When it comes to wedding favours, you either love the idea or loathe it. If you’re in the camp that loves them and are after a thoughtful or fun little token for your wedding guests, check out these 12 inspiring ideas…
1. Lottery/Scratch Card Holder
If you’re after a bit of a novelty for guests at dinner, think Scratch card favours – you can opt for cards you scratch there and then, lottery tickets or you can even stage your very own wedding draw with prizes up for grabs. Pop them in one of these cute vintage style ‘Good Luck’ card holders so they look the part, available from the weddingsonline shop at €5 for a pack of 10.
2. Homemade Preserves
A popular and practical favour choice, guests will love collecting a little pot of jam, honey or relish to take with them after your day of celebrations. Mrs C’s delicious bespoke wedding favours are homemade from the finest organic ingredients and can be personalised with the jar, ribbon, lace and embellishments of your choice to tie in with your wedding theme – find out more about Mrs C’s Artisan Preserves & Wedding Favours here. Or if you’re looking to add a sweet little touch to your pots of honey, this adorable ‘Meant to Bee’ label is available to download and print over on Wedding Chicks.
Image by Mrs C’s Artisan Preserves and Wedding Favours | Image via Wedding Chicks
3. Golden Ticket Fun Favours
We love the idea of giving guests a bit of post-dinner excitement, and these fun Wonka bar favours are a great way to go about it. Pop a wonka bar at each guest’s setting and wait to see who will find the coveted golden ticket inside! The golden ticket prize can be anything from a bottle of champers to a free drink at the bar. ‘Wonky Bars’ are available from thewonkyfactory.com.
Photo via rockmywedding.com
4. Mint To Be Favours
Favours don’t get any cuter than these ‘Mint to Be’ mints. Give your guests a little gift of mints or After Eights tagged with the slogan ‘Mint to Be’. If you’re a whizz on the computer you can rustle up some cute little tags to wrap around your mints yourself or the likes of Etsy sell ‘Mint to Be’ mints ready-to-go as do online favour stores. Another cute option is to offer peppermint tea as a favour idea, packaged in little organza bags or mini envelopes.
Image from Paper Hearts & Co
5. Personalised Sugar Cookies
There is nothing Lizzie May’s can’t turn in to a work of iced sugar art! We love the idea of treating your guests to a yummy sugar cookie as a favour – you can go the practical route and get a batch of iced cookies with guests names for place settings or just provide fun cookies that each guest can take home at the end of the night – she can ice anything from your wedding date and names to hearts, handbags or even mini Super Mario Brothers!
Sugar Cookies by Lizzie May’s Cookies and Cakes
6. The Perfect Match Favours
If you’re after a cheap and practical favour idea that you can whip up at home, these ‘Perfect Match’ matchboxes are a simple and sweet idea – they’re something your guests will more than likely use at some stage too. And the best part – this template can be downloaded for free over on Bespoke Bride, all you need to do is pick up some matchboxes, a bit of glue and get printing and sticking.
7. Seeds of Love Favours
A cute idea for the romantics – pop some seeds in to little packs with the tag line ‘Let Love Grow’ for a simple and homely gift idea that will stay with your wedding guests for years to come. There are so many pretty ways to package your seeds from brown paper envelopes (we love this illustrated version over on Wildflower-Favours) to cute little tubes.
Image via Wedding Chicks | Image via Wildflower-Favours
8. Personalised Fortune Cookies
Nobody will be able to resist the lure of a fortune cookie. A cute and fun dinner time idea, they are also a great way to say thank you through the heartfelt and personalised message tucked away inside. They can be shop bought online or if you’re looking to make a homemade batch of cookies, check out these recipes over on Alpha Mom or RTE. The other option is to buy ready-made cookies in bulk in an Asian supermarket and use a tweezers to tease out the messages and pop in your own personalised thank you.
Image via A Subtle Revelry
9. Homemade Salt Dough Ornaments
If you like your DIY and want to make something special for your guests, get crafty with some salt dough and cookie cutters and bake some ornaments that guests will be able to hang in their home after the Big Day. See the DIY for these pretty tags over on Intimate Weddings or if you’re after an ornament for your festive wedding, pop over to the weddingsonline shop where we have quite possibly the cutest snowflakes baubles ever. You can use them to display each person’s name at the dinner table – and they can be taken away by guests afterwards and hung on their Christmas tree!
10. Personalised Photo Keyrings
If you want to really surprise your guests, Keyring Memories is a thoughtful and impressive way to go about it. Keyring Memories snap away at your wedding ceremony and have personalised keyrings ready and printed come dinner time so that one can be popped at each person’s place setting! So each guest gets a photo keyring on the day with a personalised message from the happy couple on one side and a photo of themselves on the other as a little reminder of the day.
11. Sweet Stuff
Sweets always go down well with wedding guests whether you opt for a candy buffet they can tuck in to there and then or you give them their own little taster to take home and enjoy – if you’re looking for sweeties that look the part Lily O’ Brien’s and Lite Sweets (sugar free treats) offer yummy favours packaged to perfection.
Images: Lily O’ Brien’s | Lite Sweets
12. Donate to a Charity of Your Choice
Some couples choose to forgo the idea of wedding favours and give the money they would have put in to making or buying favours to a charity that is close to their heart. There are so many brilliant charities that would only be too delighted to provide you with either cards or signs for your reception space to tell guests that you have donated to them in lieu of favours including St. Michael’s House, ISPCC, ISPCA, Childhood Cancer Foundation, Marie Keating Foundation, Make a Wish and Self Help Africa. For more information on each of these charities and this worthwhile idea, click on the links above.
