It is a lovely gesture to provide a little gift for all your guests but wedding favours can be quite expensive and obviously you’re going to have to multiply the cost of each favour by your number of guests.

Many guests will just leave wedding favours on the table at the end of the night because they don’t know what to do with them and they might not want a candle in the shape of a wedding cake in their homes! I have seen so many wedding favours that are just not my style so I take them home to be polite and just put them in the loft. One example was a bride and groom hedgehog couple. Where would I put that in my life?

So what can you do to provide something meaningful to all your guests that they will take home and treasure?

The first thing that comes to mind are plants, seeds and bulbs. These are a great idea, relatively cheap and guests can take them home and plant them in their gardens or window boxes. Bulbs especially will come up every year and remind your guests that your wedding was the best they’ve ever attended!

Another great wedding favour idea are edible ones.

Guests can have a munch on them while sitting through the speeches!

I’ve started this article with floral/plant/seed and bulb favours because these are my personal favourite but then I move on to some other great ideas just for you.

Have a read through and see what you think!

Planted Favours

 

I know you saw this on ‘buying a plant and putting it in a pot’ but this works equally well with favours. Imagine everyone going home with their own little teacup with a plant in it! This particular plant will live for years and be covered with pink flowers in the spring.

You could also pop a little succulent or cactus in a tiny pot and it’s job done!

The best plants for this are small ones that people have no trouble taking home at the end of the night so take a look round your local garden centre and see what fits your theme the best.

Think about the pots too, I often use tea cups because they are so cute but they can be pricey, so how about little tin pots or small glass ramekins?

Let your imagination run wild!

DIY SEED AND BULB FAVOURS 

Giving Seed and bulb favours at weddings has increased in in popularity over the last few years. Probably because they are lovely and people can plant them in their gardens and remember your wedding every year the flowers come up. They are also ridiculously easy to do yourself.

To achieve the look in the photo above, all you need is…

• Flower seeds
• Little envelopes
• Coloured paper
• Ribbon
• Printer

All I did was scoop a few seeds into the envelopes, print out a paper label (or you could just write on the envelope) and tie some ribbon into a bow and stick it on! Yes, that’s all!

How about bulb favours? All you need for this look is…

• Bulbs
• Small hessian bags
• Labels
• Coloured paper
• Ribbon
• Printer

It is pretty similar to the seed favours in that all I did was put the bulbs in the bags, make the labels and tie on some ribbon.

You could do that easily!

Here are some bulb options for you – And you can buy them online and have them shipped straight to your door!

Alliums

Bluebells

Snowdrops

Crocus

Daffodil

Hyacinth

Muscari

Here are some seed options for you

Wild-flower mix

Hollyhock

Sweetpea

Cosmos

Cornflower

Buying little treats and putting them in boxes or bags are the most common way to organise favours at a wedding. There are some beautiful favour boxes that come flat packed in every shape and size so the possibilities are endless.

What to put in them?

Sugared almonds are the most traditional but there are an infinite number of things so why not check out our list below for some inspiration or check out our Pinterest board for some more ideas!

• Sweets
• Mini wedding crackers
• Chocolate
• Bubbles
• Candles
• Scented soaps
• Personalised love heart sweets
• Lucky sixpence

Don’t forget the kids if you’re having some at the wedding! They might like the chocolate, sweets or the bubbles but do you want them running around during the speeches? No. So why not give them an activity pack to keep them busy!

How about some delicious cookies or biscuits? The bakers among us can make and decorate beautiful sweet, crumbly cookies, wrap them in pretty cellophane and tie the top with ribbon! you might even know someone in your family or circle of friends who can make them for you!

While we’re talking yummy treats… Why not a table centrepiece that doubles as your wedding favours? Radical, I know! I’m talking about a cake stand with tiny wedding cupcakes in the middle of the table. Looks amazing and it will definitely be remembered! Something like this maybe?

Lots of luck to all you wedding DIY ninjas!