Celebrations

57 Unique & Practical Wedding Favors for Guests in 2024

by: Kristy Bowen

Published on Aug 30th 2024

Looking for the perfect wedding favors for guests on your special day? Wedding favors are a great opportunity to not only give your guests a memento of the event, but also to thank them for their attendance. The variety of wedding favors for guests ranges from small inexpensive DIY gestures to luxurious hand-engraved and bespoke items created specifically for the event. Which fits your occasion depends on the style and budget of your wedding, as well as the number of guests you're inviting.

Do you give wedding favors to each guest? Is it rude not to have wedding favors? Do people still do favors at weddings? The etiquette of wedding favors for guests depends on factors like the formalness and spirit of the celebration. The best ones are personalized in some way, with special details on the event, the relationship or the couple's interests. We’ve rounded up a slew of our favorite ideas that range from nearly free keepsakes to intricately engraved heirloom items.

Unique Wedding Favors for Guests

1. Pottery Pieces

A great way to support local artisans when it comes to planning your wedding is to offer unique wedding favors for guests with a handmade touch. Small pieces of pottery, like miniature pots and vases, can be a great wedding favor that people treasure long after the big day.

2. Vintage Glassware

Fun and eclectic wedding favors for guests are to head to thrift stores and collect a selection of beautiful vintage glasses in all sorts of colors. Not only can you use them during the wedding, but allow guests to choose their favorite from a selection to keep.

3. Music Mix

Creating a fun wedding mix of your favorite love or dance songs is a great alternative to a DJ if you’re looking to save some money. Create a mix on a custom-designed CD or vinyl LP of songs played during the wedding or reception. Or make an online playlist on an app and give out small cards with the QR code to access. This also makes a perfect 50th wedding anniversary idea to include songs from the decade you got hitched.

Join our email list for exclusive deals, local events and fun inspiration for living a more creative life.

4. Gourmet Cooking Oil

If you or your partner are foodies, this is a great opportunity to create custom flavored oil or spice blends as your wedding favors for guests. You can make them yourself in small glass vials or bottles or purchase them from a gourmet retailer with personalized labels.

5. Deck of Cards

For unique wedding favors for guests, commission a customized deck of cards they can enjoy for many years. It’s a great opportunity to use one of your favorite couple photos in the design with details like the locale and date of the nuptials.

6. Stained Glass Suncatchers

Beautiful small things make great wedding favors for guests, especially when they're useful in the home. Have a stained glass artist create a customized suncatcher that can be hung in windows and enjoyed long after the wedding. Use a design significant to the couple or opt for simple hearts or flowers.

7. Holiday Ornament

For another great wedding favor for guests that will be treasured forever, have some custom holiday ornaments created in honor of the big day. Or make them yourself for a budget-friendly alternative. Many craft stores sell glass or plastic globes, wooden ornament blanks and other supplies that allow you to create a fun keepsake. This idea is especially perfect for December weddings.

8. Poems On Demand

For unique and memorable wedding favors for guests, hire a local poet to write custom poems on a vintage typewriter for your celebrants. These short poems on postcards or handmade paper can be taken home as a unique keepsake and memory of the day.

9. Custom Bookplates

For another one of the bookish wedding favors for guests, create beautiful bookplates, professionally printed or DIY, with details on the big day or favorite quotes about love. You can buy adhesive labels for any home printer and create designs on platforms like Canva for cost-friendly favor. Wrap a stack in ribbon and distribute it to your attendees for their home library.

10. Vintage Teacup Candle

Another one of the most adorable wedding favors for guests with a handmade touch is to create simple candles in beautiful floral vintage teacups, which you can usually find in abundance at a low price. Wicks and soy wax or paraffin bases are available online or at craft stores. You can even add scented oils or colors to the candles — maybe something that represents your wedding theme?

11. Gourmet Caramel Apples

Another gourmet treat that makes perfect wedding favors for guests include fancy caramel apples. Not only limited to old-school caramel and nuts, gourmet candy and treat stores like Harry and David offer apples covered in all sorts of flavor combinations, many in fancy gift boxes that are easy to take home. This makes a great favor for a fall wedding.

12. Love Poem Chapbook

Another fun bookish wedding favor is to create a booklet with your favorite love poem or poems inside. Have it print professionally or create it at home then photocopy and fold .Bind it with ribbon or book thread in the wedding colors and use a luxe cardstock for the cover. This also makes a cute inexpensive wedding gift idea for the couple.

13. Caricature Drawings

Another great way to send guests home with a memorable and creative favor is to hire a sketch or caricature artist for the event. Beyond being cute wedding favors for guests, it's also a fun activity during the reception that results in a custom piece of art to take home and frame.

14. Magnetic Poetry

Send guests home with a fun favor that's also entertaining long after the big day. You can purchase mini magnetic poetry sets centered around concepts like “love” or “happiness.” You can also DIY your own custom sets with magnetic printable sheets and small metal tins. These not only make good wedding favors for guests, but become useful in the household.

15. Lotto Tickets

Marriage and weddings can sometimes be a gamble. Cheeky and fun wedding favors for guests include small customized envelopes with scratch-off lottery tickets. One of your guests may be as lucky as you feel on the special day (and may just share their millions with the happy couple.)

16. Crystals

If you’re looking for pretty wedding favors for guests with a special meaning and great energy, distribute mini-crystals to your guests attached to a custom card that details the properties of the crystal or stone. They also look really beautiful when laid out on a table or when used as fun place cards during the reception.

17. Matchbox Puzzles

Tiny matchbox puzzles not only make great wedding favors for guests to take home, but also can provide a little bit of entertainment while waiting for dinner to be served. Create your own or have one custom-made. You can also purchase bulk selections in vintage-style boxes from Art of Play.

Small Gift Ideas for Wedding Guests

18. Succulent Minis

Sometimes beauty comes in small packages. Tiny succulents your guests can take home are a perfect way to send people off with a small, but useful, plant they can enjoy. You can plant these wedding favors for guests yourself or buy them in bulk from many florists.

19. Custom Matches

Custom matchbooks with the couple’s name and details are useful wedding favors for guests. Get customized booklets made or make your own with blank matchboxes you can customize on the exterior with a wraparound label. Or opt for a small glass vial of matches with a personalized tag.

20. Mini Bouquet

For small wedding favors for guests that make a beautiful keepsake on a budget, create mini bouquets using dried flowers attached in a bundle to a paper card. The dried flowers will last a long time and the card format is small enough to tuck in a photo album or memory box.

21. Custom Lip Balm

Many bath and body retailers on places like Etsy offer custom lip balms in small pot or tube form with labels commemorating the big day. There are also some with customized combinations with these wedding favors for guests that you can create just for your event.

22. Wine Cork Keychain

You can get custom-printed keychains made from upcycled wine corks from many promo retailers and marketplaces like Etsy. They can be printed with the couple's name and details like the date and location of the wedding. Another one of the most useful wedding favors for guests they'll actually use.

23. Mini Books

Send your wedding guests home with miniature copies of famous books for more fun bookish wedding favors for guests. You can have custom ones made or buy small blank books in bulk on marketplaces like Amazon with pretty blank covers or famous titles and authors.

24. Mini Hot Sauces

If you prefer your wedding favors for guests hot and spicy, get some tiny customized vials of your favorite hot sauce that guests can use during the meal or save for later.

25. Mini Jam or Honey Jars

Some more small foodie wedding favors for guests are mini jars of preserves or honey with customized labels for the big day. The guests will think of the special occasion with each use and can also save the jar once it's empty to hold small things like paper clips.

25. Mini Champagne Bottles

A fitting way to celebrate is to give a small bottle of custom-label champagne or sparkling wine as fun and festive wedding favors for guests. You can also add small bottles of sparkling grape juice for younger attendees.

Useful Wedding Favors for Guests

26. Seed Packs

For fun and eco-friendly wedding favors for guests, create small envelope packets of wildflower or herb garden seeds for guests to plant at home. Not only is this a great budget-friendly favor, but guests will think of the couple every time they enjoy their garden.

27. Paper Fans

Perfect for summer outdoor weddings, custom paper fans can be great useful wedding favors for guests to use on the day (especially if it's hot) and take home. Have them customized or bulk buy a selection of different floral designs and attach a small paper tag with twine to personalize them.

28. Mugs

Customized mugs can be great wedding favors for guests that they can take home to enjoy for many years. There are plenty of online companies like Vistaprint or Amazon that allow you to design personalized mugs and purchase them in bulk, but you can also purchase blank mugs and add hand-drawn details with a Sharpie. Place them in the oven after they dry at 525 for 30 minutes to set the ink.

29. Bottle Koozie

You can get customized cold cup holders from a variety of promotional companies and from places like Amazon and Etsy with special quotes or the wedding date inscribed. You can also get a wide array of colors and typography styles that fit any wedding or aesthetic. Truly useful wedding favors for guests that can be designed to suit your style.

30. Bookmark

Have some bookmarks made or create custom bookmarks as fun book-lovers wedding favors for guests to enjoy long after the big day. Include a photo or artist’s rendering of the couple, plus wedding details, quotations or anything that speaks to your specific personality.

31. Engraved Shot Glasses

Engraved shot glasses are memorable and useful wedding favors for guests, as well as beautiful objects all on their own. Include wedding details and the couple’s name. Attendees will fondly remember your wedding every time they pour a drink.

32. Snack Box

A fun favor meets hors d'oeuvres idea is to create small snack boxes for guests to enjoy during cocktail hour before dinner. You can include cheese, crackers or sweets wrapped up prettily to enjoy at the reception or to take home.

33. Sachets

Create simple sachets by adding dried lavender to mini muslin bags. Add pretty paper tags with the day’s commemorative details or a favorite quote or line of love poetry. For these wedding favors for guests, you can also stamp the bags with initials or images created by simple rubber stamps and ink pads.

34. Custom Spice Blend

For more great wedding favors for guests who are dedicated foodies, fill a small tin or test tube vial with the couple's favorite spice or herbal blend to distribute as favors and add a personalized label with a fun quote or recipe for the blend.

35. Cork Coasters

Inexpensive cork coasters with personalized details can make useful wedding favors for guests that they will use again and again when the day is over. Get them professionally printed or use stamps or markers to decorate them yourself as a budget-friendly alternative.

Cheap Wedding Favors Ideas

36. Candy Buffet

Buy a selection of bulk candy in the wedding colors and fill several pretty jars and bowls on a table during the reception. Guests can help themselves to simple treat bags or boxes to take home their own bag of selected treats.

37. Customized Chocolates

Purchase a bag of miniature chocolate bars wrapped in foil and create your own custom paper labels to wrap around the bars as fun, inexpensive and tasty wedding favors for guests. Include a sweet message or the couple’s name or date on the label in the wedding colors.

38. Hot Cocoa Vial

For a great wedding favor idea that’s cheap in the winter months, fill small corked test tubes with all the makings of a sweet cup of cocoa with a personalized label or tag. Add cocoa mix, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips in layers inside for these tasty wedding favors for guests.

39. Message in a Bottle

Purchase small glass vials or bottles and place a message or love poem inside each one as a heart-felt budget-friendly wedding favor idea for guests. Roll up the small slips of paper and secure with a bit of twine or ribbon. This also makes a cute marriage proposal idea.

40. Painted Stones

Collect some pretty rocks or stones and add some painted accents in the wedding colors for a great DIY wedding favor idea that is practically free. Add cute flower designs, initials and the date. Guests can keep them to add to terrariums and planters or use them as paperweights. This is a particularly great idea for a woodland or destination wedding.

41. Shells

Perfect for beachfront weddings, collect a variety of pretty shells from the beach and use them as natural wedding favors for guests with a casual, beachy vibe. Invite guests to choose their favorite to take home.

42. Sage Bundle

Create small bundles of dried sage using fabric or decorative paper for guests to burn in their homes for good blessings. It’s also a great alternative to throwing rice or using sparklers during the reception.

43. Paper Flowers

Create adorable paper flowers by folding ordinary tissue paper into an accordion format. Round the edges with scissors and fan out the layers to create paper blooms. You can also do this with thin pages like those found in a dictionary. Or use them to create the centerpieces as a fun and budget-friendly wedding decoration idea.

44. DIY Snow Globes

Use small glass jars to create tiny slow globes for unique wedding favors for guests during the holiday months. All you need is distilled water, a few drops of glycerin and some glitter. Add small figures and bottlebrush trees inside and decorate the exterior with ribbon or twine.

Wedding Favors for Guests in Bulk

45. Bubbles

*Blowing bubbles at a wedding (via Canva)*

Many party and promotional retailers will create tiny customized bottles of bubbles for your wedding favors for guests. They are a fun addition to the reception in lieu of throwing rice or birdseed as the couple enters or exits the party.

46. Mini Soaps

Many bath and body sellers on Etsy offer customized mini-soaps that make great wedding favors for guests in bulk with all sorts of shapes, sizes and delicious scents with personalized labels that include wedding-specific details or sweet messages.

47. Travel Candle

Gift your wedding guests their own travel candles in small tins, which you can order from handmade marketplaces and on Amazon. You can add customized labels to personalize them or wrap ribbon around the tins in your wedding colors.

48. Coffee

Bag of coffee — *Provide free bags of coffee (via Canva)*

Many small and large coffee companies sell small sample bags of coffee in bulk, allowing you to give a wedding favor to guests in bulk that is useful for at least a few cups of joe. Some even allow customization with a date and the couple's details.

49. Bottle Opener

An object that will always come in handy, consider ordering a bulk order for engraved customized bottle openers for guests to use and take home after the wedding. They come in various sizes, from standard-size openers to mini-keychain versions.

50. Mints

Many retailers offer mini-tins filled with mints, perfect as a wedding favor for guests to keep in a pocket or purse, many with custom labels or engraved details on the tin.

51. Lighter

Another great functional object, you can order engraved lighters from promotional companies and retailers like Amazon as wedding favors for guests. Deluxe versions include metal lighters with custom engravings but you can also get cute and inexpensive plastic versions with photos printed on them.

52. Gourmet Treats

Purchase pre-wrapped cookies or other treats and add a custom sticker to the packaging to personalize them for the event. Great options include cookies, cupcakes, popcorn, candy or chocolate-covered pretzels.

53. Pinback Buttons

For cute and whimsical wedding favors for guests, have a batch of fun one-inch pinback buttons created for your event with romantic quotes or funny messages. Not only can you wear yours at the wedding, but can add them to jackets and tote bags/backpack as a keepsake of the wedding celebration.

54. Pencils

A tried and true bulk personalized item, pencils are usually very inexpensive to have engraved with custom messages. Have them created with the couple's details, the date or lines of romantic poetry.

55. Lollipops

Bulk customized lollipops come in a variety of shapes, flavors and sizes, from small personalized Dum Dum suckers to gourmet flavored full-sized lollipops. Have them customized or add packaging and tags to commemorate the special event.

56. Magnets

Inexpensive custom magnets are a great wedding favor for guests that they can take home and place on the fridge. Use small magnets with wedding details or share a favorite photo of the couple in magnet form.

57. Hand Sanitizer

Small vials of hand sanitizer are always great to have around. Order some with customized labels as a useful and fun wedding favor for guests they can carry with them. Include details about the wedding, special quotes or photos on the label.

Wedding Favors for Guests FAQs

*Should you give wedding favors to all your guests? (via Canva)*

Wedding favors for guests can be elaborate or simple as desired depending on factors like formality, budget, number of attendees and location, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

Do you give wedding favors to each guest?

If you decide to offer favors, you should make sure you have enough for each guest who attends, though some guests may opt not to take them. You can include them in place settings or distribute them personally, but you can also leave them in a central location during the reception so guests can decide for themselves.

Is it rude not to have wedding favors?

While not specifically required for every celebration, they can be a great gesture to thank guests for attending. They are also memorable keepsakes, particularly if they are an item that will be used or encountered regularly. Even a simple inexpensive favor can be a sweet addition to your special day for guests.

However you plan to celebrate the big day, you can find the perfect wedding favors for guests that fully represent the spirit and style of your wedding day. From luxurious keepsakes to small mementos, your guests will love taking these home with them.

For even more fun wedding gift ideas, check out other experiences happening on Classpop!