Part of the wedding tradition is giving away souvenirs to guests as the couple's way of expressing their gratitude to the people who took time to witness and celebrate an important occasion in their life. There's a wide range of souvenir ideas that sometimes couples get overwhelmed on what to choose. Let me share some tips to help you make a shortlist of potential souvenirs/give aways for your wedding day and eventually decide on what to give away.
1. Use your wedding theme and/or motif as springboard/s in making a list of potential wedding souvenirs. I saw this beautiful souvenir box that can be a very apt container for wedding favors in a fairy tale-themed wedding.
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| Photo source here. |
Here is another fairy tale-themed wedding give away.
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| Glass slipper key chain. Photo source here. |
Here is another wedding souvenir or give away fit for a sea or beach-inspired wedding.
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| Photo source here. |
2. Make your wedding souvenirs tell your love story or your passions as individuals or as a couple. What do you and your future spouse love or love to do? Let your souvenirs give your guests a clue.
One of our wedding souvenirs or give aways was the Catholic scriptural guide called Didache with reflections on the readings. We chose this because the Scripture or the Word of God played a vital part in our love story. It was also one of the ministries of the Catholic community where my fiance and I met and served together when we were single. So aside from helping us share something related to our love story, through our wedding souvenirs, we were able to support our community's ministry.
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| Our give away to our guests. |
Another give away/gift that we had for our principal sponsors was a dvd of an episode in Fr. Jun Lingad, S.D.B.'s program Word Made Flesh. Fr. Jun discusses a Bible passage, usually the Gospel for a specific Sunday during his programs before. We chose an episode wherein he discussed the verse "What God has joined together, let no man separate." It was a Bible study episode perfect for a wedding, a reminder not only to my groom and me but also to our guests on the sanctity of marriage. It also supported another ministry (the Word Made Flesh Foundation) that my groom and I are a part of and of something instrumental in our love story.
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| Our gift to our principal sponsors. |
We placed these souvenirs in pink and lavender cloth bags with ribbons and gift tags with our initials a short note from us. Our gift tags were among our several DIY projects for our wedding.
We also gave away flowering plants (star gazers) to our guests because our venue was at Blue Garden, an English Garden.
3. Think of something useful for your guests. One of the reasons we chose Didache is because it's something that our guests can use every day as they pray and read Scriptures. They will be reminded daily that it was a souvenir from our wedding. It's also a meaningful souvenir because it's a reminder of our faith which is very important to me and my groom.
Here are useful and unique wedding souvenirs.
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| Salt and Pepper Shaker. Photo source here. |
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| Fit for weddings of couples who love sea creatures, a chrome dolphin bottle opener. Photo source here. |
4. Use your creativity and imagination to personalize your wedding favors/souvenirs. One way to do this is through packaging or by adding details of your wedding or your names/initials to the souvenir itself or to the packaging. You can also choose to make your own wedding souvenirs or favors if you like crafts. Or you can buy generic souvenirs that are related to your theme or story and then personalize them a bit. You can also get a supplier who specializes in wedding souvenirs who can help you come up with one that's unique and perfect for your wedding theme.
For our wedding, my fiance and I personalized our give aways by making our own gift tags. We printed them in nice colored paper with our initials and last names and a short note at the back.
For our wedding, my fiance and I personalized our give aways by making our own gift tags. We printed them in nice colored paper with our initials and last names and a short note at the back.
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| Personalized chocolate bar give away. Photo source here. |
5. Don't break the bank just to impress your guests through your souvenirs. I believe that the people you invite to your wedding day should be people close to you and your future spouse. They are usually immediate family members, extended family members, close relatives and close friends from different circles. Having said that, there certainly is no need to impress these people. In the same way that you decided on a wedding budget, decide on a budget for your souvenirs. Again, the key is it should be something that shows your gratitude to your guests and at the same time something that will remind them of your special day. In our case, one way by which we stayed within our budget was to choose a give away within our budget and make the gift tags and the pouches for the gifts to our principal sponsors while we had the organza pouches for the Didache made at Divisoria.
