Wedding Favor Costs (4 Factors to Consider & Cost Breakdown)
Though generally smaller than the costs of photography and wedding gowns, understanding how much budget you need to set aside for wedding favors can ensure you keep your overall wedding costs under control.
The short answer:
The total cost of wedding favors depends on a few factors, with the two most important being the total number of favors and cost per favor. Although the total number of favors is dependent on your number of guests, the average cost of wedding favors per guest can generally be separated into three classifications just to help you get a quick idea. They are:
- LOW = around $2 or less
- MEDIUM = between $2 and $5
- HIGH = anything above $5
Now, for more details..
Factors Affecting Final Costs
The final sum that you’ll eventually spend on wedding favors is reliant on the following factors. That said, some of those factors can be eliminated altogether should you decide not to spend on them. But for the most part, they will be applicable.
1. The total number of guests attending your wedding
The number of people that you need to take into account isn’t just confined to those you’re inviting to your wedding. As far as estimating the total number of favors you need to get, you’ll need to include the family members.
Though obvious, it is important to keep in mind to include the people who are going to be at your wedding whom you’ve not sent an official invite to. Purely counting the number based on the number of invites you sent would mislead you to underestimate.
Apart from the family members, you may even wish to go as far as preparing a favor for each of the other people present at the wedding. This can include the staff and crew who help make your wedding go smoothly, your wedding planner, and your photographer(s).
Although they are technically people you engage or hire for the wedding, it’ll be a very nice gesture of appreciation to prepare them a favor as well.
Once you have the number totaled from the different segments of people who would be at the wedding, you’d need to work in a contingency, or a safety factor if you’d like. This will help you cover any possible last-minute increase of guests.
Generally, an additional 10% as contingency would be good if your total estimated number of favors is 200 or less. For any total number higher than 200, an additional 5% would suffice to avoid too much wastage, if any.
This article can provide you some assistance in calculating wedding favor quantity so you don’t overspend.
2. The cost per piece of the favor itself
How much it cost to purchase a favor obviously depends on what it is you’re getting.
Gone are the days when wedding couples get trinkets for their guests. Unless of course if you have an idea which you think fits right in with your wedding theme and one which you believe your guests are likely to keep. In which case, don’t let any naysayers hold you back!
The general trend now is to go for useful favors, so you can at least be assured as to the likelihood of the favors not making to the trash.
Fitting right in with what you would consider “useful” are edible wedding favors, as well as drink wedding favors. Although you may come across wedding favor ideas which are an overlap of two or more of those, you really cannot go wrong if it’s a favor that the guests can consume.
3. The cost of favor packaging (related to item 4 below)
Moving beyond what you’re getting as favors, how you package them is equally important, if not more!
The favor packaging consideration is equally important as it can cost as much as the favor itself.
But don’t let that worry you though. The point here is to inform yourself of the various cost components so you know you have it all covered.
Obviously, we don’t buy just the favors and give them to the guest in bare form. We’d always want them to be nicely and appropriately packaged to match the wedding theme and become something we can call our own.
How the favors are packaged can really make an entirely ordinary looking item into an object of beauty that guests just can’t resist keeping them.
4. The cost of wedding favor personalization
Cost-wise, personalization is closely tied to the packaging of the favors. In other words, you do not want to do one without the other.
It’s not that you should spend on both, but because packaging the favor presents you the perfect opportunity to personalize the favors to your wedding theme. Or simply to make the packaging match something else of your wedding and thus make them not look out of place.
There are more ways than one to personalize the packaging of the favors and it’s something worth spending a bit of time on. Your efforts in this area, when done right, will make the end result very rewarding!
On the matter of personalized wedding favors, deciding whose name goes first on your wedding stuff is one matter where some considerations are due.
Wedding Favors Average Cost Breakdown Table
For the purpose of the table below, an assumption is made on the estimated packaging/personalization cost corresponding to the cost of bare favor. An estimated total cost for every 100 guests is also included.
It’s always a bit of a challenge to ascertain the number of guests who would actually turn up on the wedding day. As much as you try to count by the number of invites sent, the final number is something that you cannot predict with absolute certainty. Hence the contingency percentage estimated above.
This table is only a guide based on assumptions. Your actual numbers may differ.
| Cost of Bare Favor | Packaging per Favor | Total per Favor | Per 100 Guests |
| LOW priced favors: | |||
| $1.00 $1.50 | $0.50 $0.70 | $1.50 $2.20 | $150.00 $220.00 |
| MID priced favors: | |||
| $2.00 $3.00 | $1.00 $1.50 | $3.00 $4.50 | $300.00 $450.00 |
| HIGH priced favors: | |||
| $5.00 | $2.00 | $7.00 | $700.00 |
(If you’re aiming higher, the sky’s the limit!)
What Favors Can You Get
Trying to suggest favors that fall within the low, medium, or high-priced classification may not be an exercise in precision.
This is because the final price of the favors that you’re paying for also depends on which vendor you’re getting them from, the brand, the quality of the product, and the quantity of the bare favor that you intend to put inside each of the favor packagings.
Nevertheless, it helps to know what to get as favors, at least to get some ideas to get your thought going:
- Nougat, or candy (these are small and easy to fit into a box or container which you can then personalize)
- Cake, or cookies (you can buy ready-made or bake them in-house)
- Chocolate (who doesn’t like them! Can be small and easily fit in a personalized container)
- Pickles (can be interesting depending on the season)
- Honey, or jams (another season or location-dependent produce)
- Artisanal tea (highly customizable and personalized to your wedding theme)
- Decorative towels (personalized with romantic quotes, not your name)
Should you be planning a destination wedding, the nature of its location opens up an array of things you can get that are really unique and local.
Apart from wedding favors, wedding welcome bags then also becomes another interesting way you can show appreciation for the guests who attend your wedding.
Check out this article that explores the difference between wedding favors and wedding welcome bags. It also provides you some ideas on what to put in a wedding welcome bag, especially when you’re having a destination wedding.
What If My Budget Is Really Small
If your budget is constrained and you need to go for the absolute minimum, gifting wedding favors is still possible without losing the significance of it.
Even with the average cost of wedding favors that is on the low side, you can still make the favors look presentable with simple but elegant wedding favor packaging.
Of the four factors affecting wedding favor costs outlined earlier in the article, you can forego the personalization part and not worry that the favor would look any lesser.
In trying to achieve cheap but elegant wedding favors, simply putting the bare favor inside a box or container can still look presentable. In this case, even though you would not have any personalized tag or ribbon on the favor, just remember to choose a box or container that has only simple lines.
In design, simple lines can convey more sophistication than you might think.
Cost Shouldn’t Be The Only Consideration
Before you get alarmed with more potential cost factors, this one is beyond dollars and cents!
Considerations for whether or not we do something or how we do them usually extend beyond just the numbers.
You probably guessed it right! It’s human emotions. The how-we-feel part which matters just as much, if not more to some.
The planning phase of your wedding, alongside your actual wedding day celebrations, is a once-in-a-lifetime thing you’d want to remember for a long time. Long after the wedding party is done and dusted!
Just like choosing the theme for your wedding, the special venue or place you want to hold your wedding at, and which skilled photographer can best capture the moments that make the wedding unforgettable.
The journey of selecting and preparing wedding favors can be just as memorable for you and your groom.
You’d want to choose a favor that you think will remind you of the memorable things about your wedding. So definitely choose a meaningful wedding favor that you like and one which you can customize or personalize to your wedding theme.
And not to forget, plan to keep one for yourself too for keepsake.
