A recent post on Bride.net got me to thinking about how wedding guests interact at receptions. I’m not talking about groups of friends or relatives who already know each other, but rather the table of singletons who only know the bride or the couples who have no one else in common and are all stashed at the same table. As many of you surely know, sitting at a wedding reception table with seven strangers can be a bit intimidating.

The icebreakers are meant to make the process of getting acquainted easier on the guests and give them something to do when they’re not watching the first dance or watching the cake cutting or listening to speeches, etc. Some suggestions included putting out Fortune Telling Fish or having wedding guests play guess the Jelly Belly flavor.

It is certainly an interesting notion. And I do like Fortune Telling Fish!

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But in case you were wondering, the site informs us that:

It’s easy to make a fashion statement with these elegant wedding gown candle favors on your table.

Sure, if your statement is ‘I’d like you to decapitate and set fire to the bride.’

Not sure that’s really what I would want to say, but to each their own.

Me? I’d stick with chocolates.

I’m super happy to announce that the winner (as chosen via the trusty random number generator) of the $75 Beau-Coup Wedding Favors Gift Certificate is the lovely LeeLa, of A Bride and Her Dog, who liked the personalized Hershey’s Chocolate Favors! Congrats, LeeLa! I and someone from Beau-Coup will be in touch shortly!

It’s not like I got married a hundred years ago, so what is up with there being like a hundred bazillion more wedding favor options than there were when I said my vows? Maybe I’m just imagining things, but when I browse for totally sweet wedding favors these days, I swear that half of what I see didn’t even exist three years ago. No fair, right? I take a quick look at Beau-Coup wedding favors and there are so many things I would have gladly bought for my own wedding guests. But I guess I felt the same way when I reviewed some Beau-Coup wedding favors way back when (and I still use my mini cherry blossom dishes because they rock).

So I’m totally tickled to be able to host a giveaway with Beau-Coup! One lucky Manolo for the Brides reader will win a gift code to put toward anything Beau-Coup sells – and since their prices are pretty reasonable, that gift code might just pay for most of your wedding favors.

Win it!

Beau-Coup wedding favors is offering Manolo for the Bride readers a chance to win a $75 gift certificate to that fabulous store. To enter, leave a comment on this post telling us which of Beau-Coup’s stylish wedding favors is your absolute favorite.

For additional entries, do any of the following (and leave a comment for each):

1. One additional entry when you add Manolo for the Brides to your blogroll or let us know we’re already on your blogroll so we can link back to you

2. One additional entry when you leave a comment on the latest post at Beau-Coup’s blog

3. One additional entry when you follow Manolo for the Brides and Beau-Coup on Twitter, and tweet about the giveaway

4. Three additional entries when you post about this giveaway on your own blog

This giveaway will end at 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, May 16, and the winner – chosen via the trusty random number generator – will be announced the next day. Good luck!

I had lunch with the awesome Carolyn Meenan of Bridaluxe the other day, and she suggested I tell you about this totally sweet – but unfortunately local – way of packaging bridesmaids gifts, groomsmen gifts, and maybe even wedding favors if you have an extra $4 per person sitting around in your wedding budget. I say local because I don’t know of anywhere other than Black Ink in Boston that lets you do this:

That’s right, I’m talking about sealing your gifts or wedding favors into proper aluminum cans! I’m thinking this could be a lot of fun, whether on a large scale or a small scale, especially if you printed your own custom labels that feature your wedding colors. What fits in a can? A gorgeous necklace with a matching pair of earrings for your bridesmaids, perhaps. Or a whole lot of candy, if you’re buying for your wedding guests. Is there something a little weird about choosing a wedding favor guests have to wait to open? Well, you could thoughtfully have a can opener on hand for the uber curious!

So at four bucks a pop, canning your wedding favors isn’t exactly a budget option, but if you love the general idea and hate the price (or are simply not near anywhere with a U Can It machine) you could always choose a favor that fits well and looks good in a canning jar or spice jar. It’s a bit more rustic and not quite as mysterious, but it’s not that difficult to find bulk deals on canning jars so at least the price would be right.

How cute are these itty-bitty bottles of soda with custom labels? Mike 78 recently posted an easy-peasy DIY pop bottle tutorial – with pics! – over at 100 Layer Cake. She suggests using them as reception seating cards, but brides and grooms could bottle just about anything (juice, cider, champagne, local water, etc.), slap labels on them per her instructions, and give them away as wedding favors. Maybe not for a chilly wintertime wedding, but imagine how grateful your guests would be to find themselves in possession of an ice cold drink custom made by you at your outdoor summer wedding or unseasonably warm springtime affair!

If you’re a bridesmaid looking to insure that people attending a bachelorette party or shower actually talk to one another or a bride who wants to be sure that no one will be bored at the reception, wedding-themed scratch-off tickets may be the answer. These scratch-off game cards are like lottery tickets, but instead of revealing that, no, you didn’t win any cash, they reveal trivia questions about the couple to be married meant to inspire discussion among bridal shower guests or wedding guests sitting at the same table.

It’s a cute idea for those with extra cash to spread around on useless-but-fun favors, but won’t be everyone’s cup of tea… especially since they can cost up to $1 per card, money perhaps better spent on a truly conversation-worthy cake. But that’s all right, since Mitsy at ArtMind has posted DIY instructions for scratch-off tickets you can customize any which way.

It looks easy enough to personalize with your own text and wedding colors — the hardest part would probably be coming up with and printing out the different cards.