Clever or Interesting Wedding Favors (DIY)

One wedding I went to had lottery tickets as the favor! It was so cute and clever! They are only a dollar a piece and they were at every one's place setting. People scratched them off immediately and only took home the winners. It was fun and exciting and the clean up crew took care of the extras! This was after my wedding or I totally would have stolen this idea too!

You could also do personalized M&Ms, they aren't homemade, but they're cute and fun. I thought the spoonful of hugs and kisses was cute too. Best Wishes!

Small potted herbs in white ceramic mugs (the kind you'd get in a 99 cent store). Not only were they pretty on the table, they were also a gift that kept giving, we used that basil for a few months.

The couple also incorporated the herb theme in their placecards which had some leaves or flowers or something printed on them.

I like the cutting board idea the best!!!

I made truffles & truffle stuffed figs (both super easy, just time consuming. About $100 worth of schtuff yields about 500 truffles & 100 truffle stuffed figs... I look at boxes of 4 figs for $20 an snicker up my sleeve). ((Trick on summertime and chocolate... and chocolate in general... make the truffles and figs and keep them in ziplock bags in the freezer. Then box them at will, and put in a BIG ziplock bag, like for sleeping bags, and keep frozen until day of))

If it had been a wintertime wedding I would have done blown glass tree ornaments.

My favorite wedding favors were little scrolls that read "in lieu of a traditional favor, we have made a donation to [insert charity here] in honor of [insert name here]." We liked it so much that it's what we did for our wedding, and we donated to the American Cancer Society in memory of my husband's late mother and all of our loved ones who have been affected by cancer.

I don't remember any of the trinkety favors from any other wedding.

You know what I'm doing? I found bottle openers in the form of an actual key with a heart shape at the top... 'the key to my heart'... yeah, my friends will DEFIANTELY use them!! To personalize, I'm cutting little circles out and stamping our initials on it, them putting our wedding date on the other side. For the kiddos, I'm literally making goody bags with candy and bubbles ;) Like you, we're only having about 50 people, 10 of which are kids!!

Cutting boards. My SIL bought some nice wood and had my hubby cut them into rectangles and used his router to make rounded edges. And then we all sat in the garage and sanded them. We used food safe mineral oil to make them look pretty. They were used as part of the center pieces. There was bread, cheese and champagne grapes out on them for the tables. Pretty and everyone could snack while waiting for the food. Towards the end, the wait staff collected them and cleaned them up a bit. At the end of the night they were passed out at you left. Seven years later and I still use that cutting board. The only thing my SIL wished she did was burn the date or their names on something on the back as a reminder.

I had a very nice wedding and I had to cut corners to make everything inexpensive...because the place I picked was very expensive. So here is what I did for favors:

Plastic spoon (pink)
White Tulle
Black Ribbon
Hersheys Hugs and Hersheys Kisses
(My colors were black, white and pale pink)

We put a hug and a kiss on the spoon, wrapped it in tulle, tied it up with a black ribbon. Then we attached a little card that read "A spoonful of kisses from the Mr and Mrs" Then I think we added our names and the wedding date or something. It was real cute, easy and cheap!

When is your wedding? What is your theme?

Unique: Starfish and sand dollars at a beach wedding

Mine (winter wedding) - Hershey's Kisses and Hershey's Hugs chocolates scattered on the tables

My centerpieces where truffle bowls with short stemmed votive holders glued inside with seasonal, lightly scented poppuri ($ store) around the votive. Made them myself for $7 each.

Remember: Guys don't usually take the favors, so you'll only need enough for about half of your guest list.

I don't think I did a wedding favor....unless the little bottles of bubbles that were given to them as they left the church counted? I had purchased the little white bottles from Oriental Trading Co. and tied pink and grey ribbon around each one and then when we arrived at the Reception everyone blew bubbles :) I also gave away the centerpieces of mason jars/flowers that were placed all over the barn. We did have disposable cameras all over the place and got some really great pictures! While we were away on our honeymoon my mom had them all developed and put together a photo album for us and gave it to us on our return. It was so much fun to see some of the stuff we missed!
I have been to a lot of weddings and cannot remember for the life of me what kind of favors we were given....
**edit** I just checked with my sis and she had gotten tulle (I think) and tied up pink/silver hershey kisses in them and left them all over for our guests.

You know, I hate to be a sourpuss, but for me, really none of them are memorable. As I am writing this I can only think of one...a "love songs" CD with a photo of the couple, reclined and looking all romantic. I guess that one I remember because it was corny to me and, I mean really, was I expected to listen to the CD on a regular basis?

What I have found and actually, I appreciate, is that more and more weddings have no favors at all! I always feel sort of guilty when I find myself at a wedding and feel the urge to either ignore the favor completely or take it home and stash it somewhere for years, feeling again guilty if I toss it. I feel so guilt-less when I just don't even have to think about it.

A great ceremony, lovely exchanging of words, seeing a beautiful bride and groom, decent food, and great dancing is more than enough for me, really. My favorite part of weddings for me is always that moment when the bride and groom see each other for the first time -- always brings a little tear! I just love that. I feel favors are just not necessary.

We had kaleidoscopes (simple tube ones) as favors. We bought them, but I am sure you could make them too. Kids who were there seemed to enjoy them and MANY grown-ups took the extras home, so they must have liked them too. : ) It was fun.

We made mix cd's of our fav. songs and had them on all the tables.

BUT, this is the country wedding right?
How about sunflower seed packets in a little terra cotta pot wrapped with cellophane and country ribbon!

We had an Asian themed wedding so we did fortune cookies and we made up the fortunes ourselves. Then we dipped the fortune cookies in white chocolate and sprinkles. We gave them the fortune cookies in little Chinese takeout boxes tied with ribbon and with a pair of decorated chopsticks (you can get them in large packs). Everyone thought the fortunes were clever and they loved the chopsticks. Our wedding party got silver fortune cookie shaped trinket boxes with a thank you fortune inside.

We did heart shape wine stoppers, but a friend of ours went to the beach ( I am sure this took a lot of time!), but wrote everyone's name in the sand (individually, whether last name for couple), took a picture and framed it... to me that seems to be the best! Good Luck!

I did personalized golf balls with our names and wedding date.

And I did the heart cookie cutter with cookie recipe. (One guest actually baked them shortly after our wedding and brought them to me.)

Sorry mine weren't homemade.

I can't really say I've ever received something from any other wedding that has been a huge keeper. Most of them have been something I didn't even keep, like a small picture frame, someone did a place card holder of doves, I left that at the table.

The most memorable one was my friend who had a candy bar. They ordered up those Chinese take out boxes, made personalized stickers with their name and date and then had every kind of candy imaginable to fill your take out bucket with. That was my favorite, because I love candy!

I did the gold fish & they went home to those who wanted them my hubbys cake was a huge fish & fish cupcakes for the kiddos a big hit (he is a fish fanantic)I made up the Zoo Pals animal cups the ones that have the flap lid closure for the kids filled with candies for the kiddos,I had a basket of breath mints with a sticker on them of our wedding day all it said was Thanks for joining us on our special day"these were a huge hit when I had them at the wedding guest book/entry way to the church ceremony.

ive seen people give out "sew in love" kits with some needles/thread, etc.. a little sewing kit. they come in handy all the time!

At one of my husband's cousins wedding they had teaspoon holders they are like tiny plates (shaped like little teapots) with two tea bags tied to it with their colored ribbon. I can't remember the note they had on it but it was something in relation to them.That was years ago and we still use it!

My sis made glycerin soap favors for my bridal shower. You can get molds, like flowers, bells etc and make a little package of them for your guests. If you chose to do this and want to put pretty paper on them then first put the soaps in a plastic baggie so it doesn't stain the wrapping should they melt a little. I got married in the DR and my wedding favors were a wooden napkin/mail holder shaped like a tropical fish with our names and wedding date painted on them. Since it was the DR the favors were like $3 each. I took one for myself and 10 years later still using it as are most of my pals.

I went to a good friends wedding in FL. The ceremony was outside and so was the reception - in a large rented tent. As guests walked up, there was a table with the "sign in" book, a table for gifts and cards and a table covered with rocks with each families name on each rock. Guest had to find the rock with their name painted on it and when they flipped it over, it had their table number on it for the reception. Then the tables had hand painted number signs on each one. Super cute idea and we and most guest kept ours rocks as a rememberance from the wedding. They also had plants on all of the tables that they guest would take home - we didn't take one because we were flying home, but still a cute idea.

What kind of theme are you having?

I got handmade little soaps and turned those into really cute favors. I've seen people do this with flower seed packets, and a cute little message on them. Or birdseed ornaments, you can buy them or make them yourself:
http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?q=birdseed+favor

Another wedding and little baby food jars with lemonade mix in them and a cute message.

http://www.ruffledblog.com has tons of awesome diy real life weddings and favor ideas.

Personally, I like candy! ha ha. but, to be honest, none of them are memorable, and i'm pretty practical, so i think they are a waste of money. If you're going to spend it, i agree with those who said to donate it. maybe if there is someone who can't be with you on the wedding day because of death or illness, especially, you could donate to an appropriate charity in their honor/memory. if not, just pick something you would both like to support and give $1 per guest or whatever it would cost to make something.

First of all I gotta say I love seeing your posts about your wedding. I like all that sort of stuff, I made everything for my whole wedding.
Lets see my wedding favors were tiny chinese take out boxes with a personalized tag that had our names and date on them (attacked with a pretty ribbon), we stuffed them with hershey kisses. Everyone loved them, and I had to steal one and stash it because they were all gone (even teh extras).
My brother did a CD of wedding music that they played at the wedding. It was okay, but I didn't like most of the songs, lol.
I have seen dice, tiny potted plants, bubbles, cookie cutters, soaps, sleeping masks, picture frames, papper weights, tiny glass vases. Some of them were cute just because of the note attached..The dice.."Took a gamble at love and won!" The sleeping mask. I thought WTH....then you read the note and it said "John and Jane...blinded by love." Awwww. Didn't use it though, lol.
They have mini pots with seeds at Target right now in the dollar spot. Hope this helps! =)

I received a heart shape cookie cutter at one I attended. The recipe was handmade with the cookie recipe by Mr & Mrs. so and so which is our favorite and it included their wedding date. They attached it to the cookie cutter. Very cute and I sure remember where I got it....
Since I had 500 guests I had to stick with candybars but they were wrapped with our name and date trivia...our first date, engagement date and wedding date...Matched my wedding decor to the "T"! Congrats and Best wishes

My daughter's best friend is getting married next month and they are making glycerin soap as favors. Really easy to make at home and it came out cute.

My sister in law did the melt and pour chocolates in the shapes of bride/groom, stars, and wedding cakes. The way it was decided who got the center piece at the end of the wedding was that if your bag of chocolate had a white chocolate bride and groom you got the center piece.

My friend did etched candle holders. She bought the candle holders for about 30 cents and got etching acid and the etching decorative masking from a craft store. It was really fun.

I forget what they call them but Italians make the best homemade wedding favors. Usually an ornamental object like a vase, small statue, set of espresso cups, wrapped in cellophane with their traditional almond candy (bought at an italian dei or bakery or shop) wrapped in tulle with pretty ribbons & an attatched tag of the wedding details (bride/ groom, date) I made my own, when I married my 1st hubby, it was alot of fun, found a cute ornament in a dollar type discount store... also love the idea of disposable cameras on the tables at your reception, so your guests can take extra pics for you from their perspective that you can later develop.

*thanks to google LOL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomboniere

What are your dates, colors, interests, themes, etc...

Two radio personalities had CDs as decorations and as favors.
I did chocolate flower suckers with homemade paper with flowery quotes for my friend's "country garden wedding."
M&Ms in little silver baskets with bows with my sister's dates and photos on them in the wedding colors.
Little pots of flowers.

There are tons of ideas if you can give us more details for your event and your personalities, interests, jobs, etc.

I've gotten wildflower seeds, coasters, magnets, chocolates, wine (mini bottles with the bride and groom on the label). We got married on Valentine's day and gave cinnamon hearts wrapped in tulle (boring! lol)

I really like that cutting board idea below. Time consuming, but very cool and unique. Plus, it's not 'just another candy'.