Hannah Hill, Editor of the Focus, also owns and runs Tea & Fancies – a bespoke ‘at home’ afternoon tea service which can cater for hen parties and bridal showers. Here she talks about Wedding Favours.
Wedding favours are small gifts given as a gesture of appreciation to guests from the Bride and Groom during a wedding reception. The wedding favour industry is a big business – gone are the handfuls of sugared almonds tied up in a bit of netting. Nowadays couples are looking for something a little quirkier and more personal to give their guests as a memento of their Big Day.
Chances are that in these tough financial times, you’ll be keeping to a tight budget when it comes to planning your wedding. Being on a budget doesn’t mean you have to do away with all the finishing touches, though. Choosing to make your own wedding favours can be a huge task but can also be very rewarding and good for budget keepers. The internet is a great place for inspiration and, luckily, handmade is bang on trend at the moment. If you’re going the handmade route, be careful not to let your budget spiral out of control. It’s easy to get carried away – take it from someone who knows – with pots of glitter, stick-on gems and all sorts of embellishments that can add up to a princely sum quite quickly. But if you watch the pennies and plan carefully, you can get great results without spending a fortune.
Some fabulous ideas for homemade wedding favours are homemade bars of soap, personalised pots of homemade jam, heart shaped peppermint creams in pretty little bags – I’ve even seen upcycled paper rose brooches made of vintage books…but that’s a bit of an ask for a novice! A quirky idea is a heart shaped birdseed ‘cake’ favour (plenty of instructions available online for these), which are great because they’re cheap to make and look attractive too.
Failing that, if you fancy something along the lines of personal iced biscuits, bookmarks or gift tags and you don’t want the bother of crafting them yourself, that’s where I come in…
www.teaandfancies.com
Hannah@teaandfancies.com
