Wedding Favours Explained

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Wedding favours are gifts from the bride and groom to the wedding guests, for them to take home and remember your wedding day. They are also known as bonbonniere as the tradition seems to have originated in France where a small trinket box of sugar cubes or confectionery were distributed to wedding guests, at a time when sugar was an expensive commodity.

Over the years the custom spread throughout Europe and the most popular gift became five sugared almonds in a box, or wrapped in netting or tulle, to represent the bittersweet qualities of married life. Each of the five almonds represents health, wealth, happiness, fertility and long life.

Although many traditional weddings still provide sugared almonds for wedding favours there is an increasing trend towards personalising wedding favours. The gifts should be inexpensive and if you attach guests names to them they can act as place cards. This works very well for outdoor weddings as paper place cards often get blown over.

Personalised wedding favours can include the couple’s name and the wedding date. Ideas can include:-

• Homemade soaps

• Personalised candles

• Small picture frames

• Bags of pot pourri

• Handmade chocolates

• Trinket boxes

• Personalised bookmark

• CD of the couples favourite songs

• Knitted or crocheted heart

It is best to choose something that people can associate with the bride and groom. For example a wedding favour for a Japanese style wedding could be a pair of chopsticks tied with an origami flower. Wedding favours are often hand-made, but there is also a large number of companies to be found on the internet who can supply a vast range of items including jewellery, spoons, key chains, letter openers and pewter figurines. They can also supply items like personalised mouse mats and stubby holders if you provide the text and even a suitable photo.

Another idea that is becoming more popular in these environmentally conscious days is to give a packet of flower seeds for the guests to plant when they get home. If you’re going to make your own wedding favours, it’s best to arrange an evening where you invite your bridesmaids and friends over, and form a little production line to get the task done. After all, many hands make light work!