Six Valentine's Day Wedding Favor Ideas

Valentine's Day is synonymous with romance and is a natural choice for your wedding as you celebrate the greatest romance of your life. Hearts, roses, chocolate – even love itself - are all associated with Valentine's Day, and the choice for Valentine's wedding favors is almost limitless.

Here is a small bouquet of ideas for wedding favors that celebrate the spirit and traditions of Valentine's Day:

Whitman's Candy Company (owned by Russell Stover Candies) is the oldest continuously operating candy company in America, and for generations, lovers have been giving boxes of their chocolate samplers for Valentine's Day. In addition to the familiar rectangular sampler box, each year the company offers their ubiquitous and lovable heart shaped red package for Valentine's Day. Russell Stover Candies offers a 3.75 oz. miniature chocolate heart sampler for under $3.00.

Variation on this idea: You can get empty 1.5 ounce Whitman's Sampler Heart Tins from Russell Stover for under a dollar each and fill them with traditional wedding favor candies like Jordan Almonds.

Created in 1866, NECCO Sweethearts, or "Conversation Hearts," are those tiny candies imprinted with sayings and were originally called "Motto Hearts." Consumers buy about 8 billion Sweethearts in the six weeks before Valentine's Day each year. For wedding favors, fill heart-shaped favor boxes or baskets with these confections and rest assured they won't go bad before the wedding – these candies are reported to stay fresh for at least 5 years!

(If you're interested in special ordering some custom imprinted Sweethearts for your wedding, you can buy them direct from the NECCO Company but you'll have to take a full production run of 3,500 pounds!)

Sweetheart roses are less expensive than full size long stem roses and come in a wide variety of colors. Carry a bouquet to each table and personally present each guest with a rose. Or, let the bouquets double as wedding centerpieces and invite each guest to take one. Each stem should be protected in its own small florists' vial with water to keep it fresh. Check with your local grocer's flower department for availability; sometimes you can save a lot of money going through a grocer instead of a traditional florist.

A long stemmed chocolate rose makes a beautiful wedding favor at each place setting. They usually come with the chocolate flowers covered in colored foil, often red but available in other colors too. Write your message to your guests on gift label tags with images of roses on them. Punch a hole in each tag, thread a length of satin or lace ribbon through it and attach the tag to the stem of each chocolate rose with a bow.

Collect your favorite romantic poems and print them out on parchment stock. Roll them as scrolls and tie with satin ribbon or raffia. If you have as many poems as you do place settings at your guest tables, each guest can get a different poem. You can lay one at each place, or collect them in a container mixed with dried flowers or other ornaments and let your guests pull their own from the table centerpiece.

In the language of flowers, the globe amaranth, or Gomphrena, represents "unfading love." Forget Me Nots, or Myosotis sylvatica, are a symbol of "true love." For your wedding favors, wrap packets of these "seeds of love" in a burlap pouch with some rose petal potpourri and tie closed with raffia. On a small piece of parchment, print out a message such as "Thank you for joining us as we sow the seeds of our life together," and attach the message to the raffia ribbon.

For an alternative presentation, place the seed packets in clay garden pots, again with some potpourri. Put clear cellophane over the top, and wrap the bottom in burlap, leaving the pot contents visible. Tie raffia around the burlap, leaving the ends of the cellophane hidden beneath the burlap.

Joanna Cali is the publisher of the Westchester Wedding Guide, an online bridal guide that offers articles, advice and tips on planning a wedding. She also owns a web development and search engine optimization firm in Westchester County, NY http://www.calicosystems.com.

Comment on this article or submit your tip to CreativeHomemaking.com.
Click here for a printer friendly version of this page.
Receive new article links via the Web, SMS, or instant messages via Twitter!
Recommend this article to a friend!
Search our article archives.
Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

FamilyStickers.com offers one of the largest selections of family stickers, family car decals, and stick family stickers. These easy to apply vinyl window family car stickers are available in several themes and sizes or customized to your request.