Hello knotties!
To be completely honest, FI were struggling with the idea of wedding favors and whether or not to have any. We've gotten many wedding favors over the years, from koozies we never used to shot glasses ingraved with very "interesting" sayings. No judgement on whatever favors people choose - just the fact that the bride and groom want to buy their guests something is sweet enough; however, I wanted to make sure that if my guests are getting a favor, a) it serves a purpose and b) it does not have our names plastered all over it.
We are having a winter wedding with a few Christmas touches to it. A little tree on the card/gift table, hot chocolate at the bar. However, I didn't feel that this was "Christmassy" enough for me and my FI's taste
So today I was suddenly hit with the idea for ornaments in our wedding colors as favors! Nothing crazy, just cute little ball ornaments at every place setting with a "thank you" tag attached.
I purchased 200 ornaments for $30 and used a $15 coupon on them, yay! Then, I bought small white gift tags in bulk. Those were $17. Then for my last touch, I bought a custom thank you stamp with our names and our wedding date on it, to stamp the tags with. That was the most important part of this little project, at $30.
I spent $62 for all of this and only $0.31 per favor! I personally feel that I saved a lot doing this, while still adding to the whole Christmas look of my wedding as well as it being a cute ornament my loved ones can put on their trees! (All of my guests do celebrate Christmas, so this favor works for everyone).
Any other December brides have cool favor ideas?
Re: Winter wedding favors
Anyway, I was planning on ornaments specific to our location. Because we're doing it at a big resort in the north, it's a well-known place. We won't have our wedding date or anything else on it though.
Edited to note that even my super athiest brother celebrates and loves Christmas.
I don't know if this is just a Texan thing, but even the not as super religious people here tend to LOVE Christmas... Whether it's about Santa, or about Jesus, I literally do not know one single person who is invited to the wedding who won't be celebrating Christmas.
I think it sounds like a fun idea. Even my Jewish friends put up little trees around the holidays. So, if you know they will all be used, then cool. And, even if they won't, they didn't cost much anyway.
ETA: Any favor will be less than ideal for someone. Even edible ones. Aunt Susie is on a diet, or Uncle Bob doesn't like sweets. It's kind of silly to assume that your favor must make everyone happy.
I don't think I've ever been to a wedding where 100% of the guests took the favor and/or liked it. I've many times had the food favor (popcorn, mints, s-more kits, cotton candy) and to be honest, they weren't that great. I am doing a candy table as part of my favors, and I'll admit, I'd much rather be left over with a few extra ornaments than a bunch of candy that will go stale before I can eat it all (fingers crossed people take a lot). The wedding I went to last month gave out wine cork magnets with the couples name on it. I can see you are fitting your favor to fit a theme, and regardless if everyone wants to hang it or even take it, they will at least understand why you chose it as a favor.
And if you're still looking for other options, I might add that powdered sugar has a vague resemblance to snow and tastes great :-)
I love placing the ornament on my tree every Christmas. Every ornament on my tree has a memory/event attached to it. I think of their wedding every time I hang that ornament.
@climbingwife, at both my son and daughter's weddings, we would also be able to state categorically whether or not every guest celebrated Christmas. I have attended several weddings that offered a favor I never used. I took no offense that the couple did not take the time to discover I had no use for candles, koozies, or don't care for chocolate. Take the word "ornament" out of the equation and the argument dies. "They then get a favor that they'll never use. Sure, favors aren't necessary. But if I gave our Christmas ornaments, alcohol, koozies, at my wedding, about 50% of my guests wouldn't even have used them."