Sweet Ideas for Wedding Favours

Wedding favours are only a small detail, but they do give you the chance to have some fun. 

Traditionally, wedding favours consisted of 5 sugared almonds encased in a white organza bag, but these have fallen out of favour (pardon the pun) with modern brides. But have you ever wondered where the notion came from?

A History of Wedding Favours

Wedding favours have been around in one form or another since the time of the Ancient Romans. During the Middle Ages, wedding favours were most likely to be jams or dried fruit covered in honey.

A few hundred years later, the French aristocracy preferred to give their wedding guests crystal trinket boxes filled with sugar. These ‘bonbonnieres’ were a symbol of wealth and luxury since sugar was a scarce commodity.

But how do sugared almonds fit in?

Apparently, according to Greek folklore, the wife of the king of Athens died and was reincarnated as an almond tree.

Almonds were thought to represent the bittersweet nature of love (as in the ‘for better or worse’ in traditional marriage vows).  Sugar expressed the hope that married life would be more sweet than bitter for the newlyweds.

The five almonds symbolized health, happiness, longevity, wealth, and fertility.

These days, however, brides prefer more contemporary wedding favours.

Sweet Ideas for Wedding Favours

7 Sweet Ideas for Wedding Favours

• Place colour-coordinated jellybeans in a glass jar.  You could choose three colours from your wedding bouquet, or you may prefer to arrange the jellybeans according to the colours of a rainbow.

• Set up a sweet-shop style booth at the reception so guests can fill paper packets with their choice of sweets.

• Rose petals, pansy petals or other flower petals  can be incorporated into translucent lollypops to make very pretty and unique wedding favours.

• Delicate meringues may appeal to brides with allergies or diet restrictions.  Dolce Organico makes vegan meringues that are egg-free, dairy-free and gluten-free.  Gift meringues can be customised with a heartfelt note.

• Winter brides may like to fill glass jars with the ingredients for hot chocolate, including marshmallows.

• Remember those hard sweets with cute sayings on them, like You’re Mine? How cool would it be to have some sweets inscribed with your names and wedding date?

• For a sweet treat with twist, showcase local honey or home-made jam or pickles in a mason jar.

Presentation of Wedding Favours

If you are having a formal reception, wedding favours can be placed at each guest’s place setting. Alternatively, they can be placed in the centre of each table and form part of the table decorations.

For less formal receptions, you could set up a separate table for your wedding favours but make sure to put it in a conspicuous place so guests can easily find it. 

For a more personal approach, give wedding favours out by hand at the wedding reception.  This also allows you to mingle informally with your guests.

Regardless of what type of wedding favour you choose, it’s a simple way to say thank you to your guests.