Just as good things come in little packages, so can special memories.
Simple or extravagant, whimsical or sophisticated, small favors can play a big role by giving guests a little wedding-day magic to take home with them.
Many brides favor the traditional touch for their favors, adorning their guests’ tables with small net bags containing chocolates or other candies, small bud vases with a flower, small packages of premium coffees or teas, fragrant soaps or sachets or even packets of heart-shape homemade cookies.
Whatever the offering, each parcel or item is usually tied with a decorative satin ribbon bearing the names of the bride and groom and their wedding date.
Top hats or champagne glasses filled with a sweet something are also romantic remembrances popular at wedding celebrations.
Other couples opt for a more lighthearted memento. One seafaring pair who exchanged vows aboard a boat in San Diego Bay gifted their guests with sunglasses that bore the couple’s name and special date on the ear stem. Another couple in Tampa, Fla., distributed insulated drink holders emblazoned with their names.
Another bride and groom had chopsticks stamped with their names and wedding particulars.
“Wedding favors say, ‘Welcome, thank you for coming,'” explained Joan Whalen, owner of The Brides’ Maid wedding consultant service in Coronado. “And some favors, like bubbles, are also entertainment.”
She recalled one bride who gave her guests small silver champagne buckets with miniature white chocolate bottles.
Whalen noted that small, framed pictures of the happy couple are also a popular choice.
Carol Smith, owner of Favorable Impressions in San Diego, recalled one bride who considered placing personalized Pez dispensers on the tables at her otherwise elegant, rather traditional event. Smith helped her come up with something more sophisticated.
Whalen has seen ideas go astray and basically flop at a wedding, and has also been in a situation where a bride needs a little guidance.
“I never dissuade [a bride],” Whalen explained. “Every detail of a wedding is important to them. I gently make little suggestions.”
Whalen advised couples planning a wedding to keep their guests in mind when deciding on any offbeat trinket. She noted that while the wedding party may find great humor in edible underwear, elderly aunts might not be quite so amused.
In addition to disposable cameras, another hot trend is favors that honor a wedding as a beginning — favors that look the future.
Decorated packets of flower seeds, small plants or bulbs are growing in popularity.