It seems odd that one of the most frequently practiced wedding traditions has no clear cut origin. It has, however, over the years, become the usual way for the bridal couple to say "thank you for coming" to their guests. The custom of giving favors celebrate the beginning of the couple's new life together. Some say that the custom was born in Italy during the eighth century. When it began only the noblity engaged in the practice. When Victor Emanuel of Savoy married Elena of Montenegro, favors of solid ] silver were given to their huge number of guests. By the end of the 19th century the practice trickled down and becamepopular amongst all social strats. It became customary amongst the peasant class to give out almonds in a golden cardboard box.

Other early records, dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, document that bridal couples in England gave out love knots made of lace and ribbons as party favors. Early Russian history notes that they too distributed favors.

The concept has managed to survive through the years. It has taken on different forms in different cultures and in our own culture it has evolved into a huge industry, as manufacturers continue to invent new favors and twists on old ones to bring into the wedding marketplace.

In Malaysian culture, hand-painted, decorated eggs, a symbol of fertility for the couple, are the traditional wedding favor. Italian couples traditionally distribute hard-shelled chocolate candy filled with almonds, or marzipan (almond paste) fruits.

Orange blossoms are used traditionally at Spanish weddings. One example of such a favor is stems of orange blossoms in a bud vase for each guest.

Middle Eastern wedding favors center on the Jordan almond. Grown plentifully in the region, the multicolored, candy-coated nut represents the bitter and the sweet of marriage. It has found its way into containers that range from simple mesh bags to silver tins. Middle Eastern Custom dictates that five almond pieces are presented to each guest. The number five represents five wedding wishes: health, wealth, happiness, fertility and longevity.

The traditional Greek wedding favor is a "switch." The couple becomes the recipient of glass charms shaped like an eye. The custom "assures" that the couple with be protected from the evil eye (people wishing them ill) and keeps them out of harm's way.

Russians and Japanese often use similar favors. In both cultures, gifts like picture frames, bud vases, or sachets as given to guests as a "thank-you."

The Dutch tradition is to distribute "Bridal Sugar" which consists of five pieces of sweet candy wrapped in tulle. Like the Middle Eastern tradition, the number five represents the five wedding wishes of love, happiness, loyalty, prosperity, and virility.

Giving favors based on a family's cultural, religious, or historical background is very meaningful, but many cultures simply do not have a party favor concept. In traditional Jewish and Chinese weddings, for example, favors are not usually given at all.

It becomes clear that no matter what their ethnic background, if the couple subscribes to the party favor concept, of the many details that go into planning the "perfect wedding," party favors are an area with which brides can really have fun and through which the bride can add her own personal touch. The favors you choose can be a reflection of you and, if you pick wisely, a memento to your guests who have shared the joy of your special day.

By the way, when making your party favor choices, keep in mind that your thank you gifts can also serve to add to the general ambiance and be a part of your decor. If you have a large guests list and can't afford a favor for each and guest, one favor per couple is perfectly acceptable.

Since there may not be assigned seats at a buffet-style wedding, the favors can be put in baskets and either the ushers or a designated child or children can be responsible for handing them out, as your guests are leaving the reception. If your favors are to be used at the ceremony (e.g., bubbles, bird seed, or bells), they should be distributed as your guests enter the ceremony venue.

A really personal way of distributing your party favors is to place them a wicker basket with a handle, and carry it around as you greet your guests and say "thank you for coming."

Depending on the amount of time, money, talent and patience you have, your favors can be ordered, you can do it all yourself, or you can do it with a crew of volunteers. Make sure, that whatever route you take, you remember to have fun.

The numbers of favors that are available from which the bride may choose are astronomical. In order to list them in a usable fashion, favors will be grouped by category, including some suggestions for presentation. Bear in mind that you need not give the same favor to men, women and children, or to all the guests.

PLACE CARDS & PICTURE FRAMES
1- Use a small picture frame as the guest's table card and follow it up with a wedding photo in the thank you notes you send. This favor does "double duty." If your budget permits, small sterling silver and/or antique-looking frames
2- Personalized chocolate bars can double as place cards.

HOBBY, SPORT OR WORK-RELATED
Use your and/or our fiancé's interests and hobbies to build on. 1- For couples who like to cook, preserves, boxes of recipes, small personalized cookbooks
2- For golf enthusiasts, "tee" bags . . . little organza bags, or a bucket of fake grass, with golf tees personalized to read "Thank you for sharing our day," or imprinted golf balls, individually wrapped in tulle, tied with ribbon and "bunched" with several golf tees
Cellophane bags filled with chocolate golf balls can have scorecards attached with your message
3- Small fire chief hats (or other occupation-related), with a card that has each guest's name and table number
4- For the avid Fisherman (and woman), a pen shaped like a fish. Use a tag to personalize with a clever saying like "John & Joan, hooked on November 3, 2003," or Binoculars (the mini fold-up kind), as favors and/or place cards
5- For Hockey fans, personalized hockey pucks which can serve as weights for helium balloons
6- Juggling balls, which can also be used as balloon weights
7- Personalized Tooth Brushes, tied with a pack of flossing thread
8- Poker Chips that are chocolate medallions and a personalized deck of playing cards, with a personalized wrapper
9- Shot glasses with your names and wedding date engraved on them, filled with candy

HOLIDAY
1- Ornaments, personalized with the name of the bridal couple and the wedding date. These can be hung on a tree for guests to take up as they leave.
2- Little Truffle boxes wrapped like a Christmas gifts, with any goodie inside
3- Easter eggs, brightly colored, of a variety of materials, placed in a basket
4- Halloween goodie bags filled with chocolates or other goodies

SEASONAL
1- Potted plants (mums for fall, field flowers for spring, etc.). The pot or container can be decorated with tulle or ribbon.
2- Individual plants or flowers in a grouping, which serve as the centerpiece and then as the take-home gift

SPRINGTME
1- Flower bulbs or seed packets wrapped in cellophane, decorated with paint, or tied with ribbons or arranged terra cotta pots to "keep the memory alive."
2- Tree Saplings which can be purchased in tubes and decorated

FALL
In keeping with a Fall, Apple-theme, baskets filled with apples and small apple blossom flowers and a metal apple corer with cinnamon sticks tied on top, along with an apple-related recipe on a personalized card

SUMMERTIME, SEASIDE, BEACH AND ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT
1- "Hang" the favors on a large surfboard, or place them in beach pails (filled with sand and placed on each table).
2- Place seeds, herbs or candies wrapped in tulle into small tin watering cans. Tie a personalized ribbon onto each handle. Consider, if available, giving out seeds for the same flowers you are using in your centerpieces.
3- Potted plants or seedlings, from your local nursery
4- Personalized Sunglasses
5- Sand Dollar Magnets
6- Hand-painted beach Pail, filled with any number of different gifts like shell soap

WINTER
Personalized packets of hot chocolate, decorated with your picture, message, name and date. Use the computer to superimpose the information and the photo on a winter-related theme background.

ROMANCE, LOVE, VICTORIAN AND INDULGENCES
1- Organza bags of rose petals or small wedding bells can be tied, with a big ribbon, on the back of each chair
2- Painted or etched champagne flutes can be decorated with ribbon, or filled with candy
3- Any of many kinds of candles, tied with ribbon, decorated with tulle, or placed in an attractive holder
4- Candles personalized with your names and our wedding date, printed in your wedding-color, silver or gold
5- Colored votives in glass votive holders resembling little flowerpots, wrapped in tulle, tied with a silk flower, and inverted to look like wedding bells
6- Gold or silver bells made of any variety of materials (ceramic, plastic, etc.) can be spray-painted to match your color theme, or tied with a ribbon
7- Fans can be decorated with fresh or silk flowers, ribbons or satin rosettes and can also be used for Victorian-theme weddings
8- Heart cookies half-dipped in chocolate, with the couple's initials in the center, "drawn" with a frosting pen
9- Personalized Valentines . . . new, homemade, or antique (postcards too)
10- Bath Beads, heart-shaped, in your wedding colors, decorated and personalized in any number of ways
11- Woman's Lace Handkerchiefs, embroidered with your or the guest's initials
12- Cup and Dish (for the bathroom or the desk), engraved with the couples initials and wedding date.
The drinking cup filled with flowers (real or silk) and the dish filled with chocolate almonds . . . all wrapped in cellophane, with a ribbon and a message
13- Miniature Soaps in a variety of colors, "materials" and scents. Be careful not to "conflict" with your flowers, or to irritate guests with allergies.
14- Potpourri, one or a mixture of flowers, dried fruits, scents and colors, placed in a decorative container
15- Heart-shaped tea infuser

WESTERN THEME
1- Personalized Bandanas
2- Miniature chocolate (or other materials) cowboy hats

FOOD AND BEVERAGES
1-Homemade jam or jelly in small jars decorated with lace or ribbon around the lid or with ribbon and personalized with a label listing your names and wedding date
2- Chocolate lollipops (store-bought or homemade with candy molds), placed into small bags and tied with a ribbon. Personalized thank you notes can be attached to the ribbon
3- Beverage favors (coffee, coffee mugs, mini-wine bottles, tea, hot cocoa) in a variety of containers
Plastic spoons whose bowls have been dipped in melted chocolate, decorated with ribbon, to be used by your guests to stir their coffee. Chocolate can be flavored with mint, vanilla or any other edible essence. 4- Personalized chocolate bars
5- Chocolates in any number of theme-related shapes. Put some information about the theme (trivia) on an attached, personalized card
6- Long pieces of gourmet saltwater taffy in pastel colors, tied with a ribbon in a complimentary color
7- Small bottle of champagne (or wine or other beverage), decorated with a tuxedos, personalized on the back using a colored gel pen. Other label suggestions . . . photos of the couple, names of the wedding party. Make sure that if you use a photo, you get the photographer's permission to reprint.
8- Chocolate-covered coffee beans into small boxes, tied with ribbon and a personalized note with the couples' name and the words "The Perfect Blend"
9- Homemade Brew (Beer)
10- Individual bags of flavored coffee, with or without a chocolate dipped spoon
11- Any other type of candy (your favorites?) in any number of containers
12- Fortune cookies personalized fortunes
13- In keeping with a color theme, muffins (e.g., a cranberry theme with cranberry muffins) and a "matching" (cranberry) tea bag and poem
14- Cocktail mixer filled with jelly beans, or together candies or sweets
15- Wine stoppers

CEREMONY FAVORS, any of which can be personalized with a label with your names and wedding date printed on them.
1- Bubbles
2- Doilies filled with rose petals
3- Bells
4- Bird seed
5- Rice
6- Confetti
Make sure to check what restrictions the ceremony and/or reception venue have about throwing things.

OTHER OR ANY THEME
1- Cookie cutters in a theme-related shape, with a personalized recipe for sugar cookies or a small package of cookie mix
2- Victorian fans made from antique-looking wallpaper samples and doilies, tied with a bow made from matching thin ribbon into a bow. Especially lovely for outdoor, warm-weather weddings and/or for inside the un-air-conditioned church
2- Origami Boxes made or bought, filled with candies and personalized
3- Chopsticks made of a variety of materials, tied with a ribbon and personalized with a card
4- Wooden Shoes filled with tiny candies, in colors to match the wedding or traditional Navy blue with gold and white
5- English Crackers (tubes covered in paper that can be pulled apart that include funny little prizes like paper hats), tied with ribbon to match and personalized
6- A small bag filled with small classic toys

Click Here for "Party Favors Part II."
Click Here for "Wedding Favors Say Thank You."

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