(Illustration via Exclusively Weddings, where you can buy the organza favor bags for $3.95 per 10)
Favors.

Some people can’t imagine a wedding without them. Others consider them a pointless expense. Me? I gave favors. They were Jordan almonds tied up in squares of tulle. I did buy the tulle pre-cut, but I just bought a reel of ribbon and bulk candy. I only bought the tulle pre-cut because I’m not the world’s best at cutting a straight line and I found them pretty cheap.

And I’m going to come clean: I gave favors mostly because I love Jordan almonds, and this was a great excuse to buy a whole bunch. I knew that a fair number would be left behind, because Jordan almonds are one of those things that most people either love or loathe. So I figured those who loved them would enjoy getting a few, and those who loathed them would leave them behind, whereupon I could eat them.

But if I hadn’t found a good deal on both the almonds and those tulle squares… yeah, I wouldn’t have bothered.

My experience as an avid wedding-attender for more than forty years is that if the favor isn’t edible… an awful lot get left behind by guests who can’t imagine a use for them. Chocolates, cookies, spice blends, or little pots of homemade jam are often actually popular. Even if the guest doesn’t want them, they know someone who will be thrilled to get them. But what exactly does one do in years to come with a wineglass painted with someone else’s name and wedding date on it?

As a guest, if the favor isn’t edible (or otherwise easily consumable, like pretty soaps), I usually manage to artfully ‘forget’ to take it. I don’t need a toy prize for coming to your wedding, and I don’t need extra clutter. Casa Twistie is already more than cluttered enough, thank you very much.

As a wedding blogger, if a bride is looking for a place to cut the budget, favors are in my top five places to trim without causing any problem. Favors are optional. Favors cost money. I’ll merrily tell people not to bother at all with them.

All the same, I gave favors and have enjoyed quite a few over the years. Mostly, I admit, of the chocolate or Jordan almond variety, but I have liked them.

What about all of you? Did you give favors? Do you plan to give favors?

Oh, and if I were getting married now and had the budget to do this, I would absolutely give candy bars from this company. Just reading over the flavors is making me hungry!

A lot of crazy talk happens around weddings. One of the places where the talk gets craziest is about gifts. I’ll be the first to admit that gifts are tricky, sometimes. We’ve all given gifts that bombed, received gifts that made us cringe inside, and watched people open gifts that made us hold our collective breaths while we wait to see how the insult inside that pretty box is handled. But all in all, gift giving and gift receiving oughtn’t to be such a mine field. After all, most people genuinely hope the gifts they give will be enjoyable and useful to the recipient, and most gift receivers honestly want to be able to enjoy what’s under the wrapping. When it comes right down to it, we remember the horrible gift mistakes so much precisely because they’re fairly rare.

But because we’re human, we seem to have an innate need to complicate simple things. So let’s take a look at a couple myths about gifts that tend to complicate our lives and see what baggage we can unload right here and now to reduce bridal (and guestal!) stress.
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This week, I’ve been thinking about things I love – all the things I can’t get out of my mind, all the pretty pictures I’ve been saving in inspiration folders. That sort of stuff. And I thought it would be fun to share some of it with you in short bursts throughout the week so you can get similarly inspired! So I suppose you consider this NtB Loves week. Enjoy!

I grew up around nesting dolls, so how could I not love Matryoshka wedding favors? It’s a wedding favor that guests will be much more likely to keep, I think. More so than an armless bride with fire for a head or towel cake. What’s not to like? Matryoshka are cute and fun and decorative in a way that doesn’t require color matching, so make, I think, ideal wedding favors.

Matryoshka!

How could you not love these?

What do you think… cute or too kitschy?

Remember those beautiful button favor boxes and button place card holders I featured, oh, a long while back? If you don’t, maybe you remember Princess Lasertron’s amaaaaazing button bouquet. There’s a reason people say things like ‘cute as a button’ – buttons can be seriously cute, and are just one of those things that can be effortlessly incorporated into a DIY wedding theme. Observe:

Edible button wedding favors from Sugar and Meringue, YUM

Button wedding cake by The Caketress: http://thecaketressblog.com

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Spices! And/or herbs. Your options are wide open: mini jars, a custom spice blend, paper packets, a single herb, custom printed labels, a simple ribbon, etc. Spice wedding favors are probably a safer bet than other types of edible wedding favors – which are by far your favorite kind of favors if the polls I’ve posted are any indication – if only because more of your guests may find a use for an unfamiliar spice than would like something like truffles or maple syrup.

Totally DIYable, def

Just too cute - it's wedding thyme!

And if you love the idea but want to take it up a notch, you can always pair your spice wedding favors with a mini ceramic mortar and pestle, squee!

Yet another way to spice it up a little!

The beautiful people at Donsuemor sent me a sweet challenge: In exchange for a sample box of their madeleines, they wanted me to think of all the ways you could use them in a wedding. Now am I really going to think of ALL the ways? Er, I think that would get a little more offbeat than I want to get. But I can think of plenty of fun wedding-y things to do with Donsuemor madeleines! (Which, I should add, are excellent. Madeleines are actually my favorite cookies, so I have pretty high standards. And La Paloma? She is still sad that we ate through the samples.)

Omigosh. Madeleines on a wedding cake. It’s like two of my favorite things are rubbing up against each other in some sort of delicious dance. I can’t decide if I’d tried to get cake and cookie in a single bite, or if I’d eat the madeleines first. Donsuemor has five kinds of madeleine, so brides and grooms shouldn’t run into flavor fatigue.

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Wedding favors are one of those things that can become oddly controversial even though there’s really no reason at all that brides, grooms, and guests should care whether there are heart-shaped coffee scoops or tiny sodas or a charitable contribution notice or a tin can or nothing at all at each plate.

Whatever they are, wedding favors are usually not the sort of thing one keeps forever (especially in the case of anything edible, I hope, or bits of paper saying “Thanks from the SSPCA!”) and they are usually one of the least expensive items on the wedding budget, relative to everything else. Sometimes the best wedding favor might just be a chill pill.

Me? I like candy wedding favors. Give me jelly beans or a single truffle or some weird vintage candy or Japanese candy. Just give it to me on the reception table where I can access it easily while I’m waiting for my meal since I always seem to end up at the last table to be served or called up to the buffet. Yes, even when I’m in the wedding! I especially like candy wedding favors that come in little boxes that I can re-use for things like stray earrings or small screws, and right now I am loving these:

Birch bark wedding favor boxes from New Hampshire Woods Creations –
a bit pricey, but certainly unique

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