Wedding Favors

One option is to simply forgo having favors at all. It’d be cheaper. You’ll have nothing left to wonder what to do with. Most of your guests won’t miss them. If you’re like me, though, you might want to give your guests something as a token of your appreciation. First I’ll tell you what I did, and then I’ll list some other suggestions people had for me.

My Insanity
I started with little organza bags. I shopped around until I found a store that carries them for the best price: 10 for $5.50. That would be Display and Costume Supply in Seattle. They do mail order, but if you happen to live within reach of the store, just go in and check it out. It’s worth it anyway.

To go in the bags, I bought little glass hearts from the same source. They were $2.99 for about 30 of them. I thought this went well with the Romance/Renaissance mood, and I’ve always been a big fan of worry stones and pocket stones. People can put them in their pockets, their planters, on their computers, whatever.

I also printed out little blessings onto the same parchment I used for the invitations and directions. I printed them four to a page, portrait orientation, with clip art at the top and bottom. I cut them apart with my deckle shears, rolled them into tiny scrolls, and tied them with cream colored ribbon.

To thank the guests for coming, I bought a bunch of little envelopes and cards from the Paper Zone. I used a castle-shaped hole punch(also from the Paper Zone) to cut a hole in the cover of each, then glued a piece of burgundy tissue paper to the back of it so it would show through the hole on the cover. I wrote a small thank you note inside each one in gold pen, then put them in the envelopes. On the front of the envelopes I glued a small heart shaped rhinestone, and the back I sealed with a drop of scarlet sealing wax and a seal dipped in gold ink. It sounds extreme and tedious, but it only took me an evening, and I did it while parked in front of the TV.

The insane notes

The final bits put into the favors were three gold chocolate coins. Hey, gold coins say “medieval rich person” to me, how about you? I found them in bulk at Winco foods, but I’m sure other stores with bulk sections carry them as well. I did find some places on line you can buy them in bulk, or even have your own printed up, but I opted for the Cheap and Easy way out.

I pulled the drawstrings shut on the bags, and tied two silk rosebuds to each. Most bags were white or off white, but I had about two dozen that were burgundy for variation.

Favor Contents

A Tisket A Tasket
What exactly is a “tisket”, anway? I digress…

To hold the favors, I bought a large basket at the Goodwill (see "Where to Buy Supplies"). I lined it with lace remnants which I had leftover from making my front room curtains, but you can get lace remnants at garage sales, the Goodwill, or in the remnant piles at fabric stores. I then bunched up and tied the lace to the handles where they join the basket. I wrapped the handle with burgundy ribbon, and made bunches of multicolored ribbons and tied them to the handle bases, and decorated it with satin rosebuds. I also made a bow with wire-rimmed ribbon and tied it to the top of the handle. I plopped in all the favors, and voila. Basket o’ goodies.

More Than One
My mother found some little stickers that go around Hershey Nuggets, and she liked them so I bought them. They have “Lisa” and “Todd” and a picture of a small castle on the front, and then “Happily Ever After” on one side, and the date of our wedding on the other side. They wrap around a nugget just perfectly. I made about 300 of the little buggers…the nuggets are conveniently gold and silver anyway. I threw them into another basket made the same way as above, and presto, more basket o’ calories.

Basket O' Calories

If you have any desire to make or use the wrappers for Hershey Nuggets, you can find a Word template and instructions here. You can buy the stickers at Office Depot or Staples…they’re just standard 1” by 2.63” address labels cleverly printed.

The Nuggets

Yet Another
I decided to make some candied almonds, and put them in the little tulle bags everyone thinks of as "wedding favor bags". I made cinnamon almonds and honeyed almonds, about four pounds total. We had a couple dozen bags left after the wedding, but Todd was happy to eat them and take them to work.

This isn't the actual basket we used, but they all pretty much looked alike.

Other Ideas
When I was first looking at giving out favors, I asked for other ideas to go with a Renaissance/Medieval/Fantasy theme. I ruled out the little bottles of bubbles right away. They’re not very theme, even though I like them, and more importantly I’ve seen most of them go to waste at previous weddings. The church I chose as a venue won’t allow the flinging of birdseed or rice, so I didn’t use any ideas that involved those. I wanted to design something people would think was kind of fun, and to me that meant something with little parts to open and go through. It might mean something different for you or your friends, so here are some other good ideas I gleaned from other helpful folks:

• Small oranges studded with cloves. Make a ribbon into a loop and use long pins to secure it to the top of the orange, and let dry for several days before giving out. Makes a great sachet/pomander, smells nice, and is very in theme.
• Cinnamon-recipe cookie ornaments. Click here for the recipe. Cut out this non-edible dough with appropriately-themed cookie cutters, pierce the top with a straw to make a hanging hole, and thread with ribbon after baking. If you want to get very fancy, paint on particular guests’ names, or special words like “Hope”, “Love”, or “Peace”, or paint with the date of your wedding and your names.
• Thank-You Scrolls. Print out in color on parchment paper, have the bride and groom sign, deckle cut the edges, and tie with a nice ribbon and some silk or dried flowers.
• Bags O’ Coins. A variation on the ones I used, with a lot less work involved. Get some small organza, velvet, or cotton bags, and fill with candy coins. Added points if you’re brave enough to lob these at the crowd from the altar.
• Gloves. I know it sounds weird, but these were a Big Deal (tm) at Medieval weddings. If you have a small enough guest list, consider buying a nice pair of gloves for everyone and attaching a small note to explain that these were considered luxury items in Medieval times, and that giving them away was a sign of wealth.
• Small plastic goblets. You can now get small (about 2 oz) plastic goblets with a clear flute and a gold or silver stem. I’ve seen them at party supply stores as well as on eBay. These would be fun as mini toasting goblets, or fill them with small candies like M&M’s, jelly bellies, or Reese’s Pieces and set out on the tables. We used these for the toast. They're kinda cute. All 100 of them vanished before the evening's end, too.
  

• Birdseed Roses. We made these for my Maid of Honor’s wedding many years ago. You need wire stems, florist tape, silk rose leaves on wires (all usually found in bunches in the Bridal section of craft stores), bits of colored satin fabric, and someone who can sew. Cut the satin into rectangles approximately 6” by 4”. Fold it in half the short way with the “nice” sides together (so you wind up with a 3” by 4” piece) and sew a seam down the loose edges. Turn right side out. Bunch up one of the open ends of the tube into into a point, and use the florist tape to secure it tightly to the top of a wire stem. Wrap the tape down the stem, and insert the rose leaf about 1” below the bottom of the flower bud. Fill the open top of the rose with a spoonful of birdseed, to about halfway full, then tuck the loose open top into the top. It should look something like a rosebud. Put little slender vases of these on the table, and make sure that enough people know what they are to explain it to everyone else. To use, grasp the stem firmly, and flick it at the bride and groom as they leave. Birdseed everywhere. If you’re really good, you can pelt them with one big hard knot of seed instead of a nice showering.