One of the few things that both bride and bridegroom can co-decide in a wedding is the wedding favours. Wedding favours are mementos given to the wedding guests as a sign of appreciation from the couple for being there on their special day. The origins of wedding favours come from Italy wherein the couples gave a dessert called Bomboniere which were 5 sugared almonds encased in special boxes. The fiver sugared almonds symbolized Health, Wealth, Happiness, Long Life and Fertility. Traditional ones would still have the 5 sugared almonds given to the guests in nice boxes covered with silk and special ribbon.
These days, wedding favours are as varied as they can be. There are those that are suited mainly for the female guests as well for the males, and there are even wedding favours for children. Some wedding couples would even make the effort to create these favours by themselves, as a sign of their deep appreciation of the guest to be part of their special day.
Some of the interesting wedding favours I have seen were simple ones. A couple giving their guests a CD containing their favorite songs and what it meant to them was an interesting take on wedding favours. There was one wedding which my wife and I attended wherein all the female guests were ask to pick out a ribbon from the wedding cake. It was a lottery type of wedding favor and the winner would get a diamond bracelet as a favour. This was also favorable to the couple as the wife's family owned a jewelry chain. There was another wedding favour wherein all the guests got scented candles and potpourri as well. One of the most extravagant ones I received was from the 30th wedding anniversary of this highly influential and powerful couple. They gave his and her watches whose face had images of the couple. It would have been more perfect if the watches they handed out were the real watches of a certain well known swiss watch company. Later I found out they were imitations. Still, it wasn't so bad and some memento which I may still have somewhere in my closet. I have also seen wedding favours that complemented the theme of the wedding from all things fuschia which included a fuschia fan, lipstick and eyeliner as those for the ladies. The one that I found most cute was that for the kids at this wedding: Sugar models of Disney characters.
Wedding favours are a representation of a thankful couple on their special day. Whatever the favour may be, these are truly appreciated by the guests.