The history of wedding favours
The tradition of giving wedding favours goes back many centuries...
It is believed that the upper class families in Europe handed out the first wedding favours, known then as bomboniere; a cube of sugar placed inside a small trinket box made of porcelain or crystal and often decorated with precious stones that made a keepsake for the guests.
Overtime, other social classes took on the tradition of giving wedding favours to guests. Eventually the bomboniere was replaced with almonds given to guests to signify good wishes for the couple’s new life together. People believed that the five almonds represented health, wealth, happiness, fertility and long life. Today, almonds are still a strong contender in the wedding favour stakes.
Nowadays, there are a multitude of suppliers offering a huge range of traditional and novel wedding favours. I would recommend taking your time to look around and find something that reflects your personality and style of the day. Often wedding favours range from lottery tickets, miniature chocolates scattered on tables, personalised candles, tins of mints, to bookmarks, chocolate casino coins and embroidered handkerchiefs. One bride even went to the effort of making and decanting her own strawberry lip balm for the women! It went down a storm and the bride was chuffed with her personal involvement and cost cutting exercise.
Your budget is a significant factor to consider when selecting your wedding favours. Favours need not be expensive or elaborate. I find the best are often simple gifts, imaginatively wrapped and presented. If you would rather spend the pounds on other areas of the wedding, then that is fine. Whilst it is nice to receive and give a gift, favours are not essential. Couples sometimes decide not to favour and to be honest the guests didn't even notice because they were too busy enjoying themselves.