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Wedding Favors

Wedding favors are small gifts provided by the bride and groom for the guests to take home. These are small tokens of thanks for each person who has attended the festivities. Throughout all the hustle and bustle of planning a wedding, many couples leave the wedding favors for the last minute. Often, this is not done on purpose, as the happy couple simply is unaware of the tradition or just hasn't thought too much about it. In order to save you and your sweetie some time and energy, here are a few different ideas for wedding favors.

One of the most common wedding favors is a small box of confections. This is most often a small box of chocolates, usually one or two candies in each box. These boxes are placed on the chair or charger of each guest's place setting at the dinner table, and serves as a thoughtful gesture from the bride and groom. While a candy gift is certainly sweet, it is also very unimaginative, like the age-old pack of matches with the couple's name, wedding date, and venue printed on the cover. Depending on where you purchase the confections, such favors could cost anywhere from $2 to $7 each.

A less common but thoughtful wedding favor is the place card holder that can double as a photograph holder later on. Many couples purchase decorative photograph clips that complement their wedding colors and décor and use them as place card holders. This doubles as a wedding favor as the guests each have one holder that they may take home at the end of the evening. Typically, individual holders will cost between $1 and $3.

The donation in lieu of a wedding favor is growing in popularity and is truly a wonderful idea. This involves the couple choosing a charity that they believe in and donate to and making a donation instead of purchasing wedding favors for the guests. Usually, an information card is placed on each table at the reception letting guests know that in lieu of the favor the couple has donated to a specific charity. This type of wedding favor saves you time and money, as you can spend your wedding favor budget on the donation and won't get sidetracked into spending a little more, just for that "extra special" favor.

For other ideas of interesting and unique wedding favors, try looking through the bridal magazines. While many couples try to avoid these publications, they actually are a much bigger help than you may realize. Also, arts and crafts magazines may offer up interesting ideas for reception décor and favors for the guests.