Gone are the days of boring personalized shot glasses and mini chocolates! Wedding favors have become increasingly unique and less unremarkable in recent years, especially at gay weddings. The favors are the last little piece of you and your partner that you give to your guests, so they should be as special as you are! Here are 20 unique gay wedding favor ideas to inspire you.
What Are Wedding Favors?
Wedding favors are small gifts that each guest receives as a token of appreciation for coming to celebrate with the happy couple. It’s a small thank you for taking the time and effort to attend. They are usually handed out towards the end of the wedding, put out onto a display area where guests can help themselves, or placed on each guest’s table setting. Wedding favors typically used to be a small bag of chocolates, sweets, or candied nuts to give your guests a small snack on their journeys home. Fancier ones would be some sort of engraved item such as a shot glass or handkerchief.
Are Wedding Favors Necessary?
Wedding favors are not necessary but they are very common at weddings. Your wedding means your choice, so whether you want to include them or not is completely up to you. You may have activities and items instead of the favors such as sparklers, confetti guns, and hand fans for your guests to use around the wedding. You may opt to ditch the wedding favors altogether which is completely fine too! If it doesn’t work for you and your gay wedding, remember you are free to alter it to fit your dream!
Midnight Snack Wedding Favor Ideas
Popcorn Cone
Send your guests home with a cute little cone of popcorn that will satisfy their cravings while travelling back home after a day of dancing and drinking!
Cone of Chips
A small bag of salty chips is perfect for weary guests to take on their way home, you can even pair this with mini burgers for an adorable little takeaway meal!
Doughnut Bag
Sugared, iced, or jam-filled, whichever way you present them we are sure they are going to be a hit!
Pick N’ Mix
For an interactive wedding favor experience, set up a vintage sweet cart where guests can go and fill a small bag with retro sweets to take home!
Espresso Bar
This one is a little different but there is no doubt going to be guests that are getting a little sleepy towards the end of the celebrations, so a way to perk everyone up for their journeys home will be to have a coffee cart where guests can take a to-go coffee or even just some artisan coffee beans home for the morning. (definitely needed after all that drinking and dancing!)
Wedding Favor Memorabilia Ideas
Cocktail Kit
Similar to the idea below but this time boozy! Having a signature cocktail for the wedding is already a great idea, but carry that through by gifting your guests their own cocktail-making kit which they can take home and try for themselves.
Deconstructed Wedding Cake
We know that wedding cake was a major hit, so why not give your guests the opportunity to try to make a mini version themselves! Take the flavors you used in your wedding cake to create a small jar of deconstructed cake mix that only requires the guests to get stuck in! Not only is it two gifts in one, but it also gives your guests an interactive way to remember the wedding. Get your guests to take pictures of their attempts and post them under a unique hashtag, group chat, or on the wedding website!
Themed Temporary Tattoos
Depending on the theme of your wedding, you can send your guests home with a cute little temporary tattoo or even have a henna booth where guests can get a small design before leaving.
Soundtrack
Let our list of Top 50 Songs To Add To Your Gay Wedding Playlist inspire you!
Mini Scented Candle
There are so many ways to bring ambience to a wedding. A common way is having scented candles burning around the venue for a unique aroma. Or even just the fresh flowers that are used around the venue give it a distinct smell. One of the main ways we associate memory is with different smells, so gift your guests miniature candles that are scented with the aromatics or flowers used at the wedding – they will be transported back to that laughter-filled day!
Unique Wedding Favor Gift Ideas
Grow-Your-Own Gifts
We love gifts that keep on giving, so something like a herb growing kit is perfect! It’s not only interactive and will have your guests being reminded of your special day every time they water it, but it also gives them ingredients to use continuously!
Seed Packets
Similar to the suggestion above but the main difference is that you gift your guests a packet of seeds that represent the flowers used at your wedding and your guests can scatter them wherever they like!
Honeymoon Tasters
For those who want to include your guests in all the wedding celebrations – even on the honeymoon – then this idea is for you! Say you’re going to Italy for your honeymoon; you can gift miniature bottles of Italian olive oil, wine, or Limoncello from the region you are travelling to. Similarly, if you are going to Jamaica then you can give your guests a mini bottle of jerk sauce etc…
Seasonal Gifts
For winter you can give your guests deconstructed hot cocoa. For summer you could give your guests mini punnets of fresh berries! And for spring you could give your guests mini jars of local honey.
Hangover Kits
Offer your guests the choice of either this option or the one below. With this option, you can include painkillers, an electrolyte packet, a coffee packet, and other items needed to help nurse a hangover.
Self Care Kits
Gay weddings are so much fun but can leave your guests feeling worn out from a long day of being dressed up, dancing, and sore cheeks from smiling. A thoughtful way to bring your guests’ energy levels back up is by creating a cute self-care kit complete with face masks, essential oils, calming teas, etc…
Mini Fragrances
Another quirky idea for a gay wedding favor is to create a unisex scent that is bottled into vintage mini bottles that guests can take home. We relate many memories with specific scents that trigger nostalgia. It’s a perfectly unique gift that your guests will be raving about and others will want to steal for their own wedding.
Printed Poems
You may have a particular poem read at your gay wedding during the ceremony or reception and you probably spent quite a bit of time choosing the perfect one. Have your guests take a printed version home that’s set in a picture frame (another two gifts in one option!).
Pressed Flower Print
The flowers used in your gay wedding can be captured in many different ways, but we think having a pressed flower print with a sweet message in a picture frame is the perfect subtle gift for guests to hang in their home without being too wedding-centric.
Mini Tambourine
These can be given out as guests enter the ceremony or the reception, depending on when you would prefer guests to be making some noise! It’s a great way to get guests involved and liven up the atmosphere.
Now that you know more about unique gay wedding favors, it’s time to think about gifts for the wedding party. Check out our 10 Gift Ideas For The Wedding Party At A Gay Wedding.
Author: Chante Mclaughlin
Creative Executive for GayandLesbianWeddings.com
