Homemade Wedding Favors

From LoveToKnow Weddings

Homemade wedding favors can be anything from sleek and elegant to whimsical and playful. Making favors not only lends a very personal touch, it's usually less expensive than purchasing ready-made favors.

Do you have more to add about making your own wedding favors? Add your thoughts in the comments section below this article. For more places to share your thoughts, check our wedding Question of the Week. If you need answers about your wedding favors or other wedding topics, post your questions for our wedding expert Sharon Naylor.

Benefits of Homemade Favors

There are many advantages to making your own wedding favors. These include:

Giving a unique favor: You are free to create a favor that matches the theme and mood of your wedding perfectly. Each homemade wedding favor is also unique -- even a minor imperfection or difference only adds to its charm. Guests will be honored by the fact the favors are handmade.

Lower in cost: By making your favors, you are also saving money. The costs usually add up to only a fraction of what a comparable custom-made or purchased favor would be. A homemade wedding favor can be elegant and inexpensive, so you are getting the best of both worlds.

Involving friends and family: There are many favors that can be created with minimal time and effort, so lack of time doesn't have to deter you from making your own favors. If your bridal party, friends, and family are eager to help with wedding, as most are, enlisting their help in making the favors can be fun and memorable.

Deciding What to Make

The first step is deciding what type of wedding favor you'd like to make. Favors for weddings generally fall into one of three categories: edible favors, keepsakes or décor, and practical or useful favors.

Deciding which type of favor you'd like to give will most likely depend on you and your future spouse's personalities as well as the mood and season of the wedding and reception. An edible favor or personalized treat can be the perfect token of thanks for almost any wedding. A romantic wedding might be perfect for an elegant commemorative favor, while a practical favor might lend itself well to a casual wedding.

Looking through books, magazines, and Websites is a great start for deciding what type of favor will work with your wedding. Take a walk through a craft store like Michael's, Catan's, or Jo-Ann Fabrics for more inspiration. Jot down your ideas on what colors shapes, and designs in a favor would complement the wedding.

Edible Favors

You don't have to be a gourmet chef to make wonderful homemade wedding favors in the food category. Possibilities are nearly endless, but some ideas you may want to consider are:

Homemade chocolates or chocolate pops
Homemade candy bars
Chocolate covered pretzels
Chocolate spoons to accompany packets of cocoa or coffee
Fudge or taffy
Hard or rock candy
Personalized cookies or cookie pops
Small jars of homemade jam, jelly, or preserves
Small jars of herbed olive oil -- add herbs to a good olive oil, pour into small bottles
Homemade dry soup mixes
Dried fruit and nut mixes

Keepsake Favors

A decorative or keepsake favor is a memory of your special day your guests will treasure. Favors you could make as keepsakes include:

Magnets or magnet frames
Personalized music or photograph CD
Christmas tree or decorative ornaments
Individual handwritten fortunes or message scrolls
Mini wreaths
Decorative keepsake or treasure boxes
Mini photo albums
Picture frames
Personalized poem

Practical or Useful Favors

Many couples are drawn to favors that are practical or useful as well as attractive. Some ideas for homemade wedding favors in this area are:

Decorative soaps
Mini decorated notepads
Coasters
Personalized candles
Relabeled packets of flower seeds
Bookmarks
Key chains
Paperweights
Potpourri
Bath salts or beads

Putting the Favor Together

You can make a homemade favor with minimal time and effort by purchasing the things needed for your favor and putting everything together yourself. For almost any favor, you will need some type of container or wrapping, the favor itself, and the tag and decorative finishing touches.

Containers and Wrappings

Don't limit your imagination -- you can use boxes, bags, and envelopes to contain your favor. Look at dollar, discount, and craft stores for small jars, baskets, dishes, candle holders, seashells, or small watering cans or terra cotta pots. For something unique, consider measuring cups, spoons, mugs, glasses, or pen and pencil holders.

Fillings

To create simple homemade wedding favors, use the container of your choice and put in purchased fillings of your choice. These could be:

Specialty bags of tea, cocoa, or coffee
Tea lite candles
Candy
Nuts
Jar of cinnamon or cooking spice
Mints
Sachets or potpourri
A favorite recipe
Wedding bell
Fortune cookie
Cookie cutter

Tags and Finishing Touches

Using a good quality paper, you can print off tags from your personal computer. You can simply put your initials or names and wedding date, or a cute phrase or meaningful saying related to your wedding theme.

Use craft scissors to make scalloped edges, or cut the tags in a cute shape. Use a hole punch and affix to the favor using ribbon, raffia, or lace. You can also add small silk rosebuds, fake wedding rings, wedding bells, mini wedding doves, or some other embellishment to add a special touch to the favor.

For more ideas, visit LoveToKnow Crafts and LoveToKnow Recipes. Read Homemade Wedding Favors for Spring for some great seasonal inspiration, too!

Learn More

Slideshows and Quizzes

Top 5 Weddings Articles

Related Articles

Comments

As we are having a nature themed wedding, I have decided to give our guests seeds from 2 of our (new zealand) native plants Kanuka (tree) and Manuka (Shrub)- all up it was $8 for 4500 seeds. I have been looking everywhere for an idea on what to give them in - have found some nice things eg, butterfly and watering can boxes, wee tote bags, homemade gift boxes, but they all didnt really suit me (wasting paper etc), and I came across this page and it says Terracotta pots, and for me that is the perfect idea considering i, for some reason, have lots of mini terracotta pots waiting to be used. Thanks heaps for giving me the idea

-- Contributed by: L.B