Most unique wedding favor you've received??

arossett86

Hi there! I'm really looking for a unique wedding favor...something that everyone will love and appreciate (I'm trying to avoid food because we will have a cake and tons of cookies already). I realize that is an almost impossible task, but looking for creative ideas! What's the most unique favor you've received?

juma1111

Honestly, the best favors are either edible or a photoboot picture, IMHO. 99% of all other favors are either not my style or are not useful to me and therefore end up getting left at the reception or thrown away.

Their are plenty of unique edible ideas you can give away that people would enjoy, but I would rather get something I would eat and love than just throw out.

Peavy

Most of the weddings I attend do not have favors.  Nobody misses them.

arossett86

Thanks for the feedback! We are having a photobooth, but my parents feel we need more than that...I thought it was plenty, but they don't agree! I agree that I haven't particularly enjoyed most favors I've received, so trying to think out of the box.

housewifehobbiest

I just posted above, but I'm debating giving fridge magnet frames to display the photobooth pictures in.  If you have the budget for favors, I think that that would be cute.

gottadance64

One I really liked - my friend made or had someone make some Lithuanian liqueur and put it in little bottles with the name of it. It was something you could  drink straight or you could pour it over the rocks and add a mixer for mixed drinks. It was interesting to wonder what it tasted like and hear of it - I'd never heard of it before, so it was educational, and a reminder of the wedding later when I tasted it. 

Someone else just made a donation to a charity for kids - something everyone would appreciate.

I've had chocolates in a box, kisses in a box - all nice, but just standard.

karenmoy72

I've made a bunch of champagne cork brides for my bridal shower favors and these could easily serve as wedding favors too. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Plus, my friends are HUGE wine/champagne lovers so this is perfect for me. I'm just starting out with my side business and have a bunch of other cork creations that might also be a good fit based on different hobbies, personalities and themes. If you're interested check out http://www.poppin-corks.com. The brides are $6 each but I give generous discounts for bulk orders and I'm willing to work with you on price since I would really like the exposure.

Shelskharma

Im considering doing personalized pint glasses with a graphic our names and date. I honestly think that at least 3/4 of our guests would appreciate and use them in future... I know WE  would!

nickimanny

The most unique favor I received was a potted flower.  The bride used these little ceramic pots that she painted purple *her color* and then planted these bushy pink *her accent color* flowers in them.  She set them all together in the middle of her tables to act as the centerpiece and then when the night was through we all got to take our own pot home.  I thought this was very creative, not sure if it will fit into your theme or not. 

nicolej518

Do you have any sort of theme? I've gotten shot glasses at one wedding, which I thought was pretty useful. You can do a candy buffet with take out boxes, or get tiny cartons of milk and put that in a box with chocolate chip cookies or something. 

Is your mom looking more for a trinket type of thing that will sit on a shelf, or just something more than the photobooth?

Bonnie27

I have some unique favors and an idea for our wedding.  I completely understand what you mean about the candy type favors.  I've always thought that was lame and I personally was always disappointed too because I'm not a big candy fan.  Wine or liqueur is nice but I know that not everyone likes alcohol and not everyone likes hard alcohol.  So here ya go:

-My brother's friends wedding we got small plates that were handmade and painted by his mom.  They are super nice and I still use them today at home.  They had over 100 guests so I couldn't tell you how long that took but it was different, impressive and everyone loved it.

-My fiancés brother's wedding we got paperweights from John Derian Company Inc.  We got these before the big craze now to have paperweights. Everyone got different one's and they were really nice.  

-For our wedding, we are getting married in Estes Park, CO where there is a well known blown glass shop.  We were in there one day (in between appointments for the venue hunt) and we saw these snails that were gorgeous and colorful.  They don't go with the wedding theme at all.  But they do represent us - because we have been together for nearly 15 years and finally! getting married.  I'll probably include a small card that says something to the effect that "we take our time, but love ..." These are going to be a bit pricy at $15 each but we only have 20 guests so we can splurge on some of these items.

So my best advice is to find a unique gift that represents you.  Not necessarily your wedding theme.  Otherwise - it's just boring and no one will remember what you got and why.  It is true what the earlier post said that you don't always need favors.  But it's really the norm now and I haven't been to a wedding yet (and I've been to quite a few) that you didn't get something.

linzmat

We had "accidental" favors that were a huge hit.  Our wedding was 90% DIY, and I made paper flowers out of a couple of editions of one of my husband and I's favorite books to decorate the tables.  There were a few hundred of those at the wedding, and people took them home.  I still get comments about how much people like them.  I babysat for a cousin last weekend, and she had four or five of my flowers in a decorative vase on her entry table.

funandfreckles

I'm pretty sure any home-made liquor would be a no-no if authorities were to find out.

Please don't give favours that aren't edible. I have thrown out SO much crap over the years: shot glasses, golf balls, candles, candle holders, glasses, ornaments, you name it. Garbage.

I do like the idea of the magnet for the photo booth though. That is a cute idea. However, now-a-days with stainless steel...I know I can't put pics on my fridge.

My bestie gave out honey as favours, it was cute.

berardibranday

I've found that most favors end up getting left behind at the reception.  I think I have only taken home one favor and I don't even remember what happened to it. 

We decided to do donations in the names of wedding guests.  We chose 2 foundations, 1 that represented my family and 1 that represented my fiances family.  We made cards that say " in lieu of the traditional wedding favor, we have made a donation in your name to (name of charities)"  Then we said "We feel the best gift we can give on our special day is the gift of giving to others" and signed our names.

I figure if I am going to spend a few hundred dollars on favors I would like that money to go to a good cause.

kimberlyb122

We are doing donations in honor of our guests to St. Jude Children's Hospital. They will send you either a scroll or a bookmark to give to your guests. We are doing the scrolls and I am trying them with pink ribbon and putting them at each place setting.

Before we decided on this I had also considered coasters (a set of two in a box for each guest) or a wine bottle stopper. I liked these because they are both practical and not something that people would be especially picky about putting in their home because it can go in a drawer and some out when needed.

Over the summer a friend gave away little homemade ceramic pots... no one took them.

mabapunta

I decided our wedding favor before we had decided on anything else. I grew up in Kentucky and we have our own soft drink Ale-8-One - basically ginger ale. Our wedding is in Indiana, where my fiance grew up and went to school. I love the soft drink and he enjoys it as well, and the green glass bottles will work with our intended colors. They should hopefully be fairly easy/cheap to create our own labels to make them personalized for the wedding and our guests. Definitely unique, even if something that can be enjoyed and thrown away (hopefully recycled)! Or maybe even kept as a memory of the day

br0kenang3l

For my wedding I have a bunch of small baby food jars and I'm asking my grandma to make lots of her home made jams and relish and salsa. In my family everyone will fight for those. And I'm planning on having lots of jars so that my guests can take home 2 or 3 of the jellies and salsa as well. I think it's a nice favour and they can be made a head of time also. 

kateyes107

I'm from the Burg too!  My FH and I decided to do Pittsburgh themed favors.  We are getting two flavors of popcorn from the Pittsburgh Popcorn (they come prepackaged and sealed).  We’re also getting fudge from Fudgie Wudgie (they cut and wrap a chunk of fudge in a box for you and even offer to match a ribbon on the box to your wedding color)!

rmp4996

Someone told me about something they saw at a wedding where there was also a photo booth. They had plastic frames, found online and relatively cheap, that hold the strip from the photo booth picture. They used the frame as an escort card, putting in a card or strip of paper with names and table numbers in each frame, and then telling guests to visit the photo booth and use this as a frame for their desk. Thought that was a nice idea and I'm considering it myself. Also, a candy bar is a nice idea where people can take home a bag of candy at the end of the night. Something they can eat as a "midnight snack" is nice also, if your wedding ends late at night and people who are drinking mght want to eat. Also, something unedible, a personalized wine stopper, since so many people drink wine. Or a personalized bottle opener, things people use in thier house they'd be less inclined to throw away.

bwilliams84

My cousin and his wife went to the local thrift store and got different drinking/wine/beer/etc. glasses and had one at each place setting.  It was really neat!  They didn't have assigned seating, so when you got there, you just walked around to the different tables and sat down at the glass you liked.  For the families/reserved tables, they had one with an old tea pot and matching glasses and saucers and another table had a pitcher with matching glasses.  I had never seen anything done like that and thought it was pretty cool.  Another big thing to do at the receptions around here is to get personalized can coolies.  People love those things!  I am doing a popcorn bar with plain popcorn that you season yourself to make any kindof flavor.  I've seen the candy bars before.  I do really like the idea of the donation to a charity/hospital.  People have so many knick knacks and such that they don't really need anything else like that.  The donation also shows a different side of you as a couple as to what your passion is about. 

AurorasEnvy

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_favors_most-unique-wedding-favor-youve-received?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:27Discussion:cfc4393b-f173-4af2-82dc-a21953dd7dfcPost:23266540-043f-4119-aab7-f2904abfc516">Re: Most unique wedding favor you've received??</a>:
[QUOTE]<strong>Honestly, the best favors are either edible or a photoboot picture, IMHO. 99% of all other favors are either not my style or are not useful to me and therefore end up getting left at the reception or thrown away.</strong> Their are plenty of unique edible ideas you can give away that people would enjoy, but I would rather get something I would eat and love than just throw out.
Posted by juma1111[/QUOTE]

<div>Not to sound ungrateful, but I don't want any trinkets with your wedding date or monogram on it....or trinkets in general.  I'd go edible, photobooth photos (which you said you already had), or the only thing I've heard of that doesn't fall into either of these categories: lottery scratch off tickets.  The favor I liked best were 2 sugar cookies wrapped in cellophone - each was a cutout of the respective states the bride & groom were from.</div>