Wedding Souvenirs or Favors?
July 19, 2006 by Lesley-Ann Graham
Filed under Wedding Favors
How many weddings have you attended? With a clan as big as ours, lots of old classmates and officemates of marrying age plus a lot of good friends, our family has a cabinet full of nothing but wedding souvenirs.
Why is it that when people get married they immediately think they must have something to give the guests that is cute and unique, yet not the least bit practical? A Cinderella themed wedding is a really beautiful idea; everyone wants to someday become a princess. What in the world though will your guests do with a small shoe? It will probably sit in a cabinet gathering dust since no one in their family can wear it anyway.
Why do brides do this? It could be because they want their guests to have a souvenir of their special occasion - one that will last as long as their lifetime; and maybe beyond. For others, it’s because they themselves just love the specific item and want everyone to have one too, even if its only purpose is decorative with their names and wedding date engraved on it.
Instead of wedding souvenirs, ladies, you may wish to give wedding favors instead. “What is the difference?”, you ask. The difference is that wedding favors are meant to be savored to celebrate your nuptials and may or may not last beyond your wedding day.
A great favorite for wedding favors come from the Italians. They call them bombonniers. Traditionally they gave 5 sugar coated almonds placed in colored netting or boxes which are called confetti. These five almonds are said to represent health, wealth, happiness, fertility and long life. They are given to family and friends as a token of the bride and groom’s love and friendship. Some couples will even add a bottle of champagne (not necessarily a big bottle) to complete the memento.
A piece of your wedding cake is always a great choice for a wedding favor. Your baker will decorate each piece beautifully and place it in beautiful boxes for your guests to enjoy. Single ladies may wish to put it under their pillow on the off chance that it is true that doing so will allow them to dream of their true love.
Of course, there is no reason why you can’t have something that lasts more than a day or a month or a year; and still have a practical choice. Picture frames are also a favorite choice. They can be stylish and elegant and really keep the memory of your wedding alive for your guests. Each guest gets to put a favorite picture in it; and when they look at the picture, they also see the frame you gave them and remember. Pretty cool!
Another favorite choice as a souvenir is the CD. You can give your guests the wonderful gift of music, songs that you yourself have loved and have played a part in your relationship. Just don’t forget about the copyright laws please. The artists, composers, musicians and producers will truly thank you.
Its interesting that its mainly the bride who gets to decide on the wedding favour (favor), be it a little shoe, photoframe, almonds etc.
I’m a member of a networking group (BNI) and one of our members was getting married (he actually got married last Saturday 26th July). He wanted some personal wedding favours for the main male entourage. He asked me what I would suggest, and I thought cufflinks would be a nice idea, so long as they were re-usable after the wedding.
He liked this idea, so I ran with it. What we decided to create were nique cufflinks for each man. One of the cufflinks was a picture of the man, the other cufflink was a look-alike or alter ego, for example one of the men was bald and his alter-ego was Elmer Fudd.
I created these cufflinks for him (9 pairs) and had them enamled for long life. I then had them put into hand made ‘treasure chests’ with a small card attached. These were perfect for him, and our network group, who saw them at the meeting prior to his wedding, thought they were excellent too.