wedding favors - small cute bags with thank you note on front

Wedding Planning Tips

7 Wedding Favors Guests Will Actually Use

When it comes to wedding planning, assembling party favors are probably not at the top of your “to-do” list. While guests are often perfectly happy leaving the reception with a full stomach and some candid photos, wedding favors can be great parting gifts, too.

Wedding favors are a token of your clients’ appreciation for each and every guest who came out to celebrate their wedding day. However, these gifts of appreciation can be costly—especially for weddings with a long guest-list. The easy route is to just wrap a couple of cheap knick-knacks together and call it a day. But if it’s just some trinkets that will just clutter up your guests’ homes, they might as well skip wedding favors altogether.

So what wedding favors should your clients be giving? Read on for the 7 wedding favors guests will actually use!

Cheap DIY wedding favor ideas

Factors to consider

Before we get into our list, here are some points to keep in mind:

1. Wine Glasses

One of the more sophisticated gifts on this list, wine glasses are a crowd pleaser. Because wine glasses can be used indefinitely, it may be off-putting for guests to receive glasses with the happy couple’s name scrawled across the entirety of the glass.

That isn’t to say that personalization cannot be done! Consider keeping the personalization discrete on the base of the glass. Etch on a general phrase about love, or keep it simple with a symbol personal to the couple that also appears in the event decor.

2. Soap

When will someone not need soap? But don’t think that a trip to Costco and buying 200 bars of Dove soap is wedding favor-appropriate. Spring for some fancier bar soaps in fresh, unisex scents, or if your clients catch the DIY bug, they can make their own artisan equivalents. This may be one of the few acceptable toiletries you can get away with handing out that can still be luxurious. If monogramming the soap bars turns out to be costly, get the bar soaps in bulk and add personalized packaging.

3. Sweet Treats

Edible gifts can never go wrong! Just about everyone has or is close to someone who has a sweet tooth. This category includes candy, cupcakes, sugar cookies and desserts. If your clients would rather not clutter the tables at the reception with sweets, they can opt to have a designated “sweets buffet” with bags that they can grab and fill with a variety of different treats. Just make sure that the selections do not feature the bottom-of-the-barrel bubble-gum candies often handed out on Halloween.

4. Doubling up

An ingenious way to save money is to give wedding favors that play double-duty. These favors can be given out ahead (or at the beginning) of the reception so that they can be used both during and after the event.

Sweet treat ideas for wedding favors

Escort cards and reception programming are typically the easiest items that can serve double functions. Cute eco-friendly/zero-waste options include using biodegradable place cards embedded with plant seeds and fruit baskets as table centerpieces at a country wedding.

5. Keychain gadgets

Tiny keychain bottles of sunscreen or hand sanitizers can be lifesavers if you’re planning a destination wedding. Their bigger, bulkier formats are sometimes left behind in hotel suites when the fun is to be had out on the beach. Handy for those multi-day outdoor wedding affairs, guests will thank you for your foresight! Other popular destination-wedding wedding favors include flip-flops and sunglasses.

6. Alcohol

Since we’ve covered drinkware as wedding favors, why not include alcohol as well? Tiny bottles of tequila or whiskey are definitely popular options. Decorate the bottles with labels commemorating the happy couple’s big day—we guarantee not a single bottle of liquor will be left behind. This is definitely one of those favors that requires a youth-friendly equivalent. Why not opt for mini-bottles of Champagne for adults and bottles of sparkling juice or cider for the kids? Just make sure that the packaging easily distinguishes between the two types of beverages!

Mini alcohol favors for wedding guests

7. Tea / Coffee

Personalized tea sachets and bags of coffee beans are a sure-fire hit as wedding favors. After all, who doesn’t need a morning cup of Joe? For summer weddings, try fruity tea options or opt for a warm apple-cider blend for the cooler seasons. While the personalization can come in the packaging, your clients could amp up the creativity by creating their own coffee or tea blend specially made for the occasion. They could also brew and pre-bottle iced teas and coffees for a portable option!

And amidst all of the excitement over your wedding favors, don’t forget to jazz up these old wedding traditions as well!

What are some of the most unique, practical wedding favors you’ve received? Let us know in the comments!

Do you want to get your start in the world of wedding planning? Check out QC’s Event & Wedding Planning Course!

2 responses to “7 Wedding Favors Guests Will Actually Use”

  1. Luke Smith says:

    I really enjoyed your thought to use soap as a wedding favor, because it would probably be fairly easy to make it personal and I bet people really would use it! I have always felt like wedding favors were something that was cool, but not very practical outside the wedding. It would be really cool to have a practical wedding favor that would help people remember your special day.

    1. Katie Deck says:

      Hi Luke,

      Thanks for your insight! We really like this idea as well – it’s simple and very unique. 🙂
      What are your favorite wedding favors to receive?

      Have a great day!
      The QC Team

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