What is the point of wedding favours?

Ziggazee

Total waste of money in my opinion. A friend of mine put large champagne glasses of sweets in the middle of the table for everyone to help themselves to which was rather nice

Poppy9

freyasmum wrote: »

I've even seen lottery tickets being given to guests.

I couldn't do that. What if one of the guests won £5m and didn't offer the B&G a share! Could cause so much bad feeling.

mandragora_2

Just one more thing for the industry to profit from. The first time I'd heard of them was at my brother's wedding, in the run up to it, I nearly fell on the floor when I heard the SIL to be asking my mum to 'knock up' 50 little tulle drawstring bags to put sugared almonds in. (Mum had already run herself ragged in the months before with all the little finishing touches that were, apparently 'essential') Whatever for???? I love them both dearly, but their wedding was a real revelation to me - I think the best phrase for it would be 'all fur coat and no knickers', as the church was right posh (despite her being agnostic, him an anti-establishment punk atheist), sit down meal, marquee, the lot - except that my mum, dad and my OH and I ended up being saddled with all the washing up from the 5-plate, full cutleried dinner to do after the meal, as my brother had done a deal with the catering firm on that basis. Nice one, bro! The favours came to symbolise to me all that was pointless and exploitative about the whole rigmarole. Not that I have a bee in my bonnet about it of course.

I can remember being a bit open mouthed with astonishment at all the palaver, and asking my atheist, anti-estblishment, punk brother what they would talk about after they were married (the wedding had been the only topic of conversation in the house for about a year!)

His reply: The wedding, of course.

big5

zcrat41 wrote: »

Some people now leave little cards saying they've donated to charity instead, seen that a few times.

That's what we did - we each chose a charity and donated £2 per guest (which is roughly what we'd have spent on favours).

At my brother's wedding, I forgot to pick up my favour when we left the table, oops! I don't feel too bad about it though - they're now divorced and she kept my wedding gift!

My cousin had favours at her wedding in 1990 (the first wedding I ever went to), so they're not a totally new thing in the UK.

marywooyeah

haha we had the love hearts pictured in the earlier post! they are a bit of a waste of money, I'm not a "weddingy" type person so for me I wasn't overly fussed but felt like people were expecting them so we'd better have something. thought the love hearts were pretty cute so got them with our names and wedding date on them.

having thought about it, I don't think I've ever kept a wedding favour, usually either left them at the wedding or binned them soon after.

pinkclouds

Agree that wedding favours are unnecessary and "trinket" type souvenirs are a waste of time - they'll mean nothing to the guests (except, maybe, the parents of the bride and groom) - but... they are sooo cute and you only (intend to) get married once so, assuming it's within your budget, I don't see the harm in going the whole hog! The best favours are edible ones, so they don't hang around once they've been admired. Mine were candies and I decorated the containers myself (albeit flat-pack favour boxes and ready-bought decorations). I enjoyed prepping them and, once people finished "inspecting" them on the day, the sweets were soon scoffed (some at the table, some after the event) and that was that.

mildred1978

We had little handmade wooden welsh lovespoons as favours for the adults. They had a little label on them which had our names and the date on them, and explained the history of the Lovespoon, and the meaning of the different symbols. Most of the guests were English and thought they were lovely. I'd say at least 70% of them are still in our guests' houses (because I've seen them) and my welsh friend's kept them, well because they're welsh!!

That was in the mid 2000s. I think they cost about £2.50 each.

arbroath_lass

I had favours at my wedding in 1990. They were definitely not a new thing then. We did the five sugared almonds - that was quite new in our area. Some friends did scrolls with a poem abnout the happy couple - this was quite new in our area too. Weddings I had been to before favours were generally cake decorations e.g. horseshoes etc (they were never actually on the cake). They are a thank you/good luck gift to your friends and family.

GracieP

freyasmum wrote: »

I'm surprised people haven't heard of them; they've been at every single wedding I've ever been to. I don't see much point to them myself, tbh.

I've even seen lottery tickets being given to guests rather than sugared almonds and the last wedding had little packs of fudge in cellophane.

You should have been in Celtic Tiger Ireland. A woman I worked with about 6/7 years ago came back from her niece's wedding in a bit of shock as all the male guests had received a Waterford Crystal clock and all the women a Waterford Crystal vase. She estimated they cost the best part of €200 per couple.

sharrison778

I think they are a complete waste of time and money.

The only time I've seen it done well is at a friends wedding - she was marrying a greek man and his grandmother and great aunts spent days making all these traditional greek sweets. It was obvious how chuffed his family were that they were included and their heritage was part of the wedding. So in that case, i think they were worth it.

But otherwise, favours are just a waste. And anyone who looks down on a couple for not having them probably doesnt deserve to be invited to the wedding!