So you've chosen the venue, decided on your wedding theme and spent hours designing and creating the finer touches of your wedding reception. But there's one more task glaring from your 'to do' list. The favours.
Odds and Suds
Wedding favours are a historic tradition that sees the bride and groom giving traditional gifts such as sugared almonds and love knots, made from ribbon and lace, as a 'thank you' to their guests. Through the giving of gifts, it was believed the newly-weds were passing on their luck and happiness as a married couple. Today, as couples increasingly pour their creativity into planning a wedding that celebrates their personalities, the favours, in turn, have become more novel. Here's a rundown of favour ideas that your guests are guaranteed to take home.
SWEET TREATS
Foodie treats such as sweets and biscuits are popular wedding favours. Whether it's rich chocolate truffles or a miniature bottle of Cornish Lust Strawberry and Cream Liqueur, Cornish Cream provides a selection of indulgent treats to tantalise your guests' taste buds. Fowey Fudge provides a quirky way to match your favours with your colour scheme. With a wide range of flavours and colours, the small bags of fudge are the perfect way to add sweetly Cornish character to your wedding. Take the nostalgic flavours of childhood a step further with Cloud Nine Marshmallows. Made in Port Eliot, these delectable marshmallows mix a traditional French recipe with modern luxury flavours to create puffs of perfection. With moreish flavours, such as champagne and rose petal and salted caramel peanut, 25 ribbon colours and personalised message labels, these chic sweet treats are a fun and irresistible way to say 'thank you'.
www.cornishcream.com
www.foweyfudge.co.uk
www.cloudninemarshmallow.co.uk
A TOUCH OF LUXE
Ensure your guests feel as fabulous as you do on your wedding day by spoiling them with luxury handmade beauty products. Trevarno Skincare's organic favours are a fragrant way to say thank you to friends and family. Using natural and organic ingredients such as lavender, sweet orange and lemongrass, choose from their sumptuous selection of miniature soaps, hand cream, bath salts and bath and body oil. Also making for a striking visual statement on your tabletops, go bespoke by choosing from their brightly coloured glass bottles and adding a personalised tag. Seeking something more romantic and rustic? How about a delicately wrapped handmade scented soap topped with dried rosebuds and a presentation ribbon? These quaint favours from Odds and Suds look charmingly beautiful at place settings.
www.oddsandsuds.com
www.trevarnoskincare.co.uk
DO THE DOUBLE
Think beyond paper name settings and signpost your guests to their seats with something special that can double up as a wedding favour. Handmade in Cornwall craft beautiful heart-shaped slate gifts from their Bodmin workshop. The understated heart slates can be written on with chalk pen to serve as a place setting and then taken home by your guests and hung as country chic decor. You could even triple up with I Should Coco's chocolate coins. Iced with names or messages, the coins can be used as favours, place settings and an indulgent edible treat. Lovingly hand crafted from Cornish cream and fruit in St Ives, they're sure to make your guests feel anything but guilty.
www.hmic.co.uk
www.ishouldcoco.co.uk
GET LUCKY
Drawing on the tradition of presenting favours to pass on your luck and happiness as a married couple, you could give your guests the chance of winning a fortune with a lottery ticket. English Rose Wedding Stationery has created a bespoke lottery ticket and scratch cardholder which doubles as a place setting designed to echo your wedding theme. Along with a message of thanks, you can place a lottery ticket or scratch card inside and leave the rest to fate.
Want to spread the love and happiness of your wedding even further than those who share it with you? Use English Rose Wedding Stationery's cardholders to incorporate a pin or band to signify a donation to a chosen charity. Or consider purchasing lottery wedding favours through Cornwall Hospice Care and help raise funds for the local charity - a gesture that is sure to leave everyone feeling the love.
www.englishroseweddingstationery.com
www.cornwallhospicecare.co.uk
PRETTY PRACTICAL
Why not make your wedding favours a focal point at the reception and provide your guests with something they can use there and then? For a beach themed wedding, offer the ladies flip-flops so they can kick off their heels and hit the dance floor in comfort, or present a selection of sunglasses for guests to wear on a bright day. Planning an outdoor Cornish country wedding? Place blankets in a basket and let your guests wrap up once the sun's gone down. Label your favours with 'please take one' to encourage guests to make use of things you've included with them, not you, in mind.
DIY DELIGHTS
From decor to food, the modern couple is increasingly going DIY and, along with family and friends, making as much as they can themselves to ensure their celebration is a truly personal experience. So why not make your own wedding favours? If you allow yourselves plenty of time, consider brewing your own beer or potting up your own jam to place on the table with a 'thank you' note. Paint names onto pebbles to double up as a place setting and a personal gift that can be taken away, or create a mix tape that reflects your day or personalities. With the DIY wedding in mind, Gillan Cove's handcrafted boxes use lace and delicate designs so you can present your homemade culinary delights and personal thank you in a pretty and delicate fashion.
www.gillancoveweddingfavours.co.uk
words Carys Barriball
Copyright Wed magazine 2014
