Homemade jam favours by Melysweddings on Etsy.com
With just six months to go until the wedding, it’s time to start turning my attention to all the finer points of the day's theme. Being a perfectionist and a firm believer in attention to detail, I’ve actually been looking forward to this part of the wedding planning since the whole process began! Whenever I launch a new dress collection and hold an event to celebrate, I always include little gifts for my guests, just like wedding favours, so I thought there was no better place to start. My Pinterest board is bursting with fabulous favour ideas from purse-friendly to blow the budget and I literally can't stop pinning!I love chatting to my brides about their ideas for wedding favours and from what I'm hearing it seems DIY options are proving to be the trend for 2013, with brides galore opting to get creative rather than buy ready-made. From borrowing their granny’s sewing machine to making homemade lavender bags or getting busy in the kitchen creating home-grown tasty jams and yummy baked goodies, you lot are getting your hands dirty when it comes to wedding favours. One of my brides-to-be Catherine, who's getting married on a beautiful Cornish beach this summer, is giving each of her guests a stick of seaside rock that supports the local lifeboat charity; I love an idea that’s both delicious and for a good cause.
So with all this talk of wedding favours, I've become curious as to why it's a tradition for couples to give them on their wedding day. My only knowledge until recently was that the tradition was to give sugared almonds in sets of five as they represented fertility, longevity, wealth, health and happiness. When looking into the history of favours a little further I found the idea originates from France and bonbonnieres (porcelain trinket boxes filled with precious stones and sugar cubes) were given as glamorous gifts to wedding guests of French aristocrats, and the sugar almonds followed years later. Doesn't that paint such a romantic picture? I’m actually finding it really interesting to look back at wedding history and tradition, wondering what our ancestors would make of our weddings today.
Back to my wedding planning, and after much consideration and Pinterest-related research, I've decided that we'll only be gifting the ladies on the big day as let’s face it, most men don’t notice the favours, or will forget to take them home, leaving me with a pile of leftover little gifts with no home to go to! So my female-friendly shortlist is as follows...
Lavender-scented fabric hearts by KarenWalkWeddings on Etsy.com
DIY lavender bags made from fabric used elsewhere within the wedding decorations
Charity badges for RSPCA (both Teddy and I love animals and you can get doggy ones like our pooch Buster Bear)
Traditional sugared almonds after being inspired by Parisian history and tradition!
Fancy:
Charbonnel & Walker chocolates – the pink and gold heart box is perfect for our wedding
Ladurée macaroon gift boxes, personalised biscuits or sweets (I’ve seen so many when flicking through the bridal glossies)
Luxury:
Jo Malone bubble bath (in the hope someone does leave one behind by mistake!)
Vintage perfume bottles
Diptyque candles – I'm smitten ever since my first experience at Space NK
So I am now on a mission to source prices and availability on all of my shortlisted options so I can work out just how much of the wedding budget to allocate to favours, and when is the best time to buy them.
I would love to hear what you're planning to have as your wedding favours so join in the debate on my Facebook page.
Until next time, happy planning fellow brides-to-be!
With love,
Charlotte x
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