Suck on this, favors!

Favors are stupid. Plain stupid. But that's just my (strong) opinion on the matter.* I've never been to a wedding where there was something waiting at my place that made me say "cool!" Usually its just little tokens that cost the couple way more than they are worth. To have a worthwhile favor it would probably have to be something meaningful to the couple, useful or tasty to the guests, and not be something people say "wtf do I do with this now?" And those kinda things cost more than I care to spend on my guests (sorry, guests!). We are already feeding them and providing a party for them to have fun at - they don't need a silly token from us.

So that's my biz on favors. BUT I do like one 'favor' idea and that is the donation favor where you can put a little note on the tables saying, "In lieu of favors, a donations has been made to the Bomb Ass Foundation of Hope and Love" (or whatever charity you choose). We thought about doing that....then decided just to skip favors...

UNTIL I heard an awesome idea that I'm totally stealing and think you should all steal too! (if you want to, of course. no pressure!)

It goes like this. Each place setting is given 3 (or 5 or 7 or however many) beans with some simple instructions. Guests follow these instructions to a table where three jars sit. Above each jar is a description of a charity - what it is, what they do, what donations are used for, etc. Each bean that the guests have is worth a dollar donation, and each guests get to decide where they give their dollars/beans to! With less than 100 guests, if we give 5 beans at each place setting, that means a total of roughly 500 bucks for donations. I'm definitely willing to do that instead of giving some little piece of plastic that will end up in the trash.

The lady who shared this idea with me said the guests all had a great time reading about each charity and making their choices. It got them involved and made them feel a part of the donations.

We are always looking for more ways to bring our guests into the day, and I think this is a great one! I'm really looking forward to picking the charities, and I hope the guests have a fun time deciding as well.

xoxo,
Jen

(*Note: While I think favors are stupid, I'm not saying you are stupid if you are going to have favors at your wedding. I'm positive that favors are part of the WIC of pressure, madness, and unnecessary things and that no one should provide them unless they want to and have found a favor they would enjoy giving! The End.)