Wed Recap: A thank you for your eyes, feet, mouth and hands

I had mentioned in many previous blog posts about the four, count 'em, FOUR different favors that we gifted our guests as a thank you for sharing our special day with us.

My thought process when coming up with our favors was a list of things I wanted to provide our family and friends...meaning, I didn't actually set out to have more than one favor at our event, but when I thought of all the other little things I wanted to do and incorporate, the guests ended up leaving with quite a bit :)

1)  Comfort
2)  Practicality
3)  Memory/Keepsake
4)  Sweets

1)  To keep our guests comfortable, we set out a basket of flip flops near the dance floor so they could kick off their heels to keep sore feet going.  I found this idea on my coordinator's web site and loved it.  At the end of the night, there were only 12 out of 72 pairs of flip flops left so this must have been a huge hit!

My sister made these adorable flip flop signs

2)  For practicality, we wanted to provide them something useful to remember our day and us by.  There was a favor box at each place setting that contained a small keychain. The keychain also doubled as a 5 foot tape measure...perfect for purses, glove boxes or junk drawers at home. And with the help of my creative sister, we designed a little sticker for the keychain that read "Love Beyond Measure". Get it? Measure? As in, like, the tape measure...cute, I know, right?

Personal Photo

The little favor box was a  dark red colored chinese take out box that had a tag on it that we made that read 'The Beever's Blessing - Numbers 6:24-26' This little passage reference was mentioned in my toast I gave and blogged about as our prayer for our guests.

Picture of the tables set up with the favor boxes but no silver or glassware yet

By RoseAnne Rivoli

3)  One of my absolute favorite favors of the night was incorporated into our guest book as well.  I wanted pictures of our guests as they looked on our wedding day in our guest book and so I was so excited when I discovered the idea of a photobooth to take some fun shots to place in the book as well as to print out a duplicate photo for the guests to take home and also remember the event.  Here were some of my favorite sets from the photobooth:

4)  And finally, a wedding favor almost never seems complete without some type of sweet involved.  Being the ever practical and multi-tasking bride I am, I loved the idea of doubling chair shaped favor boxes as escort cards and sweet favors.   I included cinnamon flavored red Jelly Belly Beans and Turquoise and Silver personalized M&M's in the escort card boxes for the guests. 

I didn't like the 'turquoise' color they sent me.  I wish I would have picked a pastel blue instead but I still loved these little personalized gems with our faces on them :)  And they were so yummy I was eating leftovers up until about a week or two ago!

Personal Photo

Here's the picture our photographer took of the escort card table after half the

 guests had already taken their boxes

I absolutely LOVED all of our favor ideas.  And the guests did, too from what I could tell and heard.  We incorporated our wedding colors and the graphic design from our invitations throughout all of these items.  Oh, and there's still one more favor box I'll have to share with you in a future recap about the kiddos :)

What were your favorite ideas or favors that you have received or given (will give) at a wedding or party?

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  Try to do something fun and unique and different for your guests as a favor.  You definitely do not need more than one favor as I had, heck, you don't need any if you don't want.  But it is nice to offer something.  You can handmake cookies or bookmarks, just about anything.  My keychains were only $1.15 each and the flip flops were only $1.25 each including S&H and tax.   You can even have a friend stand and take digital photos of your guests as they arrive, print them out at a cheap site like shutterfly.com or at a Costco and send them back with your thank you cards for your guests. 

EXTRA WEDDING TIP:  If possible, purchase and assemble favors as soon as possible.  I bought the keychains and the flip flops a good 6 to 8 months before the wedding and once I had a good idea of the guest count I assembled them in front of the tv and packed them up.  They were all finished a good three months before the big day.

Photobooth photos courtesy CheesyPhotoBooths
Unless otherwise indicated all other photos by Robert Mullins Photography