Wedding Favors: A History

Wedding favors are tiny gifts, tokens or trinkets which are distributed to the guests of the bride and the groom every end of a wedding ceremony or in the event of the wedding reception. These are usually tokens to convey a message of appreciation for the presence of guests during the special occasion.

The giving of wedding favors is a very old tradition. It is widely believed that the first ever practice of giving wedding favors were done by old European aristocrats, nobles, and members of the elite and upper class. At first they called a wedding favor a bonbonniere, which is Italian for favors.

Way back, bonbonnieres were often characterized by a small box, the size of a trinket or jewel box that was created from porcelain, crystals, and rarely with the addition of priceless gems and stones. These boxes were often in a form of sugar, sugar cubes, and other fragile confections. This was intended to mean wealth and royalty. The rationale for this was because, way back, then, sugar was expensive and a product difficult to find. And only the wealthy, nobles, and the elites had access and could afford it during that time. However, over time, as sugar became a basic commodity and more common, couples belonging to lower classes were able to afford it. Hence, the tradition of distributing wedding favors and other priceless gifts of gratitude was spread to the populace, to couples of either upper or lower class.

Thereafter, bonbonneries were being replaced with almonds because of the declining trend of sugar over the ages its becoming more reasonable in terms of prices. For several centuries, it was common to give almonds as a wedding favor to the wedding guest to signify the affluence of the new couple’s life together.

Sugar coated almonds became popular as confetti and was later known in the thirteenth century. As time passed by confetti then became sugared almonds, and became popular as the modern day wedding favors in weddings nowadays.

It was part of the tradition to bear five Jordan almonds to be offered in a confection box or to be wrapped in a fine fabric. Each almond signifies wealth, health, longevity and long lasting joy. One fundamental reason why almonds were used, apart from being a bit expensive, was because its bitterness and sweetness of candy coat symbolizes the perfect mix of marriage.

Today, gifts to wedding guests are more popularly called as wedding favors and the distribution of these tokens of gratitude to guests is a long tradition shared by different cultures across countries around the globe.

These are just to name a few. There are more types of wedding favors out there, especially in today’s modern world.

Weddings are such joyous occasion that everyone participating in the wedding entourage are excited to experience its preparation. You can begin with wedding favors that will display a stunning effect on this big day. Or you may want to try groomsmen gifts.