The right wedding favors can help add a unique individual sense of style to your wedding.

It's customary to give wedding favors (small gifts or keepsakes) to each wedding guest as a token of your appreciation for their attendance. After all, they took time out from their busy lives to spend with you on your wedding day, didn't they? So a small but thoughtful expression of your gratitude is appropriate.

This charming and gracious tradition offers you yet another ideal opportunity to express your individuality as a couple, reflect your personality, and show off your great taste and personal sense of style. The right wedding favors can help add fabulousness to your wedding reception.

Like with all of the other details of a wedding, most couples take some time and care to select wedding favors that will be just right for their wedding.

Well chosen wedding favors demonstrate your attention to detail - and guests find that impressive. Your wedding favors are yet another way for you to really make a statement. They can inject uniqueness and character to your wedding.

 

Wedding Favors: How the Tradition Began

Years ago, the traditional wedding favor consisted of candy-coated almonds as the take-home treat for wedding guests because almonds are an age-old symbol of fertility. This, by the way, is how the custom of sharing wedding favors with guests originated - it all started as a symbolic wish for the couple to have lots of babies.

The Italians called these candied almonds confetti, and they remain the favor of choice at traditional Italian weddings. You might find it interesting to know that this is where paper confetti (the type made for tossing at the bride and groom) gets it's name.

While we're on the topic of confetti, here's another interesting little piece of trivia: The ritual of tossing confetti at the bride and groom also symbolizes a fertility wish. But because pelting the couple with something as hard as almonds on their wedding day would be a tad dangerous, paper confetti was invented so it could be thrown symbolically in it's place!

Retro Wedding Favors

If you ever attended a wedding in the 1970s, you may recall those little pastel colored wedding mints that were so typical for wedding favors during that era. It was as predictable as pumpkin pie at thanksgiving - if you were going to a wedding, you could bet your boots you'd be coming home with that tiny pouch, box, or plastic swan filled with pastel colored mints!

Nowadays, we have SO many more options beyond those little mints. The sky is truly the limit for wedding favors today. Nonetheless, perhaps for nostalgia's sake, some couples today still choose those little pastel wedding mints for their wedding favors. Before you poo-poo this as being too boring, keep in mind that you can add some new bling to this old idea if you get really creative with the way you wrap or present them.

Today's Wedding Favors: Creative, Unique, & Expressive

Many couples, however, are looking for something entirely different when selecting their wedding favors today. There is no longer a "typical" wedding favor. Most couples these days have have no desire for any aspect of their wedding to be typical! It used to be that every bride wanted her wedding to be just like all of the other weddings she'd been to. Now, that's precisely the opposite of what every bride wants. Couples are no longer content for their wedding to be the same as that of every other bride and groom - they strive to make their wedding as unique as they are.

That being so, today's brides and grooms are eager to find unique and elegant wedding favors that will make a dazzling impression on their guests. It's this kind of attention to style, right down to the smallest details like wedding favors, that really helps set a wedding apart from all the rest. When every last element of the wedding has been thoughtfully considered and chosen with care, guests will take notice - and it is these types of events that stand out in their memories for a long time to come as being extra special.

What's the best advice for choosing wedding favors that rock? Look for something that is a reflection of your personal taste or your individual sense of style, or that reflects the overall theme or motif of your wedding. Today the sky is the limit where wedding favors are concerned, so get creative and enjoy coming up with ideas!

Left: Chocolate truffles are always a delectable luxury, and very popular for wedding favors, BUT, when you present them in exquisite boxes, topped off with beautiful bows, you show your guests that you've paid attention to every last detail - and what an impact that makes! Your guests will feel pampered and special when they go home with an utterly luxurious box filled with luscious treats!

Ideas & Options for Wedding Favors

Good Enough to Eat!
Edible Wedding Favors

Wedding Favors were traditionally edible, and today, even with SO many new, non-edible ideas for wedding favors, many couples still opt for favors their guests can devour. Maybe this is because Edible Wedding Favors are practical too - you know your wedding favors are going be used and enjoyed if they are something guests can eat!

If you like the idea of edible wedding favors, you have so many options today; options that were never even thought of just ten years ago! You're no longer limited to candied almonds, wedding mints, fruitcake slices or chocolate if you are considering edible favors. There are some very creative ideas available to you if you take the time to look around, or use your own creative thinking cap.

Take, for example, fortune cookie wedding favors as shown in the photo at left. Fortune cookie wedding favors are often romantically decorated with icing, and the "fortune" inside is customized for your wedding and includes your names and wedding date. Very cool, yes? We thought so!

If you do choose wedding favors your guests can eat, the trick in taking them from ordinary to extraordinary is to take some care with the visual presentation. They've gotta look good!

You want edible wedding favors to look festive, dazzling, classy.... so that your guests feel pampered, like they have been given something very special.

There are many different types of Favor Bags, wedding favor boxes, and other wedding favor decorations, that are available for dressing up your wedding favors. You'll see some examples in the SuperWeddings Store. SuperWeddings has been around since 1999 and is one of the most respected names in weddings online, so when you shop with SuperWeddings, you shop with a name you can trust.

I Hear Churchbells Ringing...
Wedding Favor Bells

Ornamental wedding bells of all shapes, sizes, and styles have become a popular trend for wedding favors. The bells do 'double-duty' - they can be handed out as wedding favors to guests immediately after the ceremony, then they can be used for guests to ring as the bride and groom exit the church, either instead of, or in addition to, tossing confetti. Imagine the festive, celebratory sound of a symphony of bells filling the air, announcing that 'something special' has occurred, as you emerge from the church, making your grand debut as husband and wife! Bells can also be used as wedding favors at the reception, and again, they have a way of doing double duty. Place a wedding bell or "kissing bell" at each place setting on the reception tables. Each time the guests want the bride and groom to kiss, they ring their little bells. A fun twist on the customary 'clinking of the glasses'! Right: These adorable wedding bells with matching wedding bell card are a unique and creative take on the bell wedding favor idea. Available in the SuperWeddings Store in the wedding favor bells section.

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words:
Wedding Favor Photo Frames / Place Card Holders

Small, decorative picture frames are another great idea for wedding favors, especially when they hold a picture of the happy couple! Place one at each table setting for the guests to take home. Picture frame wedding favors can also be creatively adapted to do double-duty as place card holders. Instead of placing a photo in the frame, write the name of each guest on a piece of paper (the paper may be white, colored, or lightly patterned) which has been cut to fit inside the frame. Slide each name into the frame just as you would a picture, and place one at each place setting on the reception tables to let guests know where they are to sit. At the end of the evening the guests can take the frames home with them as your gift to them. To see some ideas of wedding favor photo frames, visit the Wedding Favors department of the SuperWeddings Store.

A Flurry of Magical Bubbles:
Bubble Wedding Favors

Some couples in recent years have given their wedding guests bottles of "bridal bubbles" as a quasi-wedding favor. The bottles themselves are often styled in a wedding theme. The idea is for the guests to blow the bubbles either when the bride and groom exit the church, or when they take their first dance at the wedding reception. The bubbles create a magical, fairytale-like atmosphere around the happy couple. They glisten in the air as the light catches them and reflects off them, and they look sensational in photos! Couples who provide bottles of bubbles to their guests for this purpose will usually give another wedding favor as well. This is because the bubbles are mainly a way of involving the guests in setting the mood and atmosphere at the wedding as opposed to being a wedding favor in the traditional sense. In keeping with the sentiment and intention behind wedding favors (which is to thank your guests for coming and show your appreciation to them), guests should really have something to take home that is just for them.

The SuperWeddings Store also offers bubbles in bottles shaped like wedding bells for sensational stylization.

Good Deed Wedding Favors:
Favors From the Heart

Last but certainly not least, you don't have to present a trinket as a wedding favor - today some couples are making a donation to a charity in the name of each of their guests. For example, you could give $2 in the name of every guest to a local animal shelter - just think of all the little felines and fidos you'd be helping. You're guest's hearts will be warmed knowing a good deed has been done in their name.

Have a question about wedding favors? Ask internationally recognized wedding expert Linda Kevich. Whether you need clever suggestions to suit your theme, or you aren't quite sure about wedding favor etiquette, Linda Kevich has answers. Read previously asked questions or submit your own: Ask the Wedding Expert!

 
More Wedding Favor ideas....

What we have listed here are only a few of the more popular options for wedding favors. Since a picture paints a thousand words, head over to our Wedding Favor Idea Photo Gallery where you'll find some terrific photos of unique wedding favors to pump you full of ideas - Get ready to be inspired!

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