Cute favor or too promish?

[larussel03]

Date: 10/3/2006 2:36:51 PM
Author: ellaila
Are the mice/penguins from Burdicks? They are known for their chocolate mice! I think they're adorable, and I think people in the know would think they are cute/sassy ... but honestly, I think most guests would be like 'Um, mice?? At a wedding?!' Rodents - even chocolate ones - just don't scream 'romance' to most people!

Yeah, they're from Burdicks which is pretty big in boston. I think the mice are a little "ew" for a wedding but the penguins are pretty darn cute...too many options for favors!!! My only prob with the penguins is that they dont really "go" with the whole wedding theme. They have the halloween ghosts out right now which are cute for a halloween wedding though

Why is it that the least important part of the wedding is the most difficult to figure out?? If I cant get it figured out by the wedding, I'll donate the money I would have spent to cancer research and make it known that in lieu of favors, we did a donation in honor of our guests. Although I do really want to find something most people will like...

 

[ellaila]

Ha! I figured they had to be Burdicks -- how many people make chocolate mice?! (I'm a Boston girl too

)

We had little personalized bags of coffee for favors at our wedding. They were pretty cheap, and I figured that if people didn't take them, then yippee! more coffee for us! I think that you have to think that way -- "what do I want extras of if people don't take them??" I didn't put them at people's seats though (our tables were kind of small, and I didn't want them to look too cluttered), they were in a basket by the door, and honestly, not everyone took them.

I think people spend way too much money on favors personally. I don't know if it would even dawn on me if I went to someone's wedding and didn't get a favor (I couldn't tell you what I've gotten from any single wedding I've been to, other than those little frames, which I always leave or throw out), and I don't think anyone would miss them at your wedding if you donated the money instead -- I think that's a great idea! I wish we had done that actually.

ETA: I don't think you will ever get a favor that "everyone likes" -- it's just too hard. You get chocolate, you'll have lactose-intolerant guests; you get candles, you'll have people allergic to the scent; you get coffee, you'll have guests that don't drink coffee (like kids!); you get something delicate, you'll have OOT guests that won't want to carry them back; and so on. You can't please everyone!

 

[sumbride]

The last wedding I went to I did notice there was no favor, but only because I was thinking about wedding planning already. Then I flipped the program over and noticed the note about a charitable donation to the foundation the groom is involved in and I thought "how nice!"

 

[larussel03]

Date: 10/3/2006 4:59:27 PM
Author: sumbride
The last wedding I went to I did notice there was no favor, but only because I was thinking about wedding planning already. Then I flipped the program over and noticed the note about a charitable donation to the foundation the groom is involved in and I thought ''how nice!''

Yeah, my FI''s dad is huge into this one charity, maybe we''ll donate the favor money to them and write on the menu that in lieu of favors we''ve donated in honor of our guests to " Late night cookies and chocolates with coffee are included with the wedding package, so that may be good..

 

[larussel03]

OMG Burdicks does turkeys!! how funny is that??? Just had to share, my wedding is the sat after Thanksgiving, but I'm not really feeling turkeys on the tables, but they're funny and cute if anyone's having a thanksgiving get together!

 

[firebirdgold]

Prom favors? Is that an East Coast thing, ''cause I''ve never heard of it.


The last wedding I went to had little cards at each table setting saying that they had donated money to the red cross in lieu of favors. I thought it was very classy.

The wedding before that had a table full of the bride''s and groom''s favorite books with a personal note inside each cover explaining why the book was special to them. Everyone seemed very pleased with their new reading material. Of course now that I''m trying to stuff his library into my library, that idea looks even better!

 

[larussel03]

Date: 10/4/2006 7:21:12 PM
Author: IndieJones
Prom favors? Is that an East Coast thing, ''cause I''ve never heard of it.


The last wedding I went to had little cards at each table setting saying that they had donated money to the red cross in lieu of favors. I thought it was very classy.

The wedding before that had a table full of the bride''s and groom''s favorite books with a personal note inside each cover explaining why the book was special to them. Everyone seemed very pleased with their new reading material. Of course now that I''m trying to stuff his library into my library, that idea looks even better!

I''m not sure if it''s an East coast thing...we alwasy had something like champagne glasses, candles or one year these cheap looking plastic picture frames that fell apart.

The more I think about it the more I''m liking the donation idea...

 

[HOUMedGal]

I totally dig the chocolates for favors. I''m really not a fan of the glasses, to be honest...I still have my souvenir champagne glass from high school prom, but it''s in my high school memory box, not my cupboard, and the only reason it''s in my memory box is because it was my prom (not one of my friend''s weddings...). I''m a HUGE fan of edible wedding favors...we had sugar cookies with our initials written in icing on them, and I think they were a hit!

The penguins are soooo cute! As are the mice and the turkeys. Love them!

 

[Fancy605]

Those chocolate penguins are PRECIOUS! Of course penguins are my favorite animal, so I am a bit partial to them. (plus they are already in tuxes for the wedding)

A friend of mine gave candies at a wedding just last Saturday. It was cute and looked tastey (I forgot to take one--ah well. I am sure she''ll be trying to feed the extras to us for months when she gets back from her honeymoon)

If you like the glass idea, maybe you could fill up plain champagne flutes with candy. People may be more likely to use those than the ones with writing on them.

And I know a lot of people who have done scented candles.

And I DEF. agree with those who said donations were nice and classy.

But, you know, now that I think about it, several of my friends didn''t bother doing favors at all. They said they couldn''t afford anything that didn''t look cheap, so they skipped them all together. I didn''t hear any complaints.

 

[Janezita45]

Sweetpea,

The champagne glass is not a bad idea as a favor, but I have a suggestion that might help make it less expensive and more attractive for guests. See, alot of people don''t like the idea because it will have someone elses name on the actual glass, so it really would only be appropriate to use it in that one occassion (your wedding). I don''t know how your budget for favors is and how many people are attending.

If you were to buy just regular champagne glasses (no designs or letters), ribbon (matching the color theme of your wedding), and just printing out little color labels shaped like hearts with your name and your fiance''s name (along with the wedding date), and some nice see through cellophane paper and wrap up some chocolates (any kind you want) then tie the paper with the ribbon (along with a tag attached) and put it inside the flute.

I was a MOH for my best friend and I took care of her favors, she loved them! I just bought in bulk alot of flutes (they ended up costing less than $1.00 each), I bought these gourmet chocolate covered pretzels (they were little pretzel squares covered in white chocolate with a drop of lavender colored chocolate in the middle) in bulk as well, and just put a bunch in cellophane paper, tied it with a ribbon along with a heart shaped tag that had the bride and grooms name with the wedding date, and put that at each plate setting. Each favor ended up costing me less than $2.00 and everyone loved it! (I wish I had a picture!) I made the tags in a white heart shaped label with lavender letters, and the ribbon was lavender (that was her theme color), and those worked out well!

I hope this helps!

 

[larussel03]

Date: 10/4/2006 10:35:47 PM
Author: Fancy605
Those chocolate penguins are PRECIOUS! Of course penguins are my favorite animal, so I am a bit partial to them. (plus they are already in tuxes for the wedding)

A friend of mine gave candies at a wedding just last Saturday. It was cute and looked tastey (I forgot to take one--ah well. I am sure she''ll be trying to feed the extras to us for months when she gets back from her honeymoon)

If you like the glass idea, maybe you could fill up plain champagne flutes with candy. People may be more likely to use those than the ones with writing on them.

And I know a lot of people who have done scented candles.

And I DEF. agree with those who said donations were nice and classy.

But, you know, now that I think about it, several of my friends didn''t bother doing favors at all. They said they couldn''t afford anything that didn''t look cheap, so they skipped them all together. I didn''t hear any complaints.

haha, that''s what I was thinking, tuxes for the wedding...I think what it will ultimately come down to is either a donation or the penguins. On one hand, the penguins are DELICIOUS (almonds for wings and a lemon ganache with a truffley center) and I''d have to put them at each place setting to ensure the most were taken/eaten. On the other hand a donation is nice....I think those are my final 2...I have a year to decide, so I''ll see what the ''rents think!

 

[larussel03]

btw, the choc penguins can be ordered (as well as the mice, turkeys, ghosts) from their website...just google burdicks chocolate and they ship wherever! In case it fits anyone''s holiday needs!

 

[Janezita45]

OOpss, I dont think that I was clear when because I didn''t write that I put the candy INSIDE the flute! I organized so that the cellophane sort of hanged out of the flute, it looked so elegant and pretty!

So after the candy was eaten the flute could be used for other occassions since there are no names on it! It is a favor after all, so it is good that the guests can use it more than once! (if it''s not edible) Everyone loved these favors! You can use any candies you want, even hershey''s kisses!

 

[reader]

The one favor I do remember are little bags of Hershey''s Hugs and Kisses with "Hugs and Kisses from the Mr. and Mrs." on them....
I think the donation idea is the best one so far. How classy, and socially aware..

 

[ephemery1]

A few years back, we attended a wedding that gave yellow LiveStrong bracelets as favors in honor of the bride's brother's struggle with cancer. Ever since then, I knew I wanted to do a favor in memory of my grandmother, who died of ovarian cancer 3 years ago. So now I am thinking we will have little cards printed up that say:

In loving memory of
Gram
and in honor of
the other strong women
in our lives...

and alternate each one with either a little teal pin (ovarian cancer) or a little pink pin (breast cancer - both my FMIL and FI's godmother are survivors) pinned below it.

 

[ljmorgan]

I think we''ve struck a good balance with our favors -- non-personalized bottles of sparkling cider that our guests can enjoy, with personalized hang tags that can be kept or thrown away.

 

[ljmorgan]

the tags will be tied to the top of the bottle with ribbon

 

[ellaila]

Date: 10/5/2006 7:55:52 AM
Author: ephemery1

A few years back, we attended a wedding that gave yellow LiveStrong bracelets as favors in honor of the bride''s brother''s struggle with cancer. Ever since then, I knew I wanted to do a favor in memory of my grandmother, who died of ovarian cancer 3 years ago. So now I am thinking we will have little cards printed up that say:

In loving memory of
Gram
and in honor of
the other strong women
in our lives...

and alternate each one with either a little teal pin (ovarian cancer) or a little pink pin (breast cancer - both my FMIL and FI''s godmother are survivors) pinned below it.

Aww, what a beautiful thing! To be honest though, I think maybe a donation would be better than the pins -- I mean, I can''t see any male guest taking a pin with them when they leave and honestly, many women may leave them too, so they may be a waste. The LiveStrong bracelets -- though a bit overplayed by now, what with all the knockoffs -- perhaps may be a better gender-neutral option? Or you may be better off just donating the money and having the card say, "In loving memory of Gram and in honor of the other strong women in our lives, a donation has been made to the American Cancer Society" or whatever you decide to do. Either way, I think it''s really a touching and beautiful tribute to your grandmother and others!