Please enjoy this guest post from Make Some Plans.
The long-standing tradition of gifting wedding guests a token of your appreciation can be both a fun, creative experience and a stressful one. Whether you’re leaning toward a do-it-yourself approach or saving some time and ordering them finished, take a breath and enjoy the process.
No Shame in Stealing
Browse magazines, stroll through stores, and crawl around websites taking note of ideas and looks that speak to you. Think about weddings you've attended as a guest and the wedding favors they gave out. Pay attention to any packaging you find especially appealing. It can go far in how happy you are with the finished gifts.
It's not really stealing anyway. It's more a scavenging for inspiration! It's a great idea to keep some notes or copy and paste pictures into a file to reference when deciding on your own favors.
They'll Eat Up Practical Favors
If you'd rather your wedding favors stick around longer than your guests' next spring cleaning, think practical. Want them to enjoy it rather than trash it or stick it on a shelf? Go edible. Though I'm sure you and your fiance are gorgeous, the hard truth is that nobody, besides your mother, want a coaster or coffee cup with your mugs smiling back at them from their drink.
Gifts that express your personalities or share a passion are great idea. If you're avid bikers or runners, for instance, personalized water bottles may be a good idea. Cake pops that bear some resemblance to your wedding cake or personalized candy bars are great edible options.
Never Enough of a Good Thing
Okay, maybe there can be enough, but better a few too many than not enough when it comes to wedding favors. If you're working on a budget, consider giving one favor per couple rather than each individual. Though you'll need one for every single person, one favor per couple can nearly half the number you need.
A good rule of thumb is to have ten extra for every hundred guests. This takes the stress out of the nearly inevitable occurrence of some getting lost or broken. Some guests are bound to take more than one and you'll want at least a few left over to keep for yourselves.
Going it Alone
While do-it-yourself wedding favors may seem like a fantastic way to save some bucks, don't forget the time commitment involved. Time and frustration saved might be well worth the extra expense, especially with everything else you're doing to plan you wedding while maintaining some semblance of a normal life.
Make sure too that you're adding up all of the elements involved. Hot glue guns and glue, each element, and any wrapping can add up to more than wholesalers can offer the same finished product for. On the other hand, if crafting is a de-stresser for you, go to town!
Don't Commit
No, I don't mean to call your wedding off! Don't commit to buying 200 wedding favors sight unseen. You may have found something that looks adorable on a website with a price that works with your budget, but until you have it in hand to inspect or taste hold off on dropping hundreds of dollars.
Some merchants offer free samples – take advantage of that to ensure you'll be happy with your wedding favors. Likewise, make certain to ask for a proof if you're ordering anything with personalization. You don't want to end up with a a bunch of favors that announce you're getting “varried.”
As-Sign Them
You'll obviously to busy to set your wedding favors out yourself. When you assign this task to someone, preferably someone you have confidence in, be sure they know exactly how and where you want them placed. You'll save yourself some headaches if you do one better than explaining and give them a picture as an example instead.
If you're leaving them on the tables or in one central place instead, make sure your guests are aware that they are meant to be taken. This can be achieved by placing a tags on each favor. Alternatively, you can put a nice framed sign that says simply “Please take a favor” or just a nice “Thank You.”
One final note: how much or how little you spend on your wedding favors is completely up to you. Traditionally, one to two percent of your total budget is relegated to favors. For instance, on a $10,000 wedding with one hundred guests, one or two dollars on each guest's favor would be customary. More important than cost though, is that you are happy with your favors and feel they are a token of thanks that represents your personalities and feeling.
Bryan Driscoll lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife and son. Bryan is the one who came up with the initial idea to create an event and wedding planning website. When he was planning his own wedding, he realized the difficulty in finding vendors that he wanted to be a part of his own wedding day. He brought the idea of an event and wedding website to Brad, and soon after, Make Some Plans was born. His background in SEO and internet marketing has birthed many of the creative ideas behind Make Some Plans.
Illustration 1: http://pinterest.com/pin/479140847826329335/
No comments:
Post a Comment