Wedding Favors as Place Cards: 12 Ideas Guests Will Actually Take Home

Many favors stay behind on the tables after the wedding. That is a waste of money. If the favor is also the place card, you save yourselves an item and it is more likely to be taken home.

Edible ideas

• Small jar of honey with a name tag
• Cookie with a name in icing script
• Mini bottle of olive oil or liqueur
• Little bag of chocolates or candied almonds
• Sachet of coffee or tea

For planting

• Flower seeds in paper packets
• Small succulent pot with a plant marker
• Herb pot, such as rosemary or basil

To keep

• Eucalyptus sprig with a small card that dries later
• Candle with a name band
• Bookmark with a name
• Small card with a personal sentence for each guest

What really gets taken home

Whether a favor ends up in the handbag or stays on the table depends on two things. It has to be small enough to take without a bag, and it has to be recognizably for exactly this person. A jar with a name is hard to leave behind, an anonymous little bag rather easier.

A candle holder with your initials and the date looks lovely in the shop but at most guests' homes it never gets used. Anything you can eat, drink or plant has better chances, because it takes care of itself after a few days.

Budget and time

Count on one to five euros per guest. With 80 guests that is 80 to 400 euros. With homemade gifts, time comes on top, and it is almost always underestimated. One evening is enough for about 40 to 60 jars of honey with tags, if the jars, labels and ribbons are already there. Don't start 100 jars of jam in the last week.

Also plan five to ten percent in reserve. Some jar will break in transport, and someone always joins at short notice.

If the names are to be printed rather than handwritten, paper tags or bands are worthwhile. You print them on ordinary A4 sheets and cut them out. That way the favor itself stays neutral, and if a guest cancels, it simply goes to someone else.

Placing the place card correctly

The favor stands on the plate or above it, and the name must be readable even when seated. Sort the favors by table the day before, then setting the tables goes quickly. A list per table helps with that.

Give these lists to the person who sets the tables on the day, usually someone from the venue or a witness. If the favors arrive sorted in labeled boxes, table 1 to table 10, distributing takes half an hour instead of two.

In FloraWed these lists come straight from the seating chart. In the print studio you then print the names as place cards or tags. If the seating chart changes, the lists are updated along with it. We describe the printing itself in the article Printing place cards yourself.