I _love_ that info from Ms. Manners. Heh. Indeed.

For the wedding I did last November, the 'favor' aspect of the program was based upon the fact that the couple live in a small apartment and had no interest in keeping any of the elements of their uber-cool centerpieces. Et viola! Books, lanterns, candles, postcards...all walk-aways.

The coolest bit is that, during the reception, people were actively bargaining with each other to take the books that were actually of interest to them.

Way better than jordan almonds, eh?

I do like jordan almonds, though.

Although I ALSO liked the wedding where the tables had pictures of the couple with every guest, and the picture was your favor.

the couple live in a small apartment and had no interest in keeping any of the elements of their uber-cool centerpieces. Et viola! Books, lanterns, candles, postcards...all walk-aways.

We're telling people to take our centerpieces (if they want), because we have so much shit* in the house that they'll just end up in a box in the attic forever. (We're doing black-and-white photos of us in mason jars filled with oil, like this: [link] surrounded by tea lights in glass holders.)

*(The actual wording in the programs will probably not have swear words. PROBABLY.)

Oh, that's really cool, Steph!

Etiquette has never thought of weddings as comparable to children’s birthday parties, where the guests might need consolation for not being the center of attention.

Yeah, I'm with Amy--I don't recall favors at my birthday parties at all! And I can't say as I remember any particular favors from previous weddings.

Although I ALSO liked the wedding where the tables had pictures of the couple with every guest, and the picture was your favor.

That sounds awesome, but also like a lot of work!!

And what's weird there is that didn't start until recently, too, or at least I thought. I never went to a birthday party as a kid and brought home anything other than a craft or leftover cake. But these the favors are outrageous. It's a really expensive part of the party, no matter how cheap you go.

When I was a kid, standard was a goodie bag with a few pieces of candy and maybe some plastic jewelry or hair thingies or a toy car or something little like that.

That sounds awesome, but also like a lot of work!!

Seriously.

When I was a kid, standard was a goodie bag with a few pieces of candy and maybe some plastic jewelry or hair thingies or a toy car or something little like that.

Yeah, that sounds about right to me.

There was one year when, if you wanted to be really cool, you'd give out packs of Garbage Pail Kids cards in your goodie bags. A few years later, it was slap bracelets.

We not only did almonds, they were leftovers from someone else's wedding - they ordered way too many and gave us the unopened boxes of silver and gold nuts which I wrapped in purple netting. Extra funny to me because I am allergic to almonds.

Personalized conversational hearts are brilliant. I do have a wedding favor that I've kept lo these many years since my friends got married - it's a bottle cozy made up to look like a tux and with their names and wedding date silk-screened on. it lies around in my kitchen in case I want to keep a beer cold and does remind me of that couple whenever I chance upon it.

I *LOATHE* goodie bags. Like, flames on the sides of my face loathing. No parent I know wants more cheap plastic tiny toys in their house, so I have no idea why that ever became a thing.

The coolest wedding favors I ever got were when my college roommate got married, she and her now-husband had each of the tables decorated with things that reminded them of a favorite book. All of us college friends were at the Harry Potter table, so I brought home a wand and another friend got a tiny Sorting Hat.