OK so here is the deal! It is my general impression that favors have really just become big in the last 10 yrs. My mom and the FMIL are were both 30+ moms and I am a young (22) bride...the future in law's are not originally from the US so they do not do favors. My mom has never even heard of favors since i am the youngest person in my family by about 14 years + ...seriously the last family wedding I went to I was the flower girl in!
So here is my main point. They are paying almost 100% of the wedding and they do not want them because they think they are totally unnecessary...and frankly so do I but I have received a favor at literally ALL of my friends weddings and I know my family wont be offended if we didn't do it I think my friends would be offended if we didn't. I know that if I had them most family members would just leave them behind. I know I cant just put favors on the "friends" tables and not on the "family" tables... I am at such a cross road here because I know if I want them and the parents don't agree I have to pay for it ( like my photo booth) and that's another expense x 200! HELP...Opinions please!
Re: Help end an argument for me!
From what I've been gathering, between my relatives and my time on The Knot, is it's actually more common to skip them now than it was 20 years ago.
I wound up having them (Found an extra $200 in our budget)... but really, the way they initially reacted, you would think I had suggested eating babies as the entree.
If your relatives are paying and they don't want them, it's their money, they can do what they want with it. If you want them that bad, then you need to scrounge up the money and pay for them yourself. And yes, if you have them, you give one to everybody, or one per couple.
If you don't have them, nobody will miss them. If you do have them, please pick something edible (Nobody wants a champange flute with you and your FI's name and wedding date on it).
If you fire a WP member, you're against America.
"Meg cracks me up on the regular. Now she gets to do it in two different forums. Yay!!" ~mkrupar
But ditto Meg: if you don't want them, don't have them. But also understand that favors don't have to be big and expensive. My DD's favors were probably somewhere around the $1 pp mark, probably less.
She had bought favor boxes on clearance. Tulle circles on clearance. Ribbon on clearance. She put a small handful of m&ms in a circle of tulle, tied the circle, placed it in the favor box, and put a box at each place setting.
So if you have 200 people, you can likely, with a little work, have your total cost of favors be under $200.
I've also gone to countless weddings where I got something and it ended up in the trash. I really don't need some trinket nor do I need those jordan almonds.
This time around, I am deciding whether or not to do them only because I happen to have seen something that was very cute (minature wedding cake candy) and I am having a small wedding so it's do-able.
I say, don't bother and likely no one will even notice.
[QUOTE]Did you post this on every board?
Posted by cew515[/QUOTE]
Exactly. I'll reiterate what I said in the other post. Stop whining and pay for the favors yourself if you want them.
my read shelf:
1. Aren't the photo booth photos considered to be favors?
2. You could bake or buy cookies and wrap them up as favors. They will not get left behind.
3. What is wrong with paying for things yourself? The favors are supposed to be a small token of appreciation from you and fi. So the fact that your parents won't pay for them should not be the deciding factor.
[QUOTE]Did you post this on every board?
Posted by cew515[/QUOTE]
uggg. I think so.
Planning Bio-Updated 3/11 with groomsmen attire
I don't think you need favors. Personally, I think it's more stuff that the evil wedding empire has decided we need to waste money on.
Sure. At one time, this was exactly the favor that EVERY bride had. See below. Now, we put a flower above every place setting to complete the look we wanted on the table, and to our surprise, every person except three took the flower with them. So you don't have to do expensive favors if you decide to do them...
Jordan almonds poem that goes on the tie of the tulle bag:
Jordan Almonds for Thee
Five sugared almonds for each guest to eat
To remind us that life is both bitter and sweet.
Five wishes for the new husband and wife --
Health, wealth, happiness, children, and a long life!
More info:
http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-favors/articles/all-about-jordan-almonds.aspx?MsdVisit=1