Wedding Favors

That's why when it comes to choosing a favor for that special day, it has to be as unique as you are.

Finding the right favor is a matter of personal taste and budget, and there is an array of choices. Here are a few places to begin:

Favours Internationale of Cohasset can add a cosmopolitan flair to your wedding. Specializing in wedding favors that include imported and domestic gift items, Favours Internationale creates customized keepsakes, such as caches made from Italian tulle for $1.79 each and heart-shaped porcelain ornaments for $10 each.

Owner Theodora Lelecas attaches gift items, such as a gold and silver plated sugar scoop from Italy, to a cache of almonds for $5.45. Or she wraps a fine Irish rose doily around potpourri for $4.35, creating a flower-like presentation at each table setting. Lelecas also recommends hand-blown cocktail stirrers, which can be customized with the couple's name and the date of their wedding on a piece of paper placed inside the stirrer before it is topped with a glass swan.

Many couples look to Winston Flowers, with locations in Boston, Chestnut Hill and Wellesley, for distinctive floral designs and wedding keepsakes that will continue to grow along with their love for each other. Creative director Bill Reardon says Winston Flowers can design floral centerpieces that incorporate mementos for the guests. For instance, designers at Winston Flowers have used teardrop bud vases or mint julep cups with seasonal flowers as centerpieces and/or accents at each place setting that the guests can take home as a remembrance.

Another idea is giving guests a bulb or sapling that can be replanted for future enjoyment. One such wedding placed mini crocus bulbs in mossed pots, for $10 to $15 each, around a spring centerpiece. Similarly, Winston Flowers created a winter wonderland for one couple by arranging miniature blue saplings wrapped in burlap and raffia, for $15 to $20 each, around a birch and white juniper centerpiece.

Arlene Cronk of Invitations & Co. in Boston says many couples select favors based on their interests and the theme or location of their wedding. She recalls a couple married on an island off the coast of Maine who gave each of their guests a selection of locally made jellies. Another couple, who were avid golfers, gave their guests personalized golf tees, at the price of $1 to $2 per package of 10 to 20 tees, as their wedding favor.

Cronk says picture frames are also popular choices. Serving as both the place card and the wedding favor, picture frames kill two birds with one stone, and ranging from $1.50 to $10, picture frames can accommodate a variety of budgets. Following the same theme, some guests are given color pictures of the couple as keepsakes, for $1 to $1.50.

If you have a knack for crafting your own wedding favors, The Big Party! is filled with the materials you need to get started. For ideas and inspiration, roam the aisles of one of the store's many locations in the Boston area. There are ceramic swans, vases and baskets, ranging from $1 to $2.50 each, that can hold candies, potpourri or bird seed. Likewise, there are plastic swans, slippers and champagne glasses, for 20 to 70 cents each. You will also find packages of tulle and ribbon, in a rainbow of colors, for caches that match the color scheme of your wedding. If you need guidance, refer to "Creating the Very Best Party Favors.'' For $4.98, the book explains what materials are needed and how to create quick and easy favors on your own.

Many couples are selecting sweets as their wedding favors. La Trousseau Floral and Bridal Services in Medford specializes in gold- and silver-plated boxes and baskets filled with fudge, almonds, gold coins or biscotti, ranging in price from $3 to $9 per favor. With 22 flavors, such as walnut, cranberry and pina colada, fudge is the most popular treat to fill La Trousseau's baskets and boxes, says wedding consultant Nina Elderkin.

Cronk of Invitations & Co. says many couples are giving personalized candy bars to their guests for around $1.35 per bar with an order of 100 or more. She also has seen many orders for mints in personalized mint boxes for under a dollar.

There are boundless ideas for wedding favors. As Lelecas of Favours Internationale says, wedding favors are remembrances and meant to acknowledge each friend and relative who has come to share in the joyous occasion. "The guests eat the food and enjoy the nice music, but then tend to forget the wedding," says Lelecas. "If they have a nice sugar scoop, for instance, they remember the event all over again."