The idea of lottery tickets would leave me reeling if one of them was a million pound winner! (selfish brain kicking in) So I'd never do that, The best idea is the miniatures.

We're having a BBQ Reception so were giving everyone a little 'kit' which will include a miniature of vodka or whiskey, some moist towlettes (for sticky fingers) my fave recipie for BBQ Chicken and whatever else i can think to put in there!

Any wedding where the favour is either A: Edible or B: Alcoholic is a good wedding in my eyes!

Yea i agree with the booze or edible idea also miniture toiletries.

I think its easy for everyone to get wrapped up in their own wedding bliss but at the end of the day although a wedding will be one of the best and memorable days of any couples life the reality is that your wedding is not really that significant to anyone else so the whole idea of getting personalised wedding memorabilia for each guest etc i thinks a bit tacky and deluded (sorry if i offend anyone that has gone down that route)

Agree with you noth, thanks for the replies!

Who (in all honesty) wants a minature soap with the prsons wedding date, or worse sill picture on.

Mayne i need to be a little bit more selfish in my thinking, even though it is my day, you are really paying to enterrtain eveyone and make sure they have a good time, and eat and drink enough!

We too would love a BBQ/hog roast recpetion so love the BBQ favour kit...!

x

I've never gotten a favor that I enjoyed. Personalized ones are the worst. If you're going to give me a shot glass, please don't have your names and wedding date on it, as that is a sure-fire way for it never to be used again.

We're going back and forth on favors. Was thinking about doing "cupcake in a jar" since this is something the guests could snack on later in the night but I really don't want to be baking 80+ cupcakes several days before my wedding. Another option was the have their place cards as picture frames (which they can use again), but I'm afraid the costs might be staggering on that one. Honestly, wouldn't guests prefer that we just put more money behind the bar???

i was doing this, in my head woudl have been an easy option!! however we scrapped that when i realised how stressy id be!!

Favours are not something I wanted to spend a lot of money on as like you say they are often a waste. I once received a mini soap that had an overpowering flowery smell at one wedding, horrid. The other weddings I've been to haven't even done favours and I didn't miss them or think 'where the hell is my present?!'. We have gone down the slightly samey route after going back and forth with ideas: jelly belly sweets in our wedding colours in little organza bags, so simple and I think it only worked out as less than £1 per head! Plus if anyone doesn't like them I will gladly have them back!

What are peoples views on the charity pin badge favours ?

I don;t think favours are missed if you don't have them. I worry that they will get left behind and will end up being a waste of effort and money!

That being said, I love organising and anything arts and crafts so I am so far having favours - mini pots of jam with a recipe for fruit scones attached. Will only be spending about £15.

But if I don't get round to sorting them, I won't be TOO bothered

Were having cancer reasearch charity pins, they have a favour part of their website. £2 each, and at least if they get left the money has gone to a good cause. You could choose a charity that means something to you and your OH?

Im doing the sweetie thing, bought little boxes of Ebay for about £6 for 60 and a job lot of Haribo and Jelly Beans from Makro which came in at £15 so at approx 35p each i dont mind. Plus i like the idea of sweets or alchol as it gives the guests something to do whilst waiting for food and chatting.

This is what we almost went with but I didn't want people thinking we were forcing a charity on them ? even though my family and friends probably wouldn't be so harsh as to criticise it. Also we don't actually have a charity close to our hearts apart from the save the heroes one as my brother is in the army and has been out to Iraq and afghanistan many times and lost a lot of his men. Or I could have given everyone wristbands for a scoliosis organisation which are trying to set up a charity but then I don't want the people I don't know wondering what scoliosis is, asking and then them looking my back! I might instead make a cocktail to be served at the bar and then donate £1 or whatever for each drink sold to a charity of our choice.

Oooh im loving this post as I said right from the outset of planning my wedding "i'm not having any sodding favours"

They are a complete waste of money, i worked in my youth for the freemasons where we had lots of weddings every year at the hall, and the number of favours I binned over the years was astronomical.

I hope I dont offend anyone, but most people from what I can make out dont care!

I think we ae set on the cancer research pin badges, there will be a few people that wont be able to be there on the day because of that *** diesese and also people that will be there that have been directly affected by it also.

Our main concern was what if people thought we were choosing a charity for them etc. However, we're not asking them to donate thier money, we want to do it and we'll of course be paying for it !

We're making little pots of jam...personally I really like favours at weddings ?

I Like GOOD favours at weddings, ones where the wedding is small enough fo the favour to be personalised to the guest (so a miniature of a tipple you actually like, something relevant to you) or something with wide appeal thats personal to the B&G - at a friend's wedding they had tubes of smarties wrapped up in pretty paper, because he had proposed to her with the ring in a packet of smarties.

We are having small pirate type treasure chests with chocolate coins inside, because OH proposed at my 30th biorthday party, a pirates vs ninjas party, using a simiolar chast with the ring inside. Not the cheapest of favours but still onle a couple of quid a person, and the boxes are nice enough to keep and use for something should people want. And we did alot of tasting of chocolate coins to make sure they were the nicest ones with a sensible price tag!

I think alot of people like to keep momento's of things like weddings, especially closer family and friends. But that doesn't have to be a favour.

As I say, I think the best ones are things that mean something to the B&G, that have a bit of a story behind them.

This thread is eye opening, I think perhaps our special cupcake place names will be enough and yummy for everyone!

I'd thought about this one too and like the idea....there's a picture in google of mini cupcakes with the guests photo on a cocktail stick. Heyd fine it as a table plan that also doubled as a favour....

Looked really good! I'll see of I can find the link x

Here's the pic not sure this'll work!!

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=safari&gl=uk&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=JomFT_6BHerU0QXfvbXBBw&ved=0CDEQBSgA&q=cupcake+escort+with+photo+of+guest&spell=1&biw=320&bih=356#i=1

Brilliant idea (though i wouldnt be baking them myself) ?

Like this?

Thank you Sian!!? x

My mum made little bags of scottish tablet (a bit like fudge) for everyone. It's quite traditional to have it in autumn (we got married in November) and was something she made every year when I was little. Was also a way to incorporate the scottish background in my family. I think most people ate it either before dinner or with coffee after as most seemed to be gone at the end of the night. She put it in little bags sealed with a monogram we had designed and was on our wedding invites etc so it fitted in with the theme. Probably worked out around 30p per person for ingredients and the bags so just a gesture really but I thought it was nice to follow the tradition and have soemthing on the tables.

We have these:

And these:

Personally were not bothering with favors................... but just to warn people that are having miniatures as favors, alot of venues see these as something to charge corkage for as they class it as bringing your own alcohol into the venue, (just like a booze cruise), ......... my cousins got charged with a hefty fine as they were unaware of this, so heads up, best enquire with your venue before hand if this is the case.

WSS!! I was also going to point this out! venues aren't keen on you bringing your own alco!! I have heard of a wedding where they had the mini alco and the venue cleared them all after the guests had seen them and expected them to collect them at the end of the evening so they didn't drink them there and then and suprise suprise everyone forgot to collect!

personally we are not bothering with favours...i have worked on weddings before and i would say everytime AT LEAST 50% gets left behind!

i think charity pins are a nice idea if you have a connection to a charity a nice way to acknowledge an absent loved one other than the charity pins they are pretty useless IMO

x

We're doing homemade "fudge". Friends did small bags of local funge!

Not planning on having any favours - I agree with the comments about them being left behind.

Not realised a gift of a miniature would invoke corkage!

I'm in two minds as well about favours, not sure if they are just a waste of money. I'd like to get something personal to us, at the moment I'm thinking of heart shaped Welshcakes as OH is Welsh but I'm still trying to think of ideas. We got engaged in Paris so maybe something French/Parisian but I have no idea what!

There's definitely no need for favours - it's completely up to the bride and groom i think. I've combined the favours and place cards - got chocolate "tags" from Thorntons which have each guest's name iced onto them. Thought it would be something different - and who wouldn't be pleased with chocolate?!

I think that all we'll do is put a little message on a card saying that in place of a favour we're donating the money to the hospice which looked after H2B's dad just before he died of a very aggressive liver cancer last year.

I don't really agree with favours either although I wouldn't knock anyone else's ideas, I think doing this would be a nice gesture as his dad's last wish was that instead of funeral flowers people donated to the hospice instead. Be another way of carrying out that last wish.

I love little details so much that favours were a must for me, so I got a cheap 2m of gingham fabric, chopped it up with my beloved pinking shears into small swatches, and will fill with Jelly Belly beans. Because the theme is sort of Aussie BBQ meets English tea party (I'm English, he's Aussie) and because I love the book, the favours will be tied with little elastic attached to an 'Eat me' brown tag. It took me FOREVER to make them but it was very cheap; all in all I think the favours will come in at about 50p per person and will be left beside the name places which will be name tags pinned into apples to continue that Englishy feel.

I know that they're not important to other people; but there are people who find shoes, dresses, etc. very important and I don't at all, so I think it's relative. I certainly think you should do what YOU like and don't be put off by what others think.

Not doing favours, have just created place cards with a message saying thank you for coming in them and having a lady who does calligraphy write the guests' names on the place cards so if they want a momento they can take this with them. we've overspent everywhere else and don't think favours are necessary, guests are getting a nice meal, drinks, show etc. and in my experience, unless the favours are great they mostly get left behind and/or forgotten. Love seeing everyone's favour ideas though.