Personalize your favors
Question: Are favors necessary for our guests at our wedding?
Answer: Favors are a nice way to thank your guests for celebrating your wedding. It has been my experience that the best favors are edible such as truffles, chocolate covered dried cherries (a hit in Northern Michigan), cookies and local jams.
I have found that personalized items like bottle stoppers, playing cards, or glasses may not be appropriate or as appreciated as you might hope. These personalized items may be left behind at the reception or may not be used as you would hope since they have your name and date on them. You may want to look at the cost of each favor for individuals or couples and let that be the deciding factor. Most favors are in the range of $2-$5 each which can be a chunk of your overall budget.
One current trend that I love is for the bride and groom to make a donation to a favored charity such as The Arbor Foundation, The Humane Society or The American Cancer Society.
At a recent wedding the bride and groom gave wrist bands, from The Lance Armstrong Foundation, in honor of the groom’s brother who had passed away of cancer. This was well received by all in attendance and was a way for them to include his memory in the occasion. At another wedding the favor did double duty. We used leather luggage tags (the bride and groom were well traveled and the groom’s family and many friends are from England) as place cards and each couple or individual, as the case may have been, took the tags with them for future use. For this occasion the luggage tags were not personalized so that the guests would use them.
As in the example above these were loved by all in attendance.
Question: What do you think of photo booths?
Answer: I love the use of photo booths. They are a fun way for guests to interact and make a great memory for you after the wedding. Most companies will provide each guest with a photo strip to take home with them and another for you to use as a “guest book.” I have seen many variations on this, so go with a company that offers what feels right to you.
It is fun to have props for your guests to take into the photo booth, such as silly hats, feather boas and mustaches. The average cost of a photo booth is approximately $1,000. There are other takes on the photo booth option such as investing in a Polaroid camera, film, pens and a backdrop to let the guests take their own pictures leaving one or two for you to include in a scrapbook or guestbook and they can take a one or two home with them. There is also the option of hiring photographers who provide a backdrop and then shoot your guests posing. This option provides you pictures and often will allow for your guests to get online and purchase directly from the photographer.
Kris Rundblad is owner of Merry Makers, a local social and corporate event planning company. Her column, Cause for Celebration, appears on the fourth Friday of every month in the Petoskey News-Review. Send your questions about weddings and entertaining to Rundblad at (231) 547-5061 or info@merrymkr.com.
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