Fun Favor Ideas

Personalized Pens
From Michelle

We used pens in our wedding colors( yellow and white ). They each said" This day I married my best friend" and also had our names and dates engraved on each. We placed them in a decorated basket next to the guestbook for each guest to use to sign and keep. We wanted something people could keep to remind them of our wonderful day. They were very inexpensive also. About $45 for 200. We have been married 2 months now and I'm seeing friends and family using the pens,so not only are they a reminder but they are also useful!

Brandy Sniffers
From Melissa

Most of the wedding is pretty original. I had the hardest time finding a centerpiece that was original and that was affordable. Here's my solution! I'm going to take a Brandy Sniffer, and put randomly colored sea glass (you could also use the colors of your wedding) filling the bottom of the Brandy Sniffer about an inch, filling it with water and putting a Siamese Fitting fish in each glass. Each centerpiece will cost about $9.00. It's original, fairly inexpensive, and you get a fish! Not to mention that the fish are very easy to care for and can live in the Brandy Sniffer forever if that's what the guest who takes it home chooses to do! I have only heard of this being done in about 3 other instances.

Handmade Paper Fans
From Anonymous

Because our wedding is in the backyard of our home during summer's day, I constructed lovely handmade paper fans with leaves and rose petals imbedded in them for the ladies. I tied the fans with green raffia and inserted a small silk rose at the top of the tied area. Each fan has a strand of raffia with a small sage green card at the end with our names, the date, and a tiny border of vines in olive ink which I ran off on my computer. The ink looks a bit like gold. The cards were cut out with a scalloped edge scissors. For the men I copped out-- They look wonderful. They'll get filled with candy or nuts. I have a six-year-old ring bearer who is going to pass them out to the guests as they arrive, then ask them to sign the guest mat and have their picture taken.

Blown-Glass Bonbons
From Anonymous

We really liked the colorful look of blown-glass bonbons (candies) and wanted to incorporate this as a wedding favor. We used tied 2 together with fine silver thread/ribbon and used them as napkin holders. Everyone loved them and will use them as ornaments on their Xmas tree or as decorations on a candy dish.

Pound of Cats
From Anonymous

I ordered a "Pound of Cats" from the Archie McPhee catalog. It's a pound of small plastic cats (5 styles), and we're going to wrap each one in tulle with a chocolate kiss. When my fiancé and I marry, we'll have five cats in our house! The kids in attendance can play with them, and toy cat favors certainly are memorable.

Little Bears
From Karen

I hunted quite a bit to find nice, inexpensive favors. I wanted something different than the traditional almonds, and something that (maybe) wouldn't get thrown out right away. I finally came across small (about 3" sitting) jointed teddy bears at the local craft store. They were very cute, plush, moveable, and on sale for $1 each! There were several different styles, so I got a shopping cart and filled it up! Each bear got a personalized ribbon, and some curly ribbon to match the wedding colors. We got one for each guest, and plan on having them hold the matchbooks.

Salt & Pepper Shakers
From Michelle

For my bridal shower, we bought 150 acrylic salt & pepper grinders, one for each woman. Dolled each grinder up with the most extravagant white ribbon and a card reciting "Showers of Happiness, Michelle & Andy". They were so incredible elegant at each place setting at the shower, not to mention how useful they will be for each guest later!

Fake Wedding Cake
From Anonymous

We are getting married in a special ceremony and will be taking our vows with 9 other couples. I have chosen to make my own favors and will actually be making two little figures (bride and groom) on top of a fake wedding cake. I am actually spending about $2.00 a piece. The "cake" is made up of three layers of foam flowers. I have hot glued a white and gold ribbon and gold pearl beads around each layer which act as the cake decorations. At the top of course are the bride and groom and a ribbon with our names and date of our wedding.

Charity Donation
From Anonymous

This idea came from my future sister-in-law, we are going to make a donation to "The American Cancer Association" in the names of all of our guests in memory of my fiancé's father, who passed away from Cancer 6 years ago. We thought about this for a long time and instead of giving out something that someone might just put away in the kitchen cabinet we would make a useful donation of what we would have spent on favors ($500).

Personalized Mugs
From Debbie

I gave great thought into what type of favors I wanted each of our guest to receive at our August 1999 wedding. I wanted them to be unique - not just candy, which would be eaten, and then be gone. So, we decided on personalized mugs. The mugs will be in White, with our names, date of our wedding, and 2 intertwined hearts all in our color theme. The mugs, although not inexpensive, are only about $3.50 each. Since our wedding is fairly small, we are able to order them in a 1/2 gross (72 pieces). I will put some white mints in white tulle tied with white ribbon into each mug, and then have them in some nice cellophane bags that I saw. They will be sitting at each place setting. We are also giving a Thank-You scroll to each guest. The scroll will be tied with white ribbon, and each scroll will have a heart-shaped seating place card attached to it, and they will lay across each place-setting. I've done all the tulle favors myself, picked up a large bag of mints & ribbon at the department store, and ordered tulle with my invitations - they were easy, and fun to do. I also did all the Thank-You scrolls on my computer - I went to a business supply store, bought some fancy flowered computer paper, spent most of my time deciding on the appropriate font, and printed them up in no time - they look great!

Handcrafted Soap
From Jacqueline

For our favors we're doing something unique, at last for the women guests. A girlfriend of mine makes handcrafted soap. Together, we have picked out a fragrance for my wedding. We're mixing vanilla & jasmine oils together. It smells heavenly! We're going to make small heart shaped soaps for my female guests. Something that they can use and hopefully the smell will remind them of our wedding day. Of course they will be wrapped in two shades of tulle (ivory & hunter green are my wedding colors) and tied with a personalized ribbon. The cost for them is about $2.00 each for everything! For the men(can't leave them out) my fiancée is known for loving a certain type of candy, sooooo he'll be passing out his candy to the men & kids. Also, for the kids we're thinking about doing a transparent soap with a toy in it. To incorporate the smell, I will be wearing a homemade perfume that has Vanilla and Jasmine in it.

Pez Dispensers
From Julie

My fiancé and I are giving our wedding guests various Pez dispensers (complete with candy). We both loved Pez growing up, and I saw on the news recently about the resurgence of interest in kids toys. Plus, we thought it would add a bit of fun to the reception when everyone gets to look and see what Pez dispensers others got.

Heart Shaped Cookie Cutters
From Melissa

My fiancé and I have chosen to give our guests heart shaped cookie cutters inscribed with our name and date on a recipe card for traditional sugar cookies. We have to assemble them with ribbon. Also inscribed is "truly cut out for each other". I thought this was a unique favor that I have not seen before. The cost is about $1.50 with cards, cutters, and ribbon included. Pretty good price for something the guests can actually use.

Water Globes
From Melora T.

At old Navy, they have water globes with snow in them. You can insert a picture and put something else on the backside. We are going to pick out a nice picture of the two of us and then put our date on the backside. They are 5.00 each, but over the summer Old Navy runs a sale and you can get them buy one get one free....

Sun Catchers
From Renee'

For our wedding, Michael and I are giving each guest a sun catcher.. Each suncatcher has a moon and 4 stars on it. Wrapped in each box is the attached note: Legend says that if you make a wish upon a star your dreams will come true. May the stars shine down upon you so that you too may find your dreams. Thank you for sharing in our special dream!!We spent 1.50 per sun catcher.

Zarape!
From Paloma

Jose and I spent a lot of time planning our wedding favors because we wanted them to go along with our wedding theme that is, "Jalisco." This is the state in Mexico where both our mother's are from. Our favors include, a small multicolored zarape, ribbon reading ("Paloma & Jose, Nuestra Boda 5-8"), a small white ribbon rose, a little terra cota cup or bowl, and a clear plastic base to set every item on. We used a glue gun and started from the bottom up. First, place the small 1" round base face down, gather the little zarape around the center and twist the small white rose stem around the center and glue it onto the plastic base so that the zarape stands up like butterfly wings. Glue the little terra cota bowl or cup directly in front of the propped up zarape and adjust the rose so that is complements the cups holder edge of bowl. Glue the ribbon in bow shape adjacent to the terra cota bowl/cup. The little Jalisco favor should stand up nicely with a personalize bow in front. It looks fabulous and with the help of Jose's mother, we've made 300 (one for each couple or family attending).


Embroidered Quilt Coasters
From Michelle,

My future Mother-In-Law spends her free time making heirloom quilts for her family and as gifts. She is making us quilted coaster squares for favors, 2 per guest. We purchased ribbons with our name and date on them to wrap each pair in. Very personal and different. Lets hope they go over well with our guests

Favorite Poems & Sayings
From Carol & Larry

We are printing (using our printer) small booklets with our favorite sayings and poems in it. We also plan to put the names of our wedding party, any special thank you's we have and our program of the ceremony. We will put our names and wedding date on the cover of the booklet. The ushers will hand these out to our guests as they arrive for our wedding. We will make extras and mail them to out of town guest that weren't able to be with us.

Minature Oil Lamps
Andrea & Todd Campbell, Ottawa, Canada

We are having two types of favors at our wedding. For the ladies, I found these little glass oil lamps (which will match the centerpieces) for $1! A steal! We'll decorate them with ribbon and a tiny flower to make a very pretty gift

Chinese Take-Out
From Jeff & Debbie, Los Angeles, CA

We are having a Chinese reception, complete with the traditional 10-course meal, in Chinatown. For the favors, we're using tiny Chinese take-out boxes we were able to buy at Smart and Final (a food service supply store). We bought 200 boxes for $16. We'll tie a ribbon with our names and the date on it to the handle and fill the boxes with red paper (construction paper fed through a shredder at work). Nested in the paper will be a fortune cookie we're baking ourselves and then dipping in chocolate. Our names and the date will be the fortune. Total cost should be about $.50 per person.

Hearts
From Jill Batey

My daughter just got married this past weekend (March 6) and I did most of the party favors myself, except of course for the matchbooks, match boxes, etc. I molded white chocolate into heart shapes, put 2 in a plastic bag and tied with a ribbon, put a plastic spoon (in the wedding color) with 2 Hershey kisses in a bag tied with a ribbon and with a saying: a spoonful of love, a couple of kisses, Mike & Casey are now Mr. and Mrs. (that was a favorite) and also bookmarks that I made on my computer. I also decorated heart shaped paper mache boxes with colorful fabrics the color of the wedding and used as centerpieces, people were fighting over them! They also held all the party favors. A lot of work, but also a lot of fun. The most expensive was of course the boxes, because the material cost more than anything else. Probably spent about $50, candy was very inexpensive as was the spoons because I bought them at an outlet party store.

Cold Day in...
From David & Wanda Burnell

My daughter is getting married in April of 2000. Before her and her fiancé ever met, they both had told their friends that it would be a cold day in "hell" before "I'll" get married. So, my sister is creating ceramic icicles - one for each guest with a ribbon attached with the bride and groom's name and wedding date. Then each Christmas, all their friends and family will think of them when using the icicles to decorate their trees.

Spice up your life...
From Julia Nucci, Plymouth, Michigan

My fiancé and I found wonderful 3-inch glass spice bottles at Crate and Barrel for $.60 apiece, and we're filling them with candy and tying them with satin ribbon to match our wedding colors. On the top of each cork, I'll write a message thanking our guests for being with us. The total cost of each favor (includes bottles, affray ribbon [3 spools for $.99], candy, marker) is $1.10.

Fabric Covered Hatboxes & Champagne Bubbles
From Allyson, Canada

My fiancé and I made the attached favors for the women (fabric covered hat boxes, about 2.5 inches across) and will fill them with the traditional candy-covered almonds. They cost about $2.85 CAD each. For the children, we bought champagne bubbles and will attach almonds in tulle to them. They cost about $1.15 CAD each. For the men, we will make seed packets and (again) attach almonds in tulle. They will probably cost about $1.15 also.

Rolled Bees wax Candles & Winnie the Pooh
From Christina & Steve,

We are making rolled bees wax candles. They will be wrapped in paper and have a Winy the Pooh sticker on each one. We are also having tulle wrapped love hearts with the little sayings so everyone gets something to nibble. I though of the candles because my MOH is very crafty and made them to sell at a craft fair one year. The Pooh stickers are to add something cute (Steve & I both love Winnie the Pooh) I believe it will only cost about 1 to 3 dollars as my MOH gets things at a wholesale price.

Personalized Keychains
From Mary Lynn & Curtis, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada

We are having keychains made. On one side will be a double heart with our names, and on the other will be the date. The key chains will be made out of hard blue plastic, and the writing will be engraved, and show up white (I think the plastic is white with blue coating). A friend of ours is making them, so I think we are paying .75 to 1.00 Canadian for each. We are also having a lot of kids at the wedding, so planned on having a piñata (sp?). I would like to come up with a kids favor to put in their, but we will see

Charity Donation
From Kimberley & Mark, Stockbride, MA

We decided to make a donation to charity in lieu of favors. We're thinking something between $1 and $2 per guest to the St. Jude's Children's Hospital. St. Jude was my grandmother's patron saint, so it's also in honor of her. It's just our opinion, but we thought this would be more meaningful and useful than a "trinket."

Hearts in Glass
From Rebecca

I am getting married in September 1999 and my theme is hearts. My colors are red, white and silver. I have found a local artist who does stained glass and she is making me 275 hearts in red glass, textured clear glass and shiny white ones all trimmed in silver! They were $1 each so I couldn't beat it!

Marbleized Christmas Ornaments
From Melissa

Since ours is so close to Christmas (Dec. 17) we're making marbleized Christmas ornaments -- the ones where you start with a plain glass ornament and use 2 or 3 different shades of paint dripped into the inside and swirl it around. They turn out very pretty so if anyone wants directions, let me know! We're getting ribbons printed with our names and date to tie onto the ornament. We figured that way they would have something of our wedding on there, but if people want to take it off before they hang it on their tree, they can! I'm not sure how much they're going to cost yet, but it shouldn't be over $2 each.

Picture Frame Placecards
From Jennifer & Andrew

We've purchased wallet size picture frames for $3.75 each. We are then going to digitally scan our engagement picture and have each persons name and table number placed at the bottom of the picture. My father is in the photography business, so we're lucky in that the digital aspect isn't going to cost us anything. We're thinking of also getting some little Hershey's miniatures and using the personalized wrappers. These we would just scatter around the centerpieces on each table.

Botanical Greeting Cards
From Katie

I'm going to be using some of the "Garden Greeting" cards as "reverse place cards". (I'm doing a buffet brunch with no formal seating chart, but I want people to be able to pick up their cards as they walk in and use them to mark where they're sitting, so other people can choose seats accordingly.) The cool thing about these cards is that they have wildflower seeds mixed into the pulp, so people can take the cards home and PLANT them! I'll have to come up with some sappy verse to put on the card as a 'thanks for coming' message - something about love growing like the flowers, or vice versa. =) A package of five blank cards with machine-made envelopes runs about $12 US, so it ends up being about $2.50 a favour. But again, they're doing double duty, and I think the sheer novelty of it will make them go over well. I picked them out because wildflowers are going to be the major floral decoration at my wedding (it's a medieval theme), and because I couldn't come up with any medieval-ish favours that didn't look totally cheesy.

Watering Cans
From Dawn & Michael

Originally, Michael and I weren't going to do favors, but his aunt offered to do the favors for us since she's very 'crafty' and enjoys making things herself. So, since we're having the reception in a barn, she bought small galvanized watering cans from the Oriental Trading Company ... and is going to wrap candy inside tulle and place them inside the can. In order to save her money, though, we decided that we would only pass these out to the women at the wedding (I don't think men would care either way ;) -- I didn't want her to have to pay for 200 favors.

Christmas Ornaments & Stockings
From Heather & Graham

We are using blown glass heart shaped Christmas ornaments for the obvious reasons :o). We are attaching a ribbon with our names and date on the heart also. And we are attaching the same type of ribbon we are using for our names in the hole for hanging. We were also thinking of handing them out in little red Christmas stockings (you know the real tiny ones) with some kisses. Either that or little boxes wrapped in Christmas paper. That is still in the works. We will also be handing out the little wedding bells to our guests. But for the ornaments and stocking w/ candy (that's what I am leaning towards) will be about $2 ea (I think).

Handmade Little Ring Bearer Pillows
From Sheila, 5-29, Vancouver, Canada

They are little ring bearer pillows. I wanted to do something a little different, and since I sew wanted to use my talent to create something different. I am giving one to each female guest. Half of the pillows I made have pink ribbons, and the other half have blue. They will have a nice scent to them too. I haven't picked out the scent yet but will be a nice little thing to hang in a closet or put in a lingerie drawer. They cost a little more the a dollar CAD. I finished them with confetti ribbons printed in blue.

Engraved Champagne Flutes
From Ande & Rob

We are giving away champagne flutes with our monogram and the date etched into them. They will be about $5 each. I have a friend who is a graphic designer who helped me design the monogram/ logo. It will also go on the ceremony programs, placecards and thank you notes. My fiancé chose the favors- he thought it was a cool idea, and we wanted something unique.

Twist Style Pens
From Gina & Nick, 5-1, San Jose, California

We purchased nice, metal twist style pens. They are navy, and have our names and the date along with a little sun in gold on them. They were about $1.50 each, I think they were a bit cheaper as the quantity went up. I was adamant about not getting something that people would just throw away or that would just collect dust (oh, the guilt I felt when 1 1/2 years later I threw away my MOH's favors... they were adorable white heart shaped boxes, with their names and the date on ribbon, with two rings and two doves sitting on them with a dove chocolate inside. Man were they dirty and dusty!!). We've gotten a lot of positive feedback about the pens - although one individual told me that it was a wedding not a bank grand opening... I imagine someone a few months after the wedding digging around in a purse or a glove compartment, pulling out my wedding pen, thinking, how convenient, thank goodness I threw this in there, what a great time that wedding was, Nick and Gina are so cool!

Dover Thrift Classic Books
From Rhiannon and Jim

We are giving Dover Thrift Classic books. They are around 80 cents a piece. We will put a sticker type bookplate in them that say something like "From the wedding of Rhiannon and Jim" with the date, then maybe wrap them with a pretty ribbon. We are also thinking of giving guests a small box of chocolates or fortune cookies. We'd like to do the fortune cookies, but aren't sure how expensive they'd be. We chose the books, because we both love to read and thought it would be appreciated by a lot of my English student friends. Also, the first time we met the conversation took off when we both discovered we loved medieval literature. We like the fortune cookie idea because the subject of marriage first came up when we both got the same fortune at a Chinese restaurant. It said: "You have a strong desire for a home and your family comes first".

Little Box Placecards
From Melissa

We're using little boxes as place cards. I will put (using handy gluestick) a little message from us thanking the guests for making our day special on the inside of the lid. I will put green (wedding color) tissue paper in the bottom of the small box and then will fill it with Hershey kisses. Flowers seem to be an okay gift for many occasions, why not for a wedding favor? I really want to do this, but I'm just not sure... I was thinking of putting a daisy at each guest's place setting with a tag saying "He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, WE TIED THE KNOT!" with our names and wedding date. This will serve as both a decoration and it will be like we're giving each guest a flower, and I love daisies!