8 ways to save money on wedding favors
Budgeting Advice
Guestpost by
on September 15, 2010
36
Thanks to penelope waits for submitting this to the OBB flickr pool.
Bridal magazines feature a heap of mass produced "personalized" wedding favors that cost a fortune once you multiply your gifts by fifty or heck, even 300! Here are some cunning ways I've found to source cheap gifts for your loved ones without resorting to taffeta bags of almonds...
How to find cheap wedding favors for your guests:
- Look into stores that are going out of business and ask for a discount price on the last of all of one stock. I recently found ninety mini plaques with inspiring quotes on them for $1.50 each - down from $10 a piece!
- Buy in bulk from a wholesaler. Look for retail wholesale suppliers for bulk candy or chocolate and hotel suppliers for mini soaps etc. You may be able to place a one-off order or find a friend who owns a cafe, restaurant or motel who can arrange the order for you.
- Look on eBay/TradeMe or Etsy for bulk deals and end-of-lines from wholesalers and retailers. Be wary of trying to match colours you see on a computer screen to your fabric samples though- it seldom works! (spray paint does though...)
- Head out after Christmas and look for sales. Look for discounted "gourmet" cookies. You can either use the cookies as-is on your table or pull them apart and repackage the presents. Last year I got twelve packs of Christmas crackers worth $35 for under $5 — that's less than fifty cents per favor. Or look for cheap chocolates (check they don't expire before the wedding date), candy and fudges.
- The super cunning can also buy cheap marked down christmas cake to have handy if you don't quite have enough slices of wedding cake to go around. A 1kg iced Christmas cake bought in Januray sets me back about $5, lasts for another six to eight months and can save paying an extra $100 for another tier on the wedding cake. I'm keeping an iced fruit cake handy for fussy purists who wont like my awesome chocolate cake.
- Gift baskets are often on sale after January too. Look at the contents and see if you can pull the basket apart and repackage the gifts — mismatched favors wrapped in complementary wrapping paper (or wallpaper) make for a unique centrepiece too.
- Cheap jewelry stores often have bargain bins full of out-of-season jewelry. Take to them with a set of pliers and you have some fabulous embellishments for centrepieces or favors.
- Consider buying a whole roll of cellophane from a florist to wrap up your favors. It's far cheaper than buying single sheets and you can use the cellophane for future Christmas and birthday presents too.
- Instead of fancy handmade boxes, pick up some white paper sweet bags from your local dairy or sweet shop and decorate them with stamps or preprinted stickers. You can seal them with a sticker, sealing wax or ribbon and they can double as name place tags too.
About Ange Marsden
Ange Marsden is a writer/blogger, belly dancer and online marketer based in Nelson, New Zealand.
chandromeda said
Ah, cellophane! And in BULK?! Wonderful idea! I love anything colorful, or shiny, or in bulk, so to be all three is just a bonus! Now, to turn cellophane into my wedding theme… hmmm…
melB said
I bought heart-chaped cookie cutters that came 3 to a pack. I dismantled the packs, one for each favor, added a cookie recipe and some ribbon: $0.23 per favor, not counting the ribbon.
Monica said
Our favors were 24-count Crayola boxes, but the trick was, I bought them at Target during the back-to-school sales. $0.22 per box! I printed up labels I already had and pasted them on.
Linda said
I have no idea what I am going to use for favours, but thanks for the ideas!
Danielle said
We also skipped the favours and instead gave a donation to the Canadian Cancer Society in our guests' name. It was a cause very close to our families and friends (especially that week as someone close had just died) and felt alot better than making stuff people don't necessarily want or need.
Ruby said
We saved money on favours by not having any! All our decorations and flowers etc were a free-for-all though. If you saw it and wanted it and it wasn't nailed down – take it! This also made our wedding relatively free on waste as most stuff got a home afterwards
Amanda said
I searched prom decoration websites! I got a great deal on close out hand painted mugs: 75 for $40. They served a dual purpose. We filled them with a little aquarium/craft pebbles and put a tealight in them for centerpieces, but they also had a "Thank You" charm on the handle for use as a favor.
ginny said
I'm using decks of cards and personalizing them myself with labels printed at home. They cost less than $1 each, and who doesn't love playing card games?!
Englyn said
I'm with Meg on this one, sorry.
http://apracticalwedding.com/tag/die-favors-die/
Ariel said
Look, we've always been very clear on OBB that no one needs favors. (Any more than they need cake. Or a dress. Or any other tradition.) For me personally, I skipped favors completely at my wedding, unless you count the ugly mismatched mugs I forced on guests as glassware.
That said, some people love favors, and get super into the craftsy giftsy goodness of it. So back off and let them enjoy it. Just because it's not your cuppa tea doesn't mean it doesn't have value. This is pretty rudimentary philosophy here at Offbeat Bride.
Anna said
She was sharing an opinion. Just because the opinion doesn't exactly match everyone's on Offbeat Bride, why does her opinion deserve a 'back off' yet others don't? She said she PERSONALLY doesn't think favors are necessary. There is nothing in there that says she thinks other people shouldn't enjoy them.
And the link does bring up the point of favors being incredibly NEW idea that not everyone shares. It's just another side to the equation.
Lauren K. said
My wedding photographer (who also happens to be my aunt) suggested to forgo the favors since people get too drunk and just leave them and the waitstaff winds up taking some home (which I've also noticed at weddings I've attended). Don't have to tell me twice to not spend more money than we already have to! Although I like these: http://www.etsy.com/listing/56…v1_other_1
(I think I still like money in my pocket better though)
SalaciousD said
..but if you WANTED to diy 'em..
http://www.ehow.com/how_5901_m…okies.html
Sabrina said
Completely unrelated but – Nelson! Such a beautiful place (plus I got engaged at the airport there
)
misty said
we made pretty cards with pockets to hold seed packets for our favors. they were all made out of scrap book paper. suuuper cheap and we still have plenty left over. so if anyone needs some please let me know! ill send them to you! lol
Danna said
I'm all about the Candy Buffet!! Fun, colorful bags and candy to match your wedding colors
skullcandie said
I like practical favors. I looked and looked and looked and someone on the tribe had the greatest idea and I decided to do it too. Customized sharpie pens! Who doesn't love a sharpie pen?
Erin said
we got some molds from a cake decorating shop, and we're gonna make use them to make chocolates for the favors.
the great thing about edible favor is if no one takes it, more for me
SweetPea said
I'm thinking of little bags of homemade herbed/seasoned salt. Kinda goes with our beach party theme too.
Jenn said
Since we consider ourselves lucky to be getting married we decided to give each of our guests a new SHINY lucky penny and a scratcher ($1.01 per favor) Out of our 100 guest some one is bound to win at least $5 (maybe more!)
I'm pretty crafty and my friends and I managed to collect over 300 bottle caps and I'm making magnets out of them to give away as well
irisira said
FH and I are making CDs, which I am now wishing we gave ourselves more than 3 days to do … but has otherwise been an inexpensive and fun way to personalize the favors.
Sarah said
We are collecting cool beer tankards and steins from charity shops and giving these as our favours, practical too as they'll be your drinking glass for the day
we're just gonna put little thank-you tags on them.
Jadku said
Favor-wise for my wedding I hit up a soap maker at my farmers market — and we didn't buy a favor for every single person — just had a basket at the reception table where people could take a bar if they wanted it. The upside? we ended up with LOTS of soap in the end
Sav said
I bought a few boxes of old Trivial Pursuit cards at Salvation Army ($1 apiece!) and tied up little stacks of cards with ribbon and put one at each place setting. It cost less than $10 total for 120 guests and people got really into it!
Jewl said
We were stuck on favors for a long while. Finally decided we're going to pick up some mason jars for preservatives and make up hot chocolate mix. One jar per family or couple. Pretty much everyone that's going loves hot chocolate, and it's a November wedding, so a nice hot beverage will be on most peoples mind in no time.
abby said
we bought bees and trees from heifer international in honor of our guests as favors, but then we also used my husband's button maker to make a bunch of buttons with bees and our wedding date and things on them, so people still got to take something home. it was super inexpensive- just paid for a couple copies with the bee template. if you can get your hands on a buttonmaker, it worked well for us!
Jessica_Iowa said
Woot for the Heifer Project!
Our Iowa chapter sells buttons at the Iowa state Fair every year. Every year I look forward to buying my buttons, and supporting the project.
I love your idea of having a physical representation of the donation for your guests.
Darlyngirl said
I made bookmarks with extra cardstock and photopaper from the invites. Some were nice serious engagement photos and some were us laughin with "Hun, I farted" in a word bubble over his head (which is actually what happened). People who wanted a serious one could take it, people who wanted a funny one could take it. I only made 60 for our 200 guests (I figured 1 per couple and some people just wouldn't want one) and we had one (muddy one) left. Total cost $2 for the ribbon and $10 worth of colour printer ink (if you count the leftovers from invites, maybe $30 total)
Erin Riggs said
My friend had a LOT of success shopping in Valentine's clearance stuff (lots of heart themed things) for his wedding.
Also, if you want to embrace an extra nerdy side, strike up a good conversation with your local comic book store. No one likes hearing, "You've never met me before, but gimme stuff." But, if you talk to them right, they might have comics, figurines and promo pieces to give away or part with for a good price. Talk to them about ordering in bulk if you want to give everyone a certain comic.
Brigitta said
My BF drinks coffee and I drink tea – so we incorporated that in our favours: we cut cloth into squares, on which we put one tea bag and one Nespresso capsule and then scrunched up the cloth and tied it up with a ribbon, so that we had little 'pouches'. We also added a business card-format card with: Thank you so much for your contribution [...] You're always welcome at our home for a cup of coffee/tea/something stronger"