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Can across this article, think it is pretty good.
Do I Really Have to Give Wedding Favors?
I am on a budget, do I really need to add the expense of wedding favors. A lot more brides are beginning to wonder, if favors are really that important.
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Ahh the great debate!
I myself go back & forth on this topic. I think favors are a nice gesture & fun to have, but they aren't 100% essential either. My mom and I had this fight because she wants me to give favors, but I feel the $100 meal is gift enough.
I'll probably cave & give out favors, but I wouldn't ever think poorly of a bride if I left her wedding without a favor.
I'm just making chocolate covered strawberries and putting them in a white box. I found some really cheap white boxes that you can get personalized in my wedding color font @ koyalwholesale.com. I hope they don't melt, but hey at least I tried. I plan on leaving them in the freezer until the day of the wedding. Honestly I go to weddings sometimes and either forget to grab a favor, or never use it and end up throwing it away. I say it doesn't matter, but if I didn't I know my mom would totally flip out.
i went to a wedding two weeks ago with no favors and didnt think anything of it
if it's not in your budget, you don't have to. people go to your wedding to celebrate not to get free gifts :)
On a scale of 1-10, favors rank a 0. They are not required by any means and people don't miss them if they aren't there. If you can't afford them, then skip them. I've never once been to a wedding that had favors and no one mentioned anything about them either way. I did attend an anniversary party though where the edible favors were in plain sight and they had to force them on whomever was still around at the end since no one took any. Unless they're edible, most either get left behind or thrown in the trash once the guests get home. Save your money and put it toward something the guests will actually enjoy such as food/drink or dj. Or put it toward your photography.
so happy to hear I can get away with this :) I can't even decide on what to give everyone. I think I will save my money and nix this.
I don't think they're required. At 1/2 of the weddings I've been to, my favor gets stolen :o( And a lot of stuff, I just don't want/need. A CD of your wedding music? No thanks, I don't even have a CD player anymore ;o)
I think we're going to do daisy shaped cookies to go with our theme, but I wouldn't mind going without either.
Per Emily Post: "wedding favors are a charming custom but are in no way required or expected. Don't let a retailer pressure you into an unnecessary expense. If giving favors is meaningful to your family heritage and if it is not adding a financial burden to what the bride's family is already providing, by all means go ahead. After all, its your wedding!"
Looks like it is not poor etiquette to not provide a favor! Who knew?
Well, I've been to a bunch of weddings and for the most part I can't even remember which ones had favors and which didn't, isn't that bad?! I think if you have some extra dinero, and you want to do it, and you're aware that not everyone is going to want it, then go for it. But if not, its totally not a necessity. I'm still not sure that I'll be doing favors, I'm leaning toward no. We're on a budget and it doesn't seem like many others care either.
No wedding favors here. The guests can take the programs as their favors!
We didn't do favors at our wedding and I don't think anyone cared!
As a guest I would totally rather get no favor than get a really lame favor that will just end up in the trash. ...so I definitely don't think that favors are necessary, and I never expect them at weddings. That being said, I still think it is possible to make very nice and thoughtful favors on a tight budget. It just requires a little work and creativity. So, if favors are important to you, I'm sure you can still find something that works in your budget...
I really don't want to have them. I'd prefer to print up a bunch of "in lieu of favors, a donation has been made to…" but my Mom's insisting that we can't send people home empty handed, that they'll expect something. She wants little bottles of wine or champagne. As long as she's paying for it -- whatever.
Whoever posted about people forgetting them is right. I dunno how many times I've left a wedding and forgotten the favor, or seen tons of them still lying around.
I do plan on leaving a ton of water bottles on a table on the way out so people can just grab them on their way home/to their hotel rooms. Does that count? haha
i don't think they're really necessary. Do you really need another picture frame or candle? We've decided to make a donation to a charity (MSPCA) in honor of our guests. I'm going to put a note on each table explaining this with a picture of our cats :)
The funny thing is, we didn't think we were having favors. However, we got a dozen kippot (yarmulkes) for guests at the ceremony. My brother (who is not even Jewish) was thrilled to find out that he didn't have to give his back at the end of the ceremony. And I left some out at our reception, and some (nonJewish) guests took them there, too.
However, I don't think favors are necessary.
Not necessary. Good hospitality at the wedding itself is more important than having some trinket to take home.
it's an easy area to scrap - what matters is how important it is to you!!
Were haveing a DW and were not doing favors! We're having sand dollars as escort cards and box invitations with starfish if you want to count that has a favor !
I'm having a destination wedding so after some discussion, we've decided to do cute OOT bags for our guests and then give them a small card at the reception that says we've donated to a charity in lieu of doing favors. Honestly, I don't get all that excited about favors unless I can eat them because otherwise I have to find a place to stash it when I get home!
Miss Manners also thinks it's optional! Miss Powder Puff has a funny post here: http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/12/04/etiquette-books/
That is a great debate between my mother and me. I believe it's a cultural thing for my family and why she feels it's so important. I can't count how many worthless shot glasses, single wine glasses, picture frames, candles, etc. that my mom has lying around the house. And they have the bride and grooms names on it which really mean nothing to guests a year later.
Nowadays it's common to give something edible if giving favors. Otherwise, it's not worth it and a waste of money. We will likely give chocolate truffles from one of my fave chocolate companies.
Oh this is the great debate. Like others, I have this conversation with myself on a regular basis. And MommaMoo does think that giving out favours makes it a much more "fancy" affair which I don't agree with at all.
So we are giving favours. That is, we will, if we can be bothered to make them. We'll be doing all the favours ourselves, from the packaging to the actual favour itself (little 3-tiered fudge cakes a la DIY Bride) - so we have total power over whether or not we want to do them closer to the time.
They're not at all important to me. I've thrown away every wedding favor I've ever received, after they all sat on my kitchen counter for a few days. I'm debating between the charity donation in lieu of favors or nothing at all.
I don't think it's important, especially when I keep hearing how a lot of favors end up being left behind untouched. That's just a waste, imo! My take is that unless I can truly give a favor that everyone would enjoy (which most likely would cost a lot of money for each guest), I'd rather not give anything.
I used to work catering and worked nearly 200 weddings. Unless it was chocolate (or candy) that was eaten at the wedding, at least 40% of the favors got left behind. When we could, we'd package them back up for the bride or they ended up in trashcans. We're not doing favors but donating the money we would spend on favors to a charity. (We'll put little cards on the table explaining htis). I've been to several weddings who have done this and I think it makes SO much more sense.
Come to think of it, a lot of the weddings I've been to didn't have them!
We're making a donation to a charity. I really feel like I would rather spend money on a good cause rather than a cheap nothing.
And I think most of our guests will understand that. How many favours have you kept?
Etiquette says it's super important... I think this etiquette is made up by favor makers, much like Valentines Day is made up by the greeting card industry. I wouldn't notice if favors weren't given at weddings, and my favorite ones are edible, like cookies, and probably not that expensive, if you decide to go that route :)
I had been going back and forth about this as well. But we've decided to make a donation to Families of September 11 since my fiance and I met 9/11/01 because of 9/11. We're both from NYC and we know how much this still affects people now; I also think it's more personal that way.
Not important at all! We're not doing favors.
For favors to be really affordable, they either have to be homemade (which requires a good amount of work) or fairly junky, and I can say I'm not willing to take on either!
I don't think favors are necessary at all. I'm doing OOT bags because I'm having a destination wedding and 1/2 the guests will be traveling 2-4 hours and the other 1/2 will be traveling by plane, followed by a two hour drive. If I was doing the wedding in town, I wouldn't bother with favors.
I don't think they're totally necessary. We just had this discussion not too long ago too. I like many other bees here, have felt the pressure to do a favor, and to have one with our picture on it somehow. Since we are in the same situation, tight budget, we decided to do without them, we figured our pics will be on our STD already anyway. We will be having a candy buffet, so it we might have some labels on the bags which would count as favors I hope. Btw, both my MOHs did not have favors at their weddings and I had not realized that until I asked them what they had as their favors. Just goes to show it's not that big a deal.
We are at 2 options:
A - No favors
B - 2 chocolate kisses on the table (or a Hershey hug & kiss - love white chocolate!)
Glad you posted this because its been driving me crazy! We are on major budget too, and I can't think of ANYTHING to do as a favor, so I think we are opting no! Isn't the food and drink good enough?! haha!!!
I've been waffling on this big time! We're not having a cake (but we are having a dessert and chocolates and things on the tables) so I originally thought I'd do cupcakes as favors instead of serving cake. But every quote I got is like $3.50-$4 each, which is a lot to me! If I can't think of something edible to do we're not going to do anything but I wonder if guests will miss them?
My other thought was to bake cookies en masse and bag them myself the days before the wedding but something tells me that is a recipe for madness. My fiance just laughed at that idea, plus with all the ingredients (and the bags) I'm not sure it'd be any cheaper.
We're going to do a candy buffet and that will be the "favors". The only wedding favor I enjoyed was the homemade cookies at one of my friend's wedding back in 2007. I have been to favor-less receptions and haven't thought twice about it.
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