Skip to content
Endings. They matter. Big-time.
At the end of your wedding day, you want your guests to leave with a wedding favour to remember. Whether you go for: chocolate wedding favours, unique wedding favours, personalised wedding favours, sweet wedding favours or something handmade - you want to be sure that you gift your wedding guests something special to round off an amazing day. Wedding favours have a long history as one of the most anticipated parts of any wedding. Read on for a quick bit of interesting history about why we have wedding favours and a much-needed, speedy guide to the latest, top trends and most popular ideas for the best wedding favours.
You’ll always remember if something ended badly, so you want to pay as much attention to the type of wedding favour that you choose to give your guests, as you do to every other part of the day. Nothing is worse than people complaining at the end of a fantastic event, so yes, you do need to give your little token of thanks some thought. But not too much, because I have done the hard work for you (because you have more than enough to do) and put together a quick guide to the best ideas for wedding favours. Here it is:
The history of wedding favours:
It all started with confetti. But not as we know it. This confetti is almond-centred and wrapped in sugar. First used by the Romans as a special sweet wedding treat, wedding favours have their roots in Italian confetti. Italian confetti are crunchy almonds coated in a sweet, crispy sugar-shell. These nutty treats are still gifted in Italy and other parts of the world today, at weddings, confirmations, anniversaries and other celebrations. Each type of landmark event requires a particular colour of confetti, such as white ones for weddings and confirmations, or silver ones for anniversaries.
Confetti’s history as a wedding favour, dates back to the dragati that the Ancient Romans served to their guests at weddings. An early form of confetti, Dragati were almonds covered in honey that took their name from the Roman baker who first made them - Julius Dragatus.
Centuries later, the almonds were coated in sugar to take on the sugared-almond form that we now know so well.
By the 1500s, it was a popular wedding tradition amongst the upper classes in Italy and France, to give departing guests a bomboniere, containing five confetti. The bomboniere was a beautiful silver, porcelain, crystal or gem-studded box with sweets inside. Traditionally, those sweets would include 5 confetti. Each confetti was a good luck token for each of the five areas of good fortune: health, wealth, happiness, fertility and longetivity. The intention was to pass on the luck that the bride and groom had, had, in finding each other. When sugar became a valued confection amongst English high society, the customary confetti was swapped for a sugar cube!
In a clear demonstration of how much we all love a good, sweet wedding favour, the tradition lived on and has evolved into wedding favours as we know them today. A much-loved part of the wedding day all over the world, confetti are also known as: Jordan almonds in America, mlabas in the Middle East, koufetta in Greece and bonbonniere in France.
Today, in Italy and across the globe, white confetti are still gifted at weddings in a little tulle or silk bag, decorated with dried flowers – but always in odd numbers for good luck. A sweet wedding treat, that won’t go away!
What can you give as a wedding favour today?
Today, although you can still find confetti in wedding favours, thank you tokens for guests have come a long, long way. Sweet wedding favours are still a top favourite, particularly lush chocolate wedding favours. However, the ever-increasing range of ideas for both sweet and non-food wedding treats is astounding. To help you get a better idea of what you want to give your guests as a token of appreciation, these are the top, most popular wedding favour trends.
Top wedding favour trends by type:
- custom-made, personalised wedding favours
- luxe, unique chocolate wedding favours
- wedding favours for children
- vintage-style wedding favours
- ethical wedding favours, such as charity or eco-friendly wedding favours
- mini-alcohol wedding favours
- handmade, rustic-styled wedding favours
- locally-sourced wedding favours
- late-night feast- food wedding favours
- unusual/ quirky wedding favours
- memorable wedding favour boxes, bags and packaging
Now that you have a better idea about the latest trends and treats to surprise your guests with, take a look at this quick round-up of ten of the best ways to work each of those top trends.
The 10 best wedding favours to impress your guests and end your day on a high:
1. Your own, custom-made, personalised chocolate You cannot talk wedding favours without starting with where it all began. Apart from sweets for the kids, sweet wedding favours are now more focused on chocolate. Not the old, sad square that would get left behind. Today’s chocolate wedding favours involve luxe, high-grade chocolate delivered in unique, sophisticated and custom ways.Get loads of trends in one with Love Cocoa’s custom-made chocolate wedding favours in your own personalised wrapping. Imagine! With their passion for eco-friendly, fair-trade chocolate, featuring Great British classics with a contemporary twist composed of locally-sourced British ingredients- this is almost every trend all dressed up in your own gorgeous packaging. With G&T, pink gin, prosecco and champagne amongst your choice of British ingredients, these chocolate wedding favours are guaranteed to end proceedings on a euphoric note!
2. Step back in time:
The vintage look is everywhere, including your wedding favours. From the eighties to the nineties and fifties, retro-cool never fails to bring a smile to people’s faces. Vintage-style foods are always a big hit. Try pick and mix, homemade cakes or jams served up in memorable vintage packaging or shabby-chic favour boxes.
3. Acts of charity:
Charity donations are a hot, new trend for your wedding favours. A beautiful way to remember absent friends, a challenge overcome or a cause that you both share a passion for. From cancer to Alzheimer’s, animal welfare, global issues and environmental causes, you are sure to find a campaign that touches your heart.
How does it work? Simply contact the charity of your choice via their website, over the phone or by email. Once you are signed up to their wedding favour service and have made your donation, they will send you sweet little gifts or cards for your guests that share your decision to support their charity, such as forget-me-not seeds, place cards, heart-shaped badges and pendants.
4. Gifts to get them talking:
It goes without saying that wedding celebrations are lengthy. Keep everyone busy with interactive wedding favours. Gifts that give your guests something to do. These fun favours will be a great talking-point and brilliant ice-breakers that will put everyone in a good mood. Guaranteed crowd-pleasers are Rubik’s cubes, polaroid cameras, colouring books and mini classic games. And of course, the kids will enjoy these too.
5. Treats with punch:
Mini bottles of alcohol wedding favours are everywhere. From gin to champagne and wine, these gift bottles come personalised with labels that can be as quirky as you like. With everyone getting on board, you can order your favourite tipple for everyone to share, whether sloe gin, whisky, pink gin or your own homemade brew, your guests will be delighted to have a night cap for free. For wedding favours for the kids, there are bottles for them too, fill them with traditional lemonade, for an exciting late-night drink.
6. Printed in ink:
A quirky new trend which could be a result of the rise in festival-themed weddings, are tattoo wedding favours. No not the permanent kind, these are temporary custom tattoos. There are cool tattoos of your faces, wedding-themed slogans or artistic design using your names. They might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they will definitely leave a lasting impression.
7. Sustainable delights:
With plastic and waste at the forefront of everyone’s minds, sustainable wedding favours are a growing trend. Little gifts that guests can takeaway and use in their day-to-day life. From handmade soap, to seeds, coffee beans, tea bags, beeswax candles, miniature plants and local honey, these are practical, personalised and environmentally-friendly gifts, that your guests can use whilst they reminisce about your wedding day. Try locally-sourced products for an additional ethical touch. Unique, eco-friendly treats that won’t go to waste.
8. Food gets naughty:
Weddings are a time for throwing caution to the wind, letting your hair down and having a great time. No surprise then, that naughty food gifts are on the rise. Served up to guests towards the end of the night, instead of a wedding favour to take home, these foodie treats are devilish midnight snacks to top off a fantastic night. Think: juicy burgers, sweet doughnuts, ice-cream, shots, food trucks or creamy hot chocolate and marshmallows.
9. Unusual choices:
Weddings are a highly personal occasion, so it makes sense that you will want your wedding favours to be individual and reflective of who you are. So why not go for a wedding favour that is a bit more unusual? Homeware wedding favours are popular choices, there are personalised tea towels, bed linen, shot glasses, coasters and coffee stencils.
10. Fully equipped:
Weekend and destination weddings continue to be popular, so the evolution of the kit bag wedding favour idea, is no surprise. These wedding favours are rule-breakers, so you may want to gift them at the beginning of festivities. With survival kits, hangover kits and welcome packages hitting the shelves, there are plenty of ideas to create the ultimate wedding experience.
Found the trend that fits with you and your wedding theme?
All that’s left to do is to personalise them and get them ordered!
Find your perfect wedding gifts from our collection of chocolate bars and truffles!
Find out more about us or contact us.
