Wedding favours from Style Me Pretty blog — click the images for full credits
11 unique and unusual wedding favour ideas
by Carol
Are you thinking of getting wedding favours for your guests? Have you started researching ideas and been uninspired by the typical “over-used” selection available? Fed up of keychains and looking for more creative ideas? Is your budget pretty tight? Thinking of DIY favours but don’t have time? I’ve done some of the legwork for you here and found simple ideas to easily make your own and get your guests talking!
Lots of people don’t like wedding favours as having spent so much on the guests already, they can feel like a waste of money — especially if you are worried about guests leaving them behind scattered across tables after the reception. That’s one reason why edible favours are so popular, they disappear so fast because guests will always have a use for them. Some of these favours are edible but they can all be done cheaply.
Favours can be given as thanks for coming, a memento of the day or as an aid to conversation at the event. Whatever you want to give favours for, keep reading for some inspiration.
No 1. Lego Men
Image credit: cbcd04 flickr
This is a creative idea for the more geeky brides and grooms. Buy enough lego people for each of your guests, and give to them broken up in parts in a little box for them to construct. Guests can trade body parts and take photos of the lego people together for some fun. Both adults and kids will love this.
No 2. Personalised Love Hearts
Image credit: Lovehearts
If you have a sweet tooth, these are the perfect favours. Mini packages of love hearts saying “just married” sold cheaply in bulk. The packets can be personalised with names of the couple and the date. Cute!
No 3. Personalised Name Buttons
Image credit: Project Pretty
Make each of your guests a button badge with their name (or nickname) on. It is a great way for guests to get to know each other and doubles as a place setting. There are plenty of places to buy personalised badges, to save some money it is also possible to hire a badge maker from a local craft shop and make them yourself!
No 4. “IOU a favour” Favours
Image credit: Kittling books/creative commons
These are easy to do without spending any money, and can be very memorable to the guests. As a couple write a little personalised note to every guest, handwritten or typed in a beautiful font, telling them about all the favours they have done for you for the wedding or just in life. On the back of these notes just write “IOU a favour”. And if that’s too much freedom for your scarier relatives try listing some choices like a free drink at the bar or help babysitting in the future!
No 5. Personalised Thank-Yous
Image credit: John Kroll Photography Flickr
A similar idea, write a personal handwritten thank you for anything specific your guest has done for the special day. For a great idea to make the note or IOU more durable, try personalising your own postcards with a photo at Bags of Love, as it is a favour guests will like to keep to read and maybe even put on their fridge! Try personalising it with a love quote from a song, film, book or poem that you know well.
No 6. Mini Sticker Stories
Image credit: lets-explore.net
This is a common thing for kids to do, like the lovely story above make a little story using a sheet of tiny stickers. Provide sheets of tiny wedding or love theme stickers, a postcard or piece of personalised paper, instructions on the back and a pen. Encourage guests to make up a story, tell their own wedding story or to give advice to the bride and groom. These could also be great alternative to the guest book, and make great keepsakes to collect in after everyone has left and look through or keep in a scrapbook. Your local arts and crafts or stationers shop is a good place to start looking for stickers, or try stickers galore.
No 7. Mad Libs
Image credit: AKturns30 Tumblr
These also work out as a great idea for the guest book or invitation like above. If you haven’t heard of mad libs before here are the basics: you fill out a list of verbs, nouns, adjectives and names and then transfer those to fill in gaps in a story on the other side of the page you haven’t seen yet. It leads to some very funny stories and great keepsakes! You can easily find these online or make up your own.
No 8. Origami Fortune Teller/Cootie Catcher
Image credit: Green Lily Designs
Did you ever make these in school? An origami fortune teller is a great idea to get guests interacting! Use a love or wedding theme for yours. They are easily available to order on craft sites but making your own on some fancy paper coordinated to your theme is a great way to save some money.
No 9. Homemade Soaps
Image credit: WholePort
Making your own soaps is a really unique favour. You can add any fragrance you want, colour, size, shape and even add glitter. Soap bases and recipes are easily available and silicon moulds come in all shapes and sizes, or even make your own moulds!
No 10. Forget-me-nots
Image credit: Ryen Nicole
It’s in the name! Beautiful, sweet smelling flowers guests won’t forget, or you could provide packets of seeds (a cheaper and much more popular option!). Pick them up from your local garden center.
No 11. Homemade Chocolate Lollipops
Image credit : The idea room
Much like soap, moulds are easily available (try Amazon) and you can even make moustache and lips to get some funny wedding photos out of it. Melting chocolate is the easiest way to fill the moulds, but to make the pink coloured lips you need to use candy melts. Cakes cookies and crafts shop is a good place to look for that.
Hopefully you’ve been inspired to put some originality into your favours!
Carol Morris writes on behalf of Bags of Love bagsoflove.co.uk
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So what do you think? Do these favours appeal to you or are they already a little out of date? I think some of the ideas are great, but as a wedding guest how many of these would you be delighted to slip into your handbag or pocket to take home? I’d have the lego people and the personalised notes… but I’m still not convinced about the rest. Claire x