No wedding favors- tacky?

I'm set on not having favors now. I know some people view it as a way to "thank" your guest for attending, but every person who attends will be receiving a thank you card in the mail. That should suffice.

So true @amanda!

I am 86ing the favors myself. It is just extra money that will get thrown away. If they want a wedding day keepsake, keep the invitation!

You're right about that Susan M!

I'm doing them only because I have most of the stuff for them already and I don't want to not use the stuff I have to save a little bit more $. Since my wedding is sooo tiny, it doesn't really matter at this point, what's 20 favors after all, especially since I need to make the chocolate candies to decorate our cake - since I have to make them anyway, I may as well make enough to do favors with.

Not having favors is not tacky at all. They get pricey. We are doing cookies (homemade).

No one will miss them.

I don't want to waste money on a simple favor just for the sake of having favors. My FH and I were thinking of making donations. We are going to choose three charities that mean something to us and have a placard on each table describing the reason we chose those charities. We are also considering having each guest choose which charity they would like to donate to as their favor so that they feel some ownership of the donation.

Instead of doing wedding favors, I've decided to just have a candy buffet. It will have Chinese take-out boxes with our initial on it and it will be both of our favorite candies! I am so excited for it.

We're doing simple organza drawstring bags filled w/ m&m's in wedding colors, 1/3 printed w/ theme symbol and 2/3 plain, plus 2 hershey's kisses in each w/ stickers on bottoms displaying date and our initials. No biggie- edible- easy. (But doing because we WANTED to say "thanks for coming" NOT because we felt we "had" to due to etiquette rules). BTW- have a tag on the bags saying "THANK YOU" and our names- as that's what the favor is, a small immediate TY. (But written notes later can cover that as well). I say do what you like!

I really dont think anyone will miss them.. my MOH still have boxes of hers that no one took sitting out her house

I don't think its tacky. The only thing I did was make fans, only because it was suppose to be warm that day and we are going to have an outdoor wedding. But according to the weather reports is suppose to be a nice 75 degrees, plus the spot we chose has lots of shade trees, so I will give them anyways. I was going to do favors, but it was costing close to $200. No way was I going to pay that much.

I am planning my step-daughters wedding, and instead of doing a "traditional" wedding favor, we are having a candy buffet. You get different sizes of glass jars and fill them with different kinds of candy. I bought white paper bags and had labels made that read "Love Is Sweet". Each guest can fill a bag with candy and that is the favor. It is getting very popular here in Virginia.

I am so glad I read this. I have been racking my brain on what to do for favors...now think I may not have any....I was thinking of doing a candy buffet anyway....

I am glad I am not the only one who was thinking this. At this point we are looking to cut costs as much as possible. Like many people have said, no one really keeps those any way. I've been to too many weddings to count and I can honestly say I do not have one wedding favor from any of them.

We're paying for EVERYTHING ourselves so we're skipping them too and putting more money into a fun rehearsal dinner and an open bar. Favors seem like a waste.

Neither are we! I feel much better after reading this thread.

I have never been to a wedding where there wasnt any favors given out to the guests.. . .we decided to do wine bottles with a nice label on them for everyone. . . I am now also thinking about doing a nice candy display for the everyone too.. especially for the kids at the wedding. . wouldnt want them to feel left out!

Glad to see it looks like most people agree that not doing wedding favors are okay. I'm skipping them myself to save money on our small budget. I only remember the favors from my dad and stepmother's wedding because they saved one of the favor boxes as a memento. I do remember quite a few of their guests leaving them behind. Some ate the candy and left the box and others didn't even open them at all. I'm worried a few guests (the real critical about everything types) may find it rude or tacky to forgo favors but hey I'm the only one paying for it not them. I'll be allowing guests to take home the centerpieces, vases of flowers, and wax LED candles in lieu of individual favors. I'm not allowed to have ANY kind of shared/distributed food at my venue anyway so I'd be locked into having a non edible type of favor, which poses higher cost and the question of what is unisex and appropriate for all ages attending?

Personally, I believe it's tacky not to have wedding favors. When your guests give you an envelope they expect to get a favor. (Unless your donating for a good cause.) I come from an Italian family and I have NEVER seen wedding favors left behind on the table. But, they are usually good gifts like plates, icecream scoops and other useful kitchen items that I see my relatives use over and over again throughout the years. If you can't afford to get married save up until you can.