If you are holding a large wedding, that is one with many guests, the cost of wedding favours can be quite considerable, if you do not set a strict budget. One immediate method you could use to cut the cost of your wedding favours is to give one to each couple or single, rather than one to everybody who comes. The first decision to make is how much can you afford in total and then divide that by the number of guests in total and then divide it by the number of couples and singles.
This system will make it easier for you to make up your mind what you are going to do: buy for everybody; buy for couples and singles and keep the rest for something else or give to couples and singles but get more expensive presents. If you still find that there is not a lot of money to go around, you will need to look for lower-priced wedding favours. I will give you a few ideas below to get you going.
Candles can be very effective, inexpensive wedding favours. If you buy in bulk, you can get some really lovely candles at very reasonable prices. You could get scented candles, maybe with the same smell as the bouquet the bride carried. You could also consider purchasing personalized ribbons to tie pretty bows around the candles and the ribbons could have your names and the wedding date on them.
Candy or chocolate is another kind of inexpensive wedding favour. There are many ways to go down this route. You can have the wrappers of popular candy bars custom-made; you could buy fairly expensive chocolate in bulk and wrap it up in a special way yourself or you could buy small boxes of gourmet chocolate.
Giving packets of flower or vegetable seeds is also an economical way of giving a useful wedding favour. Again, you could give seed packets of the flowers in the bride’s bouquet. The seed packets could be wrapped or boxed with your own special logo, names and wedding date. You could present them in a pot or tray too in order to make it even easier to sow the seeds.
A pen or pen and pencil set is also a reasonably economical way of giving wedding favours. These pens can also display your wedding particulars such as names and date.
However, I am Welsh and so my favourite wedding favours are love spoons in miniature, say four inches long. Love spoons were given in Wales by a suitor to his beloved for hundreds of years and many love spoon makers will make mini versions by hand for a small sum of money. These love spoon wedding favours can also be carved with the wedding information as they are typically made out of wood.
Another lovely effect is to add a stamped, self addressed envelope to your wedding favour present, with a short note asking the recipient to get in touch with you soon, so that you do not let too much water go under the bridge.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Welsh love spoons, and Wales in general, please go to our website at Welsh Products Online, if you are too.