This is an extensive list of unique wedding favor ideas your guest will love! There is everything from matchbooks to macarons, Legos to lottery tickets, and pottery to plants. Of course you may always opt-out of wedding favors, but where is the fun in that when there are so many unique ideas here!
Disclaimer: there will be a variety of unique wedding favor ideas listed, all in varying price-points, and some of them are quite expensive! However, there are ideas here that are DIY and only require some paper and a pen. Enjoy!
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Unique Wedding Favor Ideas
Personalized Letter to Each Guest
Time consuming, but probably the most thoughtful wedding favor I have ever come across! In the letter, explain how much the guest means to you and your partner. Add specific little things about your relationship with them so as to truly make it special. This is inexpensive and memorable!
Edible Wedding Favors
Not necessarily “unique” but edible wedding favors are always a big hit with guests. And leftovers can be enjoyed by the bride and groom without much complaint. Sweet edible wedding favors: custom sugar cookies, favorites candy “bar”, Jordan almonds, gourmet truffles or macarons. Homemade edible wedding favors: honey, vanilla extract, spice rub, hot chocolate mix, limoncello, sourdough rolls, jams and jellies. Other edible wedding favors: “mint-to-be” mints, “perfect blend” coffee, bbq or hot sauces.
Lottery Tickets
This one is blowing up! Guests are being offered a scratch off lottery ticket inside a cute envelope with a sticker reading “For Richer or For Poorer“. Attach a penny and perhaps your sticker reads “We Hope You Get Lucky Tonight“. Again, this one falls into the consumable category that tends to be favorable with most people.
Plant & Flower Lovers
Find customized or local seed packets to offer your guests so they might “watch [your] love grow”. Buy cute envelopes and fill them with seeds from the flowers in the bridal bouquet, wildflowers, local produce, sweet basil, etc. I have also seen people hand out “Thank You” cards where the paper has seeds pressed into it so you can plant the paper and flowers will sprout.
Flower bars are also gaining in popularity. Guests are offered a vessel or wrap to place a selection of flowers and fillers into, creating a bouquet they can take home! Other plant inspired options could be a pine tree saplings, succulents, or plant propagation table with pothos.
Handmade Pottery
Just this last August I attended a wedding where the bride and groom made everyone coffee mugs! They had a sunrise ceremony and we each got to select a handmade mug to enjoy our coffee in while witnessing their vows. It was so cute and personable. Not skilled with a potting wheel? Pinch pots have a small learning curve and could be made into a candle as well.
Candles, Soaps & Diffusers
Speaking of candles, consider offering goods like handmade soaps, diffusers, linen sprays, or candles with a signature scent. Similar to edible wedding favors, these options are consumable and should you be left with a bundle after your big day, it’s more of a blessing than a curse.
Book Lovers
Give out your own spin on “Blind Date with A Book” and offer copies of your favorite books! Have each book wrapped in brown paper with a hint of the book inside written across the folds. Keep them all the same, or offer a variety of each partner’s favorite books. New or used books are acceptable. Another option that’s probably less expensive would be custom or DIY bookmarks.
Kid At Heart: Legos
This one had me literally laughing-out-loud! How fun would it be to offer your guests a “Build your own Lego figurine” station! Have bins of Lego bricks in a variety of colors, shapes, facial expressions, etc. Your names or wedding date could be on the base plate to help remind guests where they made their figure.
Matchbooks & Playing Cards
Matchbooks are looking like they will be a big hit in 2025 for unique wedding guest favors! They are small, consumable and it’s easy to customize the packaging. Some venues do not allow matches, so a similar item could be playing cards. For the playing cards, keep the customization limited to dates, monograms or names. It might be weird for people to shuffle your faces…
Live Mini Painted Portraits
This is not only a unique wedding favor idea, but it is also a fantastic guest experience! Host a live artist offering mini painted portraits, water colors or caricatures. Vendors can paint your guests on the spot and provide them with the finished artwork to take home.
Portrait Studio
A “Portrait Studio” includes a professional photographer and frame-worthy portrait print available to your guests before they go home. The studio takes care of staging the scene, posing your guests, editing the portraits on the spot, and printing photos for guests to take home that same night. Based in California, but willing to fly anywhere, is The Vanity Portrait Studio. Reach out to them for a quote on incorporating a portrait studio at your wedding reception!
Weather & Setting Related Items
Is your wedding during the peak of summer? Offer your guests chapstick, paper parasols, straw hand fans, wood hand fans, or hats. If placed at the welcome table, guests can use these items during the ceremony and their’s to keep! Are you considering an outdoor wedding? Insect repellent might be a good one to offer since guests rarely keep that in their back pocket.
Hangover Kit or Rally Bag
Create your own, or purchase pre-filled wedding favors like the bag seen here, for a next day recovery kit offered to your guests upon departure. Contents could include Liquid IV or EmergenC, mini medicine packs, gum or mints, floss, wipes, etc.
More Wedding Favor Ideas
- Photo Booth + Unlimited Film | self explanatory & a big hit!
- Pet Friendly | dog bones, cat treats, etc.
- Drink Related | wine markers, coasters, koozies, bottle openers, shot glasses, etc.
- Holiday Ornaments | ornaments customized with either wedding date, initials, silhouettes, etc.
- “What A Pair” Socks | socks customized with either wedding date, initials, faces, etc.
- Mini Sewing Kits | kits customized with “we tied the knot” or “sew in love”
- Signature Playlist | mini records, CDs or QR code linked to Spotify
- Guitar Picks | picks customized with either wedding date or initials
- Crystals | rose quartz is said to be connected to unconditional love
Conclusion
I hope there is something you were able to take away from these Unique Wedding Favor Ideas your guests will LOVE. Remember to Pin this post for when you are ready for next steps.
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Love these! When we got married 6 years ago, we did the scratch off lottery tickets and those were a huge hit!
Very cool to hear how some ideas stick around to become classics!
I’d never even heard of some of these, but they sound so fun!! I especially like the seeds/plants or blind date with a book ideas. So creative!
What a fun post! I love the handmade pottery idea 🙂
Great ideas! I’m inspired by these ideas for party favors and end of year gifts as well!