Wedding 103: Details – Favors

It has been quite the busy week and so I have been slacking in my blog posts.  There is still a “Return of the Artichoke” post coming as end to The Creative Kitchen Challenge but that pry won’t happen until later this weekend.  For now I thought I would take some time this Friday afternoon to talk about Wedding Favors.

Wedding favors are meant to be a gesture, a token, to your guests that you appreciate that they decided to share in your special day.  The favor should tie somehow into the theme of the day and/or represent the couple.  Favors should also not break the bank.  Remember, this is to be a token, not an elaborate gift.  A favor should be figured for every guest in attendance.  Even at $1-$2 a favor, that can add up if you have a large wedding.

Some people choose to have the favors double as a way to “send off” the happy couple.  Bubbles, bird seed, or sparklers have been popular choices.

Courtesy of My Yellow Umbrella

Food is also a popular choice.  In addition to the candied almonds, artisan jars of preserves, honey, etc. can provide a nice touch — especially if homemade.

Courtesy of Eclectic Images

And some couples prefer the green thumb’s touch.  Flower seeds, bulbs, etc. allow for their guest to have the seeds of your love be a reminder in their own gardens and yards.

Courtesy of A La Carte Vintage

For our wedding, we did a combination of the above.  Because we had a very small wedding in our backyard, we decided to provide gift bags as our favors since we had so few guests.

Our wedding colors were chocolate brown, red, and sunflower yellow.  I purchased gift bags and tissue paper from Target and ribbon from Hobby Lobby.  I then took the wedding brand that I had created with the fig tree and our names with the wedding date and printed them on large shipping labels. We stuffed the bags with iris bulbs, homemade salsa, poetry cards, and bubbles in the shape of ducks.

   

The bulbs were put together with yellow tulle and both brown and red ribbons.  We chose irises since they were one of the wedding flowers.  The salsa is our own Green Door  Salsa recipe that we’ve been working on for awhile.  On the poetry cards (which I don’t have a picture of) there are two poems, one on each side.  We are both literary buffs and so each chose our favorite love poem to share with our guests as a keepsake of the day.  Ducks are an inside joke between the two of us (quack) and so when we found these duck bubble necklaces at Target, it was extremely serendipitous.  (If you look at the alter on our wedding flowers post and on the stove of our kitchen painting post, you will see our rubber duckies that watch over us all the time!)

Our favors were a representation of us and the special day.  The homemade touches and whimsy added to each of our guests involvement.  Hospitality goes along way in making someone feel special — even when it is a day about you!