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Shortly after saying ‘yes, yes, yes’ (to the question ‘Will you marry me?’ you understand) you will stumble across a whole new vocabulary (let’s call it wedcabulary – or wedcab for short) of whose existence you were previously blissfully unaware.

This wedcab includes such mysteries as chic chair covers (you can’t sit on a naked chair at a wedding – what would the reverend say?), sophisticated table runners and lovely wedding favours (or ‘awesome wedding favors‘ in our North American sisters’ wedcab).

Now I thought a favour was something someone did for you slightly reluctantly and for which you were then eternally in debt – or at least until you could perform a similar task that called for an equal measure of reluctance.

At least I did until I started to plan my wedding.  I then found out (thanks Wikipedia) that:

Wedding favors are small gifts given as a gesture of appreciation or gratitude to guests from the bride and groom during a wedding ceremony or a wedding reception.

The tradition of distributing wedding favors is a very old one. It is believed that the first wedding favor, common amongst European aristocrats, was known as a bonbonniere. A bonbonniere is a small trinket box made of crystal, porcelain, and/or precious stones. The contents of these precious boxes were generally sugar cubes or delicate confections, which symbolize wealth and royalty. [...]

As the price of sugar decreased throughout centuries, the tradition of providing gifts to guests reached the general populace and was embraced by couples of modest means.

As you’ll know if you read our blog regularly, we have little truck with tradition and if favours don’t form part of your green wedding masterplan, that’s fine by us.

But a little pondering led us to the conclusion that they could play a useful role in your celebrations – especially now that a wedding favour isn’t limited to the 5 sugar almonds representing fertility, longevity, wealth, health and happiness.

5 reasons to favour favours

1. Stave off hunger – a wedding day is often a long one and guests can lose their good humour waiting to get served.  An edible favour can be just what they need to keep them going till the starter!

2. A memento - make it something personal to you as a couple: a poem from your wedding ceremony, a candle with the date of the wedding, pot pourri from the flowers that make up your bouquet

3. A place marker - don’t forget the favour can double up as a place name – the chocolate with the guest’s name iced on it, the paperweight with the guest’s name engraved

4. A crafty treat - if you’ve got nimble fingers this could be your chance to put them to good use!  A handmade bag to hold choccies, a crocheted heart, a dried flower bookmark?

5. An ethical wedding opportunity – make the chocolates Fairtrade (we had Divine chocolate hearts), give a wedding favour that represents a donation to your chosen charity, or what about wild flower seed wedding favours that your guests can plant when they get home?

These days pretty much anything goes.  Here are a few of our favourites.

American Bridal has a great range of eco, earth-friendly wedding favours:

Personalised flower seed wedding favours

Your guests will get 300 mg of wildflower seeds, which should cover around 20 square feet. You can customise the packets with the colour and design you want, and then add 3 lines of text which could include a thank you or suitably sweet sentiment, your names and the date of your wedding.

Eco-friendly photo album wedding favors

I also love these:

Made from recycled paper with a natural-twine loop to fasten, your guests will enjoy picking their favourite photos from your day to remember in this bijou album.

If you’ve got time, you could even get them started with a photo of you and your other half or (if you’ve got even more time and sufficient photos!) both of you with the relevant guest.

Charity wedding favours

Many charities now give you the option to make a donation on your guests’ behalf in lieu of a favour.  The NSPCC offer personalised wedding favour cards and pin badges as a keepsake and to let your guests know where the donation has gone.

Plant pot favours

Getting green-fingered again, Beau-coup has found these gorgeous mini bamboo plants to delight your guests.

Eco tote bag favours

Or if you really want to ram the green message home, you could present your guests with these “Reuse, conserve, recycle, sustain” eco-friendly tote bags.

Heartfelt favours

From another of our lovely Ethical Weddings suppliers, The heartfelt project, come these handcrafted, feast-for-the-eyes wedding favours which are sewn by a group of women in Makapanstad, South Africa.

Whether you go for a key ring, bookmark or fridge magnet, each favour gives a small donation to a local HIV/AIDS and TB charity, and helps to support the heartfelt ladies and their families.

Chocolate wedding favours

And I couldn’t leave you without a word on the chocolate wedding favour. It’s the perfect chance to say ‘yay’ to Fairtrade while filling your guests’ tummies with something yummy.

On our wedding day in 2005, we popped Divine chocolate mini eggs into our handmade favour bags  and they went down extremely well.

Or how about these tasty-looking hearts (I’ve already heavily hinted to my other half that these should feature in his Valentine’s Day plans for me!)?

Over to you

So if you decide to go with tradition and give your guests a wedding favour, we hope we’ve given you a few ideas beyond sugared almonds. We’d love to hear which you choose – and some pics would be wonderful too.

Happy planning!

Katie

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