A simple but fun way to make sure your wedding day is remembered for years to come is to give wedding favors to guests—a tangible memory of the celebration that guests can hold onto and cherish for years to come. Wedding favors can be almost anything: bookmarks, stickers, candles or plant kits. If they’re thoughtful, personalized and high-quality, guests will love them (and keep them).
To help you get started and inspired, take a look at these 35 wedding favors that are unique and personalized.
What are wedding favors?
Wedding favors are small gifts given to wedding guests by the couple at their wedding reception to make them feel appreciated.
Welcome bags are another type of wedding favor given when guests first arrive at the wedding venue. If you’re having a destination wedding or guests are staying at a designated hotel, welcome bags can be given at check-in or placed in each room to greet guests when they arrive. Welcome bags often contain similar items to traditional wedding favors and might also include helpful “emergency” items for guests staying over, like eye masks and hangover cures for the morning after.
As you plan which items to give as wedding favors, think about the kinds of things your guests would actually want and use — and whether they’d be best given as welcome bags or at the reception.
Source: Wedding place cards via VistaPrint
How to choose your wedding favors
As you choose wedding favors, keep in mind:
- Your budget. Generally, favors take up about 2% of a wedding budget.
- Your guest list. With a smaller wedding, you can afford to give more expensive or personalized favors.
- Your wedding theme. Match your favors to your wedding’s theme, like pressed flowers for a botanical-themed wedding.
- Your wedding location. Give locally-made items like honey or small bags of roasted coffee beans so guests get a feel for the local area.
- Usefulness. The best wedding favors are things guests can use in some way, like bottle openers or glassware.
35 personalized wedding favor ideas
1. Bottle openers
Bottle openers are a fun, useful wedding favor because guests can continue to use them for years after your wedding. Add your wedding logo or monogram to commemorate your special day.
2. Bookmarks
Custom bookmarks are a cute way to celebrate your love. Personalize these unique favors with your wedding date and a custom illustration, so guests will think of your special day every time they open their book.
Source: Custom bookmark via VistaPrint
3. Custom glassware
Custom glassware comes in a variety of shapes and sizes: wine glasses, pint glasses, tumblers, and even can-shaped glasses. Engrave the glassware that best captures your wedding’s theme with your wedding monogram, a wedding favor your guests will drink out of for years to come.
Source: Custom wine glasses via VistaPrint
Source: Custom engraved pint glass via VistaPrint
4. Local produce
Bottle or jar locally-made produce like honey, jam or hot sauce for unique wedding favors that celebrate the wedding location. Design custom labels with your wedding logo and date printed on to add a sweet touch or a little sizzle to your special day.
Source: Custom product labels via VistaPrint
5. Custom stickers
Stickers make super-versatile, budget-friendly wedding favors for guests. Print fun custom designs like face stickers starring all the members of the wedding party, as well as more conventional designs that fit the wedding’s aesthetic like circle stickers of your wedding logo.
Source: Custom face stickers via VistaPrint
6. Personalized wine bottles
If you’re already serving wine at your wedding, why not create custom wine labels that turn the bottles into unique wedding favors? Guests can save the wine for a special occasion and cheers to your happy day, then use the keepsake bottles as candle holders or vases long after the wine has finished.
Source: Custom wine label via VistaPrint
7. Tote bags
Custom tote bags make the perfect wedding welcome bags. They’re also a fantastic choice for outdoor weddings — for guests to put their layers inside when it’s time to dance!
Source: Custom tote bag with wedding monogram via VistaPrint
8. Luggage tags
Personalized luggage tags make the ideal wedding favors for destination weddings. Print a custom design onto the tag for a super useful gift that will mean your guests’ luggage will never get lost again!
9. Personalized beach towels
Another fun choice for destination weddings is beach towels personalized with your wedding monogram. These favors are especially useful for beach weddings or wedding itineraries that involve poolside lounging.
Source: Striped beach towel via VistaPrint
10. T-shirts
What’s better than a personalized T-shirt guests can change into for the after-party or day-after event? Just picture guests turning up to the post-wedding brunch in matching T-shirts! Design T-shirts using your wedding color palette and including a memorable line from your vows for wedding favors guaranteed to bring a smile to everyone’s faces.
Source: Event T-shirts via VistaPrint
Source: Custom T-shirt with wedding monogram via VistaPrint
11. Journals or notebooks
Custom journals or notebooks with your wedding monogram are a sweet choice for a wedding favor that guests can use to record how special the day was. You can also incorporate a journal into other parts of your wedding reception, like using one as a guest book.
Source: Personalized journal via VistaPrint
12. Notepads
A custom notepad with your wedding monogram printed on is a useful wedding favor guests will appreciate. Notepads can be used for a modern take on the guest book, where guests pull notes out of their book and drop them into a jar. Then after the wedding, guests can use the notepad to jot down their shopping lists, daily affirmations and everything in between!
Source: Custom notepad via VistaPrint
13. Candles
Scented candles are a classic wedding favor for a reason: guests love them! Choose between scents like jasmine, cucumber melon and rose and go for a color that complements your wedding palette. Top everything off by adding your wedding monogram for a personal touch guests will cherish.
Source: Scented candle and grow kit via VistaPrint
14. Skincare
There’s no better wedding favor than one that comes in handy. Guests will be grateful for a little pot of moisturizer or hand cream the morning after the wedding. Print custom labels featuring an illustration of your venue for wedding favors that guests will definitely want to keep.
Source: Skincare with custom labels via VistaPrint
15. Custom mugs
Personalized mugs featuring a photo of the happy couple or wedding venue are great favors that will still remind guests of your special day each time they have a hot drink. They can also be used as a container for other favors. For example, you might give guests custom mugs with packets of local tea or coffee inside.
Source: Custom mug with wedding monogram via VistaPrint
Source: Speckled mug via VistaPrint
16. Wall art
Wall art featuring a favorite quote, custom illustration or a photo of your wedding location makes a thoughtful wedding favor guests can hang on their wall and remember your special day by. Choose between canvas prints, wood prints and metal prints for an aesthetic that matches your wedding style.
Source: Photo tiles via VistaPrint
17. Wall posters
Similarly, a wall poster with a custom design and your wedding date makes a great wedding favor that guests can frame or pin up on their bathroom wall.
Source: Wall poster via VistaPrint
18. Pillows
Custom pillows are a cuddly wedding favor perfect for winter weddings. Feature a collage of fun photos for a wedding keepsake guests will hold close for winters to come.
Source: Personalized pillow via VistaPrint
19. Blankets
Personalized blankets are another cozy choice for a winter wedding favor. Feature a photo collage or elevate the blanket design by simply including your wedding monogram and wedding date on a plain color background.
Source: Custom blanket via VistaPrint
20. Grow kits
Giving guests a grow kit complete with seeds as a wedding favor is a beautiful metaphor for your love. Just as at your wedding guests witnessed you planting the seed that will grow into your marriage, they will water and watch the seed grow into a plant in the years that follow.
Source: Daisies grow kit via VistaPrint
21. Golf balls
For golf lovers or couples getting married on a golf course, golf accessories make the perfect wedding favors for guests. Print your wedding monogram onto the balls for a fun keepsake golfers will love.
22. Botanical prints or pressed flowers
If you’re hosting a wedding with lots of florals, give guests framed prints of a botanical design or pressed flowers as wedding favors.
23. Personalized water bottles
Give guests a reusable custom water bottle personalized with their name, a unique design or your wedding monogram for an eco-friendly wedding favor they will keep on using long after their wedding hangover subsides.
Source: Personalized water bottle via VistaPrint
24. Custom puzzles
As guests put together the custom puzzle — featuring a funny photo or unique design — they received as a wedding favor, memories of your magical wedding day will come flooding back.
Source: Custom puzzle via VistaPrint
25. Photo coasters
Personalized photo coasters are an awesome way to show off your engagement photos and are a practical wedding favor that guests will appreciate (and keep).
Source: Photo coasters via VistaPrint
26. Sunglasses
If you’re hosting a summer or beach wedding, be sure to give guests sunglasses as wedding favors. Just imagine the photos — everyone wearing matching shades as they bask in the rays (and your love!). For a custom touch, subtly add your wedding date or monogram to the arm.
Source: Custom sunglasses via VistaPrint
27. Hangover kits
If your guests are going to party late into the night at your wedding, a hangover kit could be the perfect wedding favor. Stock it with electrolyte packets, water bottles, sunglasses and anti-nausea tablets to ensure the happy memories last way longer than the headache does.
28. Koozies®
Koozies®, personalized with your wedding monogram are useful wedding favors for casual beach or waterside weddings, so guests’ drinks stay cool all day long.
Source: Custom koozie collapsible can cooler via VistaPrint
29. Shot glasses
Shot glasses are popular wedding favors because they’re small, easy to transport and can be stuffed with goodies like candy packets or mints. They’re also super easy to etch your wedding date or monogram onto.
30. Custom pen
Custom pens featuring your wedding date are one of the most useful wedding favors for guests since a pen always comes in handy. Consider pairing pens with a journal or notebook for an extra special wedding favor idea.
Source: Custom pen via VistaPrint
31. Custom cap
A custom cap personalized with your wedding monogram and date is a super-fun wedding favor idea, particularly for a casual wedding or a wedding with a playful theme. Just picture all your friends turning up to social gatherings in matching caps for summers to come!
Source: Embroidered cap via VistaPrint
32. Personalized calendar
If you’re hosting an end-of-year wedding, give guests a custom calendar for the new year featuring funny photos of the happy couple. Like all of the best wedding favors, a custom calendar is useful as well as meaningful.
Source: Custom calendar via VistaPrint
33. Printed poem
A framed print or canvas print of a poem is a meaningful wedding favor guests will cherish. Choose a poem that featured in your ceremony or means something to you both so guests will remember your special day whenever they read it.
34. Photo keychain
When it comes to wedding favors for guests, photo keychains can be a lot of fun! Capture the spirit of your wedding day with a photo or custom design that reflects your personality and sums you up as a couple.
Source: Photo keychain via VistaPrint
35. Edible treats
Candy and gourmet treats are popular choices of wedding favors because they’re delicious. In fact, you might even say they’re ideal for weddings because they’re sweet. For a special touch, add ‘his’ and ‘her’ favorites to the mix. For example, if the groom loves pretzels and the bride loves almonds, make sure to include them both! Or even better, include edible treats that are part of your story as a couple. Did you toast s’mores over an open fire on your first date? Throw these in too!
Source: Chocolate mailer via VistaPrint
Source: S’mores gift set via VistaPrint
How to create unique wedding favors guests want to keep
So…how do you create wedding favors guests will appreciate and actually want to keep? Take some time to understand what your guests would use long after the wedding day ends. Think practical but meaningful custom items like coasters and calendars, as well as items specific to your wedding, such as luggage tags for destination weddings and blankets for winter weddings. For weddings with larger guest lists, consider edible treats and local produce, personalized with custom labels. For weddings where guests are staying the night, useful wedding favors like T-shirts, towels and hangover kits will be appreciated.
Once you’ve determined which favors to go for, customize and print them using a reliable service like VistaPrint. VistaPrint offers a wide range of custom products that you can easily personalize with your wedding monogram, logo or date, as well as design options, from full-color photo prints to elegant embroidery.
Wedding favors FAQs
Do you give wedding favors to every guest?
Not necessarily. Depending on the size and cost of your wedding favors, it could be best to give one favor per couple or family.
How much should I spend on wedding favors?
Generally, they make up about 2% of a wedding budget, but this can vary significantly.
Is it rude not to have wedding favors?
Not at all. Wedding favors are a nice bonus, not a requirement.
What do you normally put wedding favors in?
Normally, wedding favors are given in small paper bags, printed with the couple’s names and wedding date and wrapped with ribbon or a tag.
When do you give guests wedding favors?
Wedding favors are given to guests at the wedding. This could be at the wedding ceremony or more typically, during the reception. If a significant number of guests will be staying overnight, you can also have wedding favors or welcome bags sent to their rooms.
