Daily Wedding Advice

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What are wedding favours and do we need them?

May 7, 2018

Wedding magazines and wedding websites are full of wedding stories that can help you gather ideas and help you decide which elements you want for your own wedding.

When you see photographs of beautifully decorated wedding breakfast tables, you will often see little items beside each setting which either contains the words Thank you, or the names of the couple and the wedding date, or an ornate container with chocolates or sweets in it. You will probably have heard of wedding favours, but what actually are they and why do we give them? 

Wedding favours are popular worldwide. They are small gifts from the bride and groom that are given to their wedding guests as a gesture of appreciation or thanks. It’s a small item that your guests can take home as a lovely reminder of your wedding. They can be given to the guests individually after the ceremony, or often each guest will find their own little gift beside their dinner plate, when they sit down for the wedding breakfast. 

Couples can personalise the favours with words - either the guest’s name or the couple’s name and wedding date, hand-craft them, fill them with sweets and so on. You can make up favours where each guest receives the same one, or you can have separate ones for men and women, and give even different ones to children if you wish. 

So what is the history behind wedding favours? 

Wedding favours have been around for centuries! They were mostly used by the European Aristocracy or upper classes and used to be called bonbonnieres. A bonbonniere was basically a small decorated trinket box that contained sugar or confectionary and was used as a symbol of wealth and royalty. Because centuries ago, sugar was very expensive, it was only the wealthy that could afford to give sugary confectionary as gifts. Over the years, however, sugar became affordable and therefore the little trinkets became much more widely spread. The sweets were then replaced by almonds and given to the guests to signify the good wishes for the couple’s new life together. Five almonds were given for five wishes: health, wealth, happiness, fertility and a long life.

Almonds coated in sugar were introduced as far back as the 13th century and they are still very popular at weddings today.

The sugared almonds are often given in a coloured organza bag, or in a little box that can include the almonds as well as other fillings. Couples often decorate the boxes to match their wedding colour scheme. Favours nowadays come in all sorts of shapes - anything you can imagine. If you have a beach-themed wedding, you could add chocolates that look like sea shells, if the location of your wedding is popular for something, you can add a miniature gift to signify the wedding location. Some people include lottery tickets, personalised key rings, or cup cakes. 

It’s entirely up to you if you want to include favours, or if you think it’s not necessary for your wedding.