What are Wedding Favours and Should You Have Them?
What are Wedding Favours?
Wedding favours are a great way to show appreciation for wedding guests and wedding party. These small keepsakes allow you to express your personality, tastes, wedding theme or colours in an inexpensive but thoughtful way.
For most couples, there are far more pressing matters to think about than wedding favours. However, the wedding dress, venue \ catering and honeymoon usually occupy a more significant part of the planning – and budget! So unless you are excited to prepare DIY wedding favours, don’t worry if this part of the wedding planning is an afterthought.
You don’t have to spend a fortune on wedding favours, particularly if you’re on a tight budget. Instead, you can offer guests anything from a small chocolate treat to handmade gifts. Choosing charity wedding favours is also a great way to raise money for a good cause.
The best part is that wedding favours tend to reflect your style. They’re also very easy to DIY, so most people can pull off a simple wedding favour craft – even if you don’t feel particularly creative.
What are Traditional Wedding Favours?
Traditionally, wedding favours were given as wedding souvenirs in place of wedding cards. They were meant to represent the good luck and fertility of the bride.
The first known wedding favours originated amongst the French aristocrats and were called Bonbonnieres. These small gifts were given to the guests as a symbol of good luck. In Greece, couples would offer their guests five sugared almonds to represent fertility, longevity, wealth, health and happiness.
Today wedding favours still serve several purposes. First, they help everyone to remember your special day. Second, they might include a thank you card or small note they can take away with them. And finally, wedding favours can also double as table dressings. You might use a small homemade candle as a name card holder, for example.
For small, intimate weddings, you might spend a little more on wedding favours as you are celebrating with a close group of friends and family. However, for a larger wedding, the wedding favours are often smaller tokens of appreciation.
On average, how much do people spend on wedding favours in the UK?
The average cost of a wedding in the UK is around £30,000. Of this, wedding favours make up a tiny part of the budget. Couples often report spending around £1-3 per guest. So for a wedding party of 150 people, you can expect to pay between £150-450, depending on how expensive your taste is.
Some couples include things like a piece of cake or their dessert table as the wedding favours. If you’re going to do this, don’t forget to provide small boxes for guests to take their sweet treats away with them. Creating a pick n mix table and allowing guests to take home an array of goodies is another excellent option.
What wedding favours do you recommend for an inexpensive wedding?
If you want to send guests home with a small memento from your big day, you don’t have to spend a fortune. Instead, home-baked goods like shortbread or brownie bites are often a welcome treat at the end of a long day of celebrating.
Something as simple as a gold chocolate coin attached to a thank you card is another cost-effective and DIY choice. Packets of bee-friendly seeds are another excellent gift for your guests.
Another way to save money on your wedding favours is only to offer them to daytime guests. And remember, children probably won’t be interested in a candle or homemade soap, but you can make inexpensive goodie bags for children to take home!
Are charity wedding favours a good idea?
Charities like Cancer Research UK offer inexpensive wedding favours that also help a good cause. They offer everything from small enamel badges to seeds and even confetti. These will often include a small note to let the guest know a donation has been made in their name.
Charitable couples will love this small but effective gesture on their wedding day. Choosing an option like seeds or confetti is also a sustainable and low waste choice that will be popular with eco-conscious couples.
The following charities offer wedding favours:
● Unicef
● RSPB
Is it rude not to have wedding favours?
When it comes to wedding favours, many brides fear they are rude by not having them. But wedding favours don’t have to be part of your wedding if you don’t want them. The vast majority of wedding guests won’t care or even think about wedding favours when they leave. If you do provide them, some people will leave them behind anyway. And if you don’t offer them, most won’t notice their absence.
Having wedding favours is undoubtedly a matter of personal choice. If you have an excellent idea for wedding favours that ties in with your theme and fits your budget, then definitely include them. But don’t feel the pressure to have them for the sake of it. You can always remind guests that the money you saved on wedding favours has been put towards something else, like an open bar!
Tips for choosing the right wedding favours
Some of the best wedding favours are things you can consume or use up. This could mean an alcohol miniature, small baked goods or a homemade candle. However, guests typically don’t want something that will clutter up their homes. So, unless your guests can use up your wedding favour easily, then it might be time to go back to the planning stage.
Another tip for wedding favours is to make them multipurpose. This could mean using them as decorations or name place cards on your table. For example, handwritten place cards with a small chocolate coin attached is a simple but highly effective wedding favour that won’t cost the earth.
Including a small handwritten note with your wedding favour is also a really special touch. Some wedding guests like to keep a small keepsake from the wedding, and a small notecard with the date of your wedding and a note from the couple is the ideal choice for this. You don’t have to spend a fortune on cards. Business cards don’t cost very much to print, and you could create a custom design with a small space for a thank you message.
[ABOUT THE AUTHOR]
Nicky (boutique owner) and close friend Jess have vast experience in helping brides choose their perfect wedding dress, they love what they do, meeting brides and helping them choose the most important dress they will ever wear, they find their work (if they can call it that!) so rewarding and so much fun. Give us a call today!
