The latest trends in wedding favors are those that create an experience for your guests long after the wedding is over. Unique wedding favors are more than just a souvenir. The most unique wedding favors will engage the senses of your guests and recreate the festivities of your special day. Here we’ll take at five of the hottest wedding favor ideas:

Personalized Cosmopolitan and Margarita Cocktail Mixes
What better way to reward your guests than with a delicious, single serving cosmopolitan or margarita cocktail mix that is sure to put a smile on their face. These unique wedding favors come in glossy foil packets that can be personalized to fit the theme and style of your wedding. Personalized mixed drinks are a top choice for entertainment savvy couples.

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Package these unique wedding favors with an elegant martini glass ornamented with a sheer fabric bow.

Personalized Chocolate Candy Bars
It’s rare to find anyone who doesn’t savor the taste of a smooth, milky chocolate bar. For a unique wedding favor that is sure to please everyone and be truly unique, a chocolate candy bar with a personalized wrapper is great solution. Choose either mini candy bars or full sized candy bars then pick an image and font that fits your style. Full size chocolate bars offer lots of room for customization. Add your names, wedding date, event time, city and state for a highly personalized and beautiful memento.

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Arrange full size chocolate favors on the guest’s plate or fill glass bowls with mini chocolate bars for guests to help themselves.

Personalized Tea Favors
Invigorate your guests with the promise of a cup of aromatic tea, representative of the warmth and comfort of your new marriage. Each tea bag comes sealed in a gorgeous white foil pouch that can be customized with your names, wedding date, and choice of message. With a vast selection of beautiful fonts and images, this inexpensive wedding favor is a smart and delicious choice.

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Place one or more personalized tea bags into an elegant teacup and embellish with an ornate ribbon.

Personalized Coffee Favors
Coffee packets are a gift that everyone can enjoy. These unique wedding favors are packaged in attractive glossy foil and can be customized with your names, wedding date, and choice of wedding message. Choose an image and font that represents your style and you’ve got a fantastic wedding favor that looks and tastes great. Once your guests enjoy the hot cup of delicious coffee, they can hold onto the beautiful packaging as a memento fit for a scrapbook or photo album.

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Insert the personalized coffee favor packet into a personalized coffee mug or packaged in a basket with raffia, hot chocolate, and personalized tea packets.

It is the company of friends and family that make a wedding memorable. Rewarding those who come to share your special day with a thoughtful favor gift is a wonderful way to show your appreciation. Choosing wedding favors that excite the senses give your guests a chance to relive the pleasure of your wedding day.

By:Christine Harrell

I am amazed at how often I am asked about this topic. Most brides are lost when trying to select the perfect favor to give guests. Why? Well, I believe that it has to do with the current changes in the industry. Weddings are becoming less “stick to the formal etiquette” and more personal. Brides and Grooms are older, more established and more fiscally responsible for their own events.

Favors were originally designed to share in the joyous occasion and pass along good luck to guests. They have since evolved to thanking guests for sharing in their event and to provide a memento of the day. So, how do you choose the perfect one? Well, first of all, let’s go over the types of favors generally given to guests and the pro’s/con’s of each.

Types of Favors

Food or Beverages – everything from candy to fruit and from coffee to wine.
Pro’s – This category is filled with thousands of options to choose from. Most items can be easily personalized, through selected packaging and is fairly inexpensive. Most guests are delighted to receive an extra tasty treat to be shared on the ride home or back in their hotel room.
Con’s - Just remember that food and beverage items are perishable, so considerations of weather and storage should be accounted for. As well as, how long before the event these items should be ordered.

Gifts – you can choose to provide guest picture frames, bookmarks, glasses, candles and so much more.
Pro’s – This category is filled with so many options in a variety of styles, colors, shapes and sizes. The gift you select can easily be of a personal nature or have it easily customized to reflect you and your spouse.
Con’s – Sometimes the selection is overwhelming. Many couples want to choose gift that is sex-neutral and useful. Most of the time, gifts will be more expensive than traditional candy. So, watch your budget here!

Donations – this is a great new trend that allows the wedding couple to forgo the favor in lieu of making a donation to their favorite charity and sharing this news with their guests.
Pro’s – most guest are happy to leave the material memento to the wayside in efforts to help others in need. This also saves you time and effort in selecting, manufacturing and staging the favor.
Con’s – this favor selection has no con’s.

Well, now that you know what types of favors are available and their positive and negative attributes, let’s discuss how to present them to your guests.

Ways to Present Favors

At Each Place Setting – They may be placed directly on the plate or near the plate. By doing so, will add additional color to the place setting. This presentation also allows guests to receive your gift before the reception festivities begin and will provide an ice-breaker for conversation.

At An Exit Station – setting up a favor station to provide a small gift as your guests leave adds a little element of surprise. These stations are typically, set-up after dinner while guests are dancing. One thing to remember is to have your MCEE inform guests to take a gift, otherwise you may be left with extras.

At the Place Card Table – using a favor in conjunction with a place card is a great way to save some money, without sacrificing one or the other. The favor is arranged on the entrance table in alphabetical order (so guests can find their name and their seat). By choosing this method, give guests a sneak preview of what to expect from the reception. This method also ensures guests will pick-up their favor. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that they will remember to take it at the end of the night.

As for selecting the “right” favor, that’s up to you. You may want to consider an item that represents you and your spouse, or perhaps your budget will be a deciding factor. Just remember when you are selecting a favor to summarize the expense. The item may seem inexpensive on an individual basis, but when you multiple it by your guest list, that number may be more than you were anticipating to spend. And don’t forget, some favors require additional packaging, so those numbers count too.

Written by Kristi Richardson – www.bloomedtolast.com

Wedding favors are small gifts given as a gesture of appreciation or gratitude to guests from the bride and groom during a wedding ceremony or a wedding reception.

The tradition of distributing wedding favors is a very old one. It is believed that the first wedding favor, common amongst European aristocrats, was known as a bonbonniere. A bonbonniere is a small trinket box made of crystal, porcelain, and/or precious stones. The contents of these precious boxes were generally sugar cubes or delicate confections, which symbolize wealth and royalty. (In this era, sugar was an expensive commodity and was treasured only among the wealthy. It was believed that sugar contained medical benefits).[citation needed] As the price of sugar decreased throughout centuries, the tradition of providing gifts to guests reached the general populace and was embraced by couples of modest means.

As sugar became more affordable, bonbonnieres were replaced with almonds. For centuries, almonds were commonly distributed to wedding guests to signify well wishes on the bridegroom’s new life. In the thirteenth century, almonds coated with sugar, known as confetti, were introduced. Confetti soon transformed to sugared almonds, which later evolved into the wedding favor for modern day weddings. Traditionally, five Jordan almonds are presented in a confection box or wrapped in elegant fabric to represent fertility, longevity, wealth, health and happiness. The bitterness of the almond and the sweetness of the coated candy exemplify the bitter sweetness of a marriage.

Today, gifts to guests are commonly known as wedding favors and are shared in cultures worldwide. Wedding favors have become a part of wedding reception planning, especially in the United States and Canada. Wedding favors are diverse and can range from the classic sugared almonds to small metal items. Some gifts may be personalized with the couple’s names and the wedding date.

The importance of and demand for wedding favors has created a new category of business in the wedding industry where thousands of sites compete selling just wedding favors. Wedding favors have surpassed the term ‘trend’ and have become commonplace among today’s weddings. “Wedding favors are no longer a niche market in the wedding industry. In fact, many wedding favor retailers would probably agree that it is become an industry of its own.”