14 Cute and Affordable Wedding Favour Ideas

Wedding favours are small tokens given to each guest by the bride and groom. They are normally presented at the wedding breakfast, on the table next to each guest’s place card. Sometimes, favours are even used instead of place cards (each one being printed with the guest’s name).

Almost any small gift or treat can act as a wedding favour. It doesn’t have to be expensive. You’re already paying for your guests to have an entire day of great food, dancing and entertainment, after all. A favour simply serves as a kind little ‘thank you for coming’ gesture.
Traditional wedding favours were sugared almonds, and these are still used at many weddings today. Edible wedding favours are the most popular kind - they’re inexpensive and enjoyed by all. But if you’d rather give your guests something they can keep, it doesn’t have to be pricey.

We’ve made a list of our 14 favourite fun and budget-friendly wedding favour ideas. But the sky is your limit - feel free to let your imagination run wild!

1. Chocolates

Everybody loves chocolate, so what better way to say thank you than giving each guest a sweet treat? You can buy very reasonably priced mini chocolate favours online. Alternatively, buy a few boxes of your favourite chocolates - Ferrero Rocher or Quality Street, for example - and divvy them up between your guests.

If you have a label-maker, you can even print out a little message of thanks - or your names and your wedding date - to stick onto each one. Put one or two in each guest’s place for them to enjoy after (or before!) their meal.

You can even make your own chocolates - it’s easy and cheap. All you need are bars of chocolate and an ice-cube mould in a fun shape (e.g. hearts). Simply melt the chocolate down, fill the trays and pop them out!

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2. Tea or Coffee

Tiny portions of of loose-leaf tea or coffee beans make adorable and cheap wedding favours, and they’re easy to make at home. You’ll just need some small drawstring bags - hessian or organza bags work well. Alternatively, use mini plastic or glass bottles.
Then, choose your preferred tea or coffee, and buy a bulk package of it. Divide it up into each little bag or bottle and use each one as a wedding favour. Place a sticker on each one to let your guests know what’s inside - or simply write on the bottle with a permanent marker.

Individually-wrapped teabags also make cute wedding favours, and they’re a great time-saver as you don’t have to make anything yourself.

3. Scratch Cards

Scratch cards make brilliant fun and cheap wedding favours. They’re only £1 - £1 each and available at almost every newsagent and supermarket. All you have to do is buy enough for each of your guests - as well as you and your partner, of course - you don’t want to miss out on the fun!
Most types of scratch cards display the chance of winning a prize, so try to pick one that has decent odds. Put a note with each one instructing your guests not to ‘scratch off’ until a certain time (e.g. during the toasts). Then, you can all scratch together, and find out whether anyone has won a prize- drinks on the winner, of course!

4. Homemade Baked Treats

If you are a dab hand in the kitchen, why not bake your own treats for your wedding guests? For example: a batch of cupcakes, mini meringues, cookies, macarons, or a pan of brownies. Fudge squares also make excellent wedding favours: you can put a few into a cute cellophane bag and wrap it with a coloured ribbon.
You can kill two birds with one stone here, too: a tower of baked goods can also double as a wedding cake alternative. Professionally-baked wedding cakes can be quite expensive, so you can save a lot of money by making something yourself.

5. Drink Tokens

Most weddings in the U.K., by contract to the U.S., aren’t open-bar. Guests have to pay for most of their own drinks throughout the day (with the exception of the toasting drink, and wine and water provided on the tables).

Buying each of your wedding guests a drink of their choice - such as a beer or spirit and dash - is a great way to say “thank you for coming”. To turn a free drink into a wedding favour, you can use wedding drink tokens. Simply give one to each guest, and they’ll be able to exchange it for a drink at the bar. Of course, you have to clear this with your venue first!

6. Wildflower Seeds

Miniature wildflower seed packets are not only adorable, but they’re great for the environment, too. They’re one of the best wedding favours as they give each guest a fun activity to do - planting flowers in their garden or around their neighbourhood. Write a message on each one for your guests, explaining what they are.

Wildflowers are beautiful and fascinating to watch grow. You can get bee-friendly seed packets, too, which help feed the country’s native pollinators. And what’s more, each time your guests look at their lovely flowers, they’ll remember your big day. It’s certainly the favour that keeps on giving - especially as the flowers will soon spread and return each year.

7. Mini Soaps

Mini soaps make wonderfully cute wedding favours. They come in a huge variety of colours, scents, and shapes. You can get rounds, hearts, stars or flower-shaped soaps, and they last a surprisingly long time.

To save money, you can buy larger bars of soap and cut them up yourself into little favour-sized squares. If you’re a crafty sort of person, you can even make your own soap! All you’ll need is soap base, fragrance and dye, and an ice cube tray or soap mould. If you prefer, you can even make your own candles using wax instead of a soap base.

8. Personalised Pens

Personalised pens and pencils are surprisingly cheap - some brands cost as little as 10p each, as long as you buy them in bulk. They make ideal tokens of thanks and mementos of your big day. As they have a practical use, they won’t just sit gathering dust on your guests’ shelves (unless they’d prefer to keep them forever, which they just might)!

You can have each one engraved or printed with your names, and your wedding date. If you want to go the extra mile, you could even inscribe each one with your guest’s names. Then, you can use the pens themselves as place cards- saving an extra expense!

9. Fridge Magnets

Empty, clear plastic fridge magnets are cheap and widely available. You can customise them by putting a small photo, illustration, or message of thanks into each one. To save time, you can put the same picture into each one - or you can customise each one with your guest’s name, or a personalised note to them.
Give a fridge magnet to each of your guests, and they’ll be able to keep it on their fridge forever, reminding them of your special day. They can even reuse them with their own photos if they want to!

10. Sweetie Bags

Love is sweet, so bags of candy make ideal wedding favours. From jelly beans, to love hearts, to mints, to sugar mice and lollipops - there are so many sweet treats you can choose from, and each one can be used to say ‘thank you’ to your guests.

You can buy miniature bags of sweets, or buy a bulk pack and fill your own bags. Or, for a fun wedding reception activity, why not make a wedding sweets table and give each of your guests a bag to help themselves? That way, they can each choose their favourites. We have a guide to wedding sweet tables if you wan to learn more.

11. Origami

Origami is a Japanese paper-folding art. It’s tricky, but a lot of fun. Miniature origami kits are incredibly cheap and simple to make. All you’ll need are some coloured squares of paper, and some instructions, which are easily available online.
Give each of your guests the supplies to make their own origami cat, bird, or frog, for example. They’ll all have fun making their paper creations after the wedding breakfast (or in between courses). Or, if you’d prefer, you can make your own origami creations and place them ready-made on the tables.

12. Pocket Money Toys

If you’re a child at heart - and who isn’t, really? - then pocket money toys would make great wedding favours. Your guests will have great fun playing with them (especially once they’ve had a drink or two). They’re cheap to buy, and available at every toy shop and party shop. You can also buy them wholesale online - a great budget-friendly option.
There are so many options out there. Yoyos, little plastic dinosaurs, sticky aliens, water snakes, tubes of bubbles, brain teaser puzzles, foam gliders, racing cars - the possibilities are endless. You can either get all of your guests the same toy, or buy a huge variety and let your guests swap and share.

13. Mini Bottles of Alcohol

If your wedding is more of a grown-up affair, miniature bottles of spirits (50ml each, enough for two shots or one double) would make perfectly elegant favours. But the branded mini bottles are often quite expensive if bought individually.

So to save money, buy your own empty glass bottles, and fill them up yourself. You can use any spirit you’d like. And for the kids at your wedding, include them by giving them mini bottles of juice or fizzy pop instead. (But whatever you do, don’t mix them up!)

Use a label maker to label each one, or make brown paper tags and tie them on with string. If you’re feeling creative, you can even write your guests’ names on the bottles.

14. Wedding Soundtrack

Music is the language of the soul, and everybody loves a good tune. So why not give your guests the gift of music? You can get USB flash drives in bulk, for around £2 to £3 each. Or if you’d prefer, use blank CDs - they may be a little old-fashioned now, but they’re a lot cheaper (around £5-7 per 10 CDs).
Get enough for one for each of your guests, and load them with songs from your wedding soundtrack. You can include the songs you walked down the aisle to, and danced to at the reception. Every time your guests listen to the songs, they’ll be transported back to your big day! You can also have USB drives engraved - so if you want to go the extra mile, you can put your wedding date on each one, or your guests’ names.