Tag: wedding planning

THE HUNT FOR THE PERFECT WEDDING FAVOR—AT THE BEST PRICE

Once you feel you have your budget set, you can start looking for appropriate gifts. There is a dazzling array of websites, on this topic, so you are sure to find several wedding favors you really like. The key thing is to work out your budget and stick to it, so that your research will not be wasted time and effort. If you start to second-guess yourself, you will have to start all over again with your wedding favor budget and research.

Many websites which feature wedding favors will offer a number of search parameters to help you narrow down your search for the right wedding favor. Sort by unit price, by keyword, and possibly also by color.  Print out the ones you really like; often they will have manufacturer’s details and a unique identifier number.

Once you have narrowed it down to 2 or three wedding favors, dig a bit deeper again. What is included in the price at each site you have found the favor at: gift box, free wrapping, and so on. Comparison shop at different sites and even start a spreadsheet noting down these differences so you can compare side by side.

There are other ways to make your wedding favors even more affordable.

Ask the site if they reduced pricing for bulk orders. Or, if they are just a middleman,  not the distributor, see if you can contact the distributor directly to ask about any cost breaks. You might even consider contacting the manufacturer to see if it is possible to place a bulk order with them directly.

Available discounts may not always be advertised on wedding favor websites or in their advertisements. There is no harm in asking for a discount, especially if it is a large order.

And in this day and age, when every penny counts, they might be more than glad to shave a few cents off or give free shipping if the value of the order is high enough.

The world of wedding favors changes rapidly too according to fashion, and seasons. You may be able to get a closeout or discontinued line of wedding favors for a fraction of the price. If you are planning ahead well in advance for, say, a Valentine’s Wedding, you might start looking the year before to see what bargains you can pick up (then you just have to worry aout storage!)

As for customization, on the whole, try to avoid it unless you are getting a really good deal, since it can all add up. If you must go for that something a little bit special, try ribbon printed with your names and dates, which can be used for wrapping any gift, for flowers and bouquets, balloons, whatever.  Go for your wedding colors, and look at the price by the yard or roll, and make sure you check how many yards are on each roll.  Again, comparison shop for everything and stick to your budget.

Now that we have setting your budget for your wedding favors, we can get to the fun part-selecting your wedding favors!
Setting Your Budget for Your Wedding Favors, 3 parts, 1397 words

YOUR WEDDING FAVOR BUDGET CALCULATIONS

So the first thing to consider when setting a budget for your wedding favors is how many guests you plan on having at your wedding. Please note that this is not to be confused with the number of guests you are inviting to the wedding.

For example, if you have a large extended family with many out of town relatives, and you are planning a large wedding, you will probably feel obligated to invite all of them even if you are quite sure they will not come to the wedding.

If you are fairly sure these guests will not be able to come to your wedding, then make an estimate of the number of guests you are realistically expecting to show up at the wedding. This will also be a crucial piece of information for the caterers, especially closer to the time. Keep track of all your invitations, and the RSVP responses carefully.

Then decide how many favors you would like, and add 10% to 15% more for ‘just in case’ and also for anyone you might want to send one in the mail to even if they are not able to attend the wedding, for example, someone who gets ill at the last minute, who gives you a particularly nice present you want to acknowledge with more than just a thank you card, one each for the wedding party, in addition to any individual gifts you might want to give them, and so on.

THE POSSIBLE HIDDEN COSTS OF WEDDING FAVORS

Once you establish this notional number of how many wedding favors you will need, you can set a budget in a couple of different ways. One way to do it is to determine an amount you can afford and are willing to spend on favors, and then divide this number by the number of guests you are expecting. This will let you know how much you can afford to spend on each favor.

It is important to include tax, shipping, gift wrapping, perhaps even ribbons and candy as decoration or fillers, and all other incidentals in this per favor price.

Another way to set a budget for the favors is to begin searching around for favors and get some estimates on the wedding favors which you find most appealing. There is a huge variety available now, suited to all budgets, but it is also easy to be dazzled and lose perspective. By setting your budget and sticking to it, you will be much less likely to overspend.

The second consideration is what seems appropriate. The gifts can reflect your taste, the theme of the wedding, and should hopefully be nice enough to be used or displayed, not thrown away, the third key consideration in selecting a wedding favor.

Setting Your Budget for Your Wedding Favors- Part 3 will deal with hunting for the right wedding favor at the right price.

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Shop now at the #1 Wedding Favors website for all your wedding and shower favor needs.

Great prices, personalization, fast shipping:
MyWeddingFavors.com

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Setting your budget for your wedding favors is a very important part of planning a wedding. Many couples make the mistake of underestimating the cost of the wedding favors, and not allotting a part of the budget specifically for this purpose.

As we said in our introductory article, you first need to decide if you are going to give wedding favors to your guests, and you need to decide it early on in the wedding planning process.

Not budgeting for your wedding favors can be a real headache down the line, especially if you wait until the last minute to shop for favors. And particularly if you are going to need wedding favors for a large number of guests at the wedding reception.

This article will deal with the importance of setting a budget for your wedding favors, and will provide some hints and tips for making wedding favors more affordable without seeming cheap.

WEDDING FAVORS AND YOUR BUDGET

So let’s do the math, shall we? By now you have already started pricing what things are going to cost for your dream wedding.

The cost of renting a catering hall and paying for food for your wedding reception are going to be amongst the most expensive items to consider when planning a wedding.

Back in the day, a lot of people assumed they would ‘make it up in gifts’. Weddings have changed a lot since then, as has gift giving.

In addition to the catering hall, your clothes and those of your wedding part, gratuities and other incidental expenses, flowers and transportation can also contribute to the high price of weddings.

However, these are not the only factors to consider. The cost of wedding favors should also be carefully itemized in your budget once you have made up your mind whether you want to give wedding favors at your reception.

You should realize that whatever wedding favor you choose, it is going to be a cost per guest item. This means you will have to pay a unit price per wedding favor, then multiplying this price by the number of guests at the wedding.

This means even if you select a favor which costs $2, you will still wind up paying $1000 for wedding favors if you are planning a wedding with 500 guests. You can see how this price can quickly add up and wreak havoc on a couple’s wedding budget.

Setting Your Budget for Your Wedding Favors- Part 2 will help you with your budget calculations.

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Shop now at the #1 Wedding Favors website for all your wedding and shower favor needs.

Great prices, personalization, fast shipping:
MyWeddingFavors.com

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AFFORDABLE WEDDING FAVORS
One simple way to make wedding favors more affordable is to give a wedding favor of a single real or silk flower to each guest. If you are already planning to have floral centerpieces you can discuss your options with your florist beforehand.

You will likely be able to negotiate an affordable price for this favor because you are already purchasing your centerpieces from the florist. Selecting one flower used in the centerpiece and having your florist supply enough of these to give as favors is a really nice way to tie the centerpieces and the favors together.

Alternately you might want to give each of your guests an artificial version of one of the flowers used in your centerpiece. These can be rather inexpensive and can also serve as a lasting reminder of your wedding.

You can add to this by getting ribbon printed with your special day’s details on it, again in the matching colors of the floral arrangement or your wedding’s chosen colors, and have the ribbon printed by the yard for the flower favors, and for any special gifts you might want to give to your bridesmaids and groomsmen.

Another way to keep wedding favors more affordable is to discuss your options with a wedding favor distributors. Many of them likely have closeout items available as well as discount items. Closeout items are items which have been discontinued, but the distributor may have enough in stock for all of the guests at your wedding.

Wedding favor distributors might be willing to offer you a discount if you are purchasing a large number of favors.

For the moment, you just need to make up your mind. If no, no problem.

If you have decided to go with a wedding favor, pencil in a notional amount in your budget to cover all costs, unit price plus extras per person (say $5) and start setting that aside. (You might also want to add the price of the thank you cards and postage to your budget sheet while you are at it.)

In our further articles, we will be giving you more specifics on the kinds of wedding favors available, and how to choose the one that is right for you and your quests.
What to Do About Wedding Favors?

3 parts, 1180 words

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Shop now at the #1 Wedding Favors website for all your wedding and shower favor needs.

Great prices, personalization, fast shipping:
MyWeddingFavors.com

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WEDDING FAVORS AND YOUR BUDGET
You may wonder why a couple would consider not giving wedding favors at their wedding. In most cases, the simple and obvious answer to this question is that the couple is working within a very tight budget and is afraid that purchasing wedding favors for each of the guests will put them over-budget.

This is a very valid concern, but the good news is that there is a wide variety of wedding favor price ranges now, to help cater to all budgets and sizes of parties.

However, before you start shopping and thinking the item is ‘just’ $2, remember that you will have to buy one each for every guest on your list. You also need to consider whether or not your favor will have to be wrapped, decorated, stuffed with candy, and so forth.

So while the wedding favors may be fairly inexpensive, this unit price must be multiplied by the number of guests in attendance. So, using our example above, you may select a favor which costs only $2 per favor, but you may be expecting 400 guests at your wedding.

This means the costs of the favors alone will be $800. And as we said, may not even include the costs associated with boxing, wrapping and decorating the wedding favors. Plus possible shipping to people who could not make it to the actual wedding or reception, but whom you might feel you definitely want to give a gift to.

Then there is the additional question of customization. Many places now offer wedding favors with names, dates and so forth on the gift itself to mark the special day, but the number of words, colors, fonts, and so on, can all start to add up if you are not careful.

Budgets are of course a key aspect of any wedding (sorry, all you romance lovers out there, but it is TRUE!), so you need to start thinking right now about the question of wedding favors to make sure the cost is incorporated in your budget now. We all know that everyone wants a memorable wedding day, but remember that it is also only ONE DAY in the rest of your lives, so getting up to your neck in debt over ‘trinkets’ is not the best way to start that new life.

But for those of you who feel they really want to give a wedding favor as a token of gratitude, it is important to remember that wedding favors do not need to be expensive or extravagant.

What to Do About Wedding Favors? Part 3 will talk about affordable wedding favors.

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Shop now at the #1 Wedding Favors website for all your wedding and shower favor needs.

Great prices, personalization, fast shipping:
MyWeddingFavors.com

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There are lots of different ways to incorporate Spring into your Wedding. Here is a list of ideas:

St Patrick’s Day

Easter:

Easter eggs, easter bunnies, chicks, chocolate, lambs

Greek Orthodox Easter

colors like yellow, cream, gold, as well as white

May Day-green and gold, natural settings, carpets of flowers, ribbons, the May pole, braiding, the May Queen, or Queen of the May

Floral Designs: daisies, tulips, crocuses, daffodils, narcissi

Pastel Colors, pink, pale green, pale blue, pale yellow

Natural backgrounds and settings

Back to nature destination weddings and/or honeymoons

Bridemaid’s dresses in pastels, not too neon!

Men’s accents to their suits in spring colors

Decorating the Church or wedding location in spring colors

Flower petals for confetti

Spring themed wedding favors

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Shop now at the #1 Wedding Favors website for all your wedding and shower favor needs.

Great prices, personalization, fast shipping:
MyWeddingFavors.com

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