Wedding Favors
The wedding favors give each bride one way by which to show her guests the expected appreciation. Wedding favors are not generally distributed at the actual wedding ceremony. They are actually reception guest favors. Each reception guest should be able to go home with one or more unique favors and keepsakes..
The bride must seek to give her guests favors that they can enjoy and use. Christmas tree balls might make a nice favor at the reception for a December wedding, but not every December wedding. On Christmas Eve in December of 1968, as snow fell heavily in and around Philadelphia, one couple said their marriage vows. That couple did not give guests Christmas tree balls at the wedding reception.
The groom at that wedding was a Jewish rabbi. He had very ecumenical views. He later worked closely with an Interfaith Alliance in California. He and his wife did not, however, approve of any favor idea that called for use of a Christian symbol. They did not feel that their guests would appreciate such a favor.
When someone is older, and has had a chance to attend a number of weddings, then he or she is apt to do a quick evaluation of any wedding favor. He or she would be likely to look for any way to use that favor. As an example of that fact, look at the behavior of one older reception guest at a June wedding in 2007.
That one guest, a woman in her 80s, was quick to see how one of the tiny wedding favors could become a plaything for her year old great granddaughter. She also saw the candy as a possible treat for that toddler. At the same time, she realized that not all of the candy was “right� for a child who had not yet had her second birthday.
She thus spoke with her son, telling him not to give his granddaughter the
almonds that were part of the
wedding favor. The woman’s daughter-in-law, wanted to recognize the wisdom
of the older woman’s suggestion. She thus showed her ability to insure the
safety of the wedding favor; she ate the almonds.