In Which The Photographer Provides a Brilliant Idea For The Wedding Favors

On the top of my wedding expense priority list was The Photographer, and I made it clear that I was willing to pay plenty to get a professional to capture The Day. This did turn out to be the greatest expense we incurred, claiming 35% of our overall budget, but I was perfectly happy to pay for his services. I had two reasons for this.

I understand perfectly the need and desire to economize. Many couples have family or friends who are handy with a camera. These same talented individuals may also volunteer their time or ask so little for their services that it’s hard to pass up. This is fine! If the bride has seen their work and she likes it then, by all means, she should feel free to use them!  But I’ve seen pictures done by professionals who have been working at their craft for a couple of decades, and I’ve also seen one too many mediocre to downright awful wedding pictures shot by “a friend”. There is simply no comparison, and I knew I wasn’t willing to economize on this element. I wanted someone who knew what they were doing and had been doing it for a long time. In particular, I wanted someone who specialized in wedding photography or portraiture. Long after The Ceremony is over, The Food is eaten, and The Dress doesn’t fit anymore, the photos will be a lasting reminder of The Day. I wanted them to be beautiful.

Thankfully, my daughter agreed and she went online to view different local photographer’s web sites and galleries. It took several weeks before she found the photographer she wanted but in the end I think she picked a real winner. Not only did she like his style, he offered a perk none of us had seen before.

As part of the photography package we purchased, the photographer included an engagement photo shoot from which he would print up a wallet-sized photo for each of our guests. We decided to use these as “party favors” instead of offering Jordan almonds or chocolates in cute little tulle bags. It’s not that we don’t like Jordan almonds or chocolates, but if we could avoid the expense we would. We also felt a photo would be more meaningful as a reminder of The Day than nuts or chocolate. Besides, a generous friend had already provided us with individually wrapped mints to offer our guests at the reception with “Thanks for sharing our special day” printed on the wrapper -- leftovers from her own wedding a few months earlier.

The happy couple's engagement photo

If the photos were to be the wedding favor, we needed a way to deliver them to our guests and in good condition! We looked for wallet-sized photo holders, frames or folders, so that the bridal couple could present the pictures to people at the reception in a format that wouldn’t bend, tear, or be destroyed if punch got spilled on them. The cost of photo holders was prohibitive and difficult to find in wallet-size. Perhaps if we’d had more time we could have made them from card stock but we didn’t think of it soon enough. We looked into putting the photos in pretty little envelopes but, again, pretty little envelopes aren’t cheap. We gave a passing glance at key rings with the plastic wallet-sized holders on them but that just didn’t appeal to our sense of elegance.

We finally decided not to hand them out at the reception but rather to include them in the thank you notes my daughter would send after the wedding. This way we knew that none of them would be lost between the reception and home. I had been dreading the possibility of finding one on the floor of the reception hall where it had slipped out of someone’s pocket, being stepped on and ruined, so sending them with the thank you notes was a very good plan in my opinion.

On a side note: I have saved many wedding favors from weddings over the years. I’ve stored them in cedar chests, boxes, and baggies. They all have one thing in common 20 to 30 years later. They all fall apart. The Jordan almonds crumble. The chocolate becomes powdery. The bird seed mildews. The buttercream mints melt. Rings rust. Plastic breaks. Tulle becomes brittle. And how often do I pull them out and reminisce? Not often. And when I do? The precious little things disintegrate in my hands. Consider getting away from “traditional” wedding favors like this and go for photos. :)

Huddled on a dusty corner shelf are neglected wedding favors (with apologies to my niece) in the red circle. The arrow is pointing to another wedding favor I received nearly 30 years ago -- a small bottle of Korbel Brut Rose. It used to have a decoration on the neck. Nice idea but very pricey...and as you see, I still haven't opened it.

Final note: We decided not to provide our guests with disposable cameras at the reception. For one thing, they're expensive. For another, we knew there was a great risk of getting dozens of non-descript crowd shots, blurry zoom shots, pictures of the floor or ceiling or, as we saw from one wedding, many pictures of people’s shoes. (Yeah, you know who you are.) ;)