Today’s reader question comes from Shana. She’s looking for some creative and frugal Sheva Brachot favor ideas.
I’m going to be making a sheva brachos for some friends of mine. I wanted to make some kind of favor, but fairly inexpensive. I was considering making bencher cards and laminating them (with a pic of the couple). Do you have any other ideas?
Can you help Shana out? Let’s talk Sheva Brachot (or other simcha) favors in the comments section!
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How about little plants/flowers from the dollar store? I went to a bridal shower once where everyone went home with a tiny succulent. Or a little handmade box of some sort (origami? up-cycled baskety thing from Pinterest?) filled with candy or jordan almonds?
http://www.michaels.com/Silver-Pail-Favors/28674,default,pd.html?cgid=projects-%20wedding-favors&start=1
At my bridal shower, the tables were decorated with little bud vases. Each vase had a single Gerbera daisy and instead of water, jelly beans were at the bottom. My cousins bought a big container from Costco and had plenty leftover, too.
Everybody took a bud vase home.
I love those jelly bellies, Caroline!
http://www.photofetti.com/
I don’t mean to rain on your parade–but, why? Whatever it is will probably be thrown out, or left for you to deal with. Save your money. My favorite “gift” from a Sheva Berachos hostess is the offer of leftovers packed up to take home. That’s the best!
Ask the new couple if they have any benchers left over from the wedding and glue the picture of the couple onto that instead of making your own card.
In my experience the couple usually has too many extras in any case.
Good point, Abe.
I have seen this and done this myself for sheva brachos – buy small boxes of matches at the dollar store, print a small label with a picture of the choson & kallah and write “what a striking match”
ADORABLE!
Xerox tiny size pics of chassan and kallah and glue onto matchboxes for shabbos candle lighting. Someone did that for my son and i still have one. Adorable!!!
Thanks for the suggestions! If I do the matches idea, would it be silly to tie up 2 shabbos candles? I can put one at each place setting or put some on a platter… Maybe it wouldn’t make sense for the male guests? Any more suggestions are welcome too.
Aidel.K, that’s why I’d like something useful 🙂
You can personalize almost anything to make it special. But I agree useful is best, or it won’t be kept. There will be benchers at the wedding, so I wouldn’t repeat that. I would ask the couple to bring some benchers for after dinner!
I love the matches idea!!!
I always like the mini picture frames with a picture of the couple or even just a piece of paper with the guests names in it as a place card. I also think food/candy/mint items are appreciated. You can buy small tins or bins or containers and put mints (or jelly beans or chocolates) and personalize the tin with the names of the couple, the names of the guest, etc… You can get them printed OR you can print a sticker and stick it on OR you can get ribbon printed and tie it around OR you can write on the container with paint or a sharpie. Those containers can then get reused for pins, thumbtacks, hair ties, change, whatever…
If you look at some of the party favor sites you can get ideas for what you can do yourself. Pinterest is a great resource to explain the entire project start to finish.
I recently bought personalized tea bags (from Beau-Coup) and they are just tea bags in foil packaging and the stickers came printed for me to stick on them. That’s something you can totally do yourself for next to nothing!
Mazal Tov!
Here are some cute ideas, but I wouldn’t pay someone else to do this. I would go to the office supply store and buy stickers and print them. Then you can have friends over and stick them.
http://www.partyandweddingfavors.com/
Also, found these adorable goodies. You could make them parve and put them in a little personalized, wax papered box. People would need to know that they are perishable though!
http://savearecipe.blogspot.ca/2012/05/chocolate-covered-strawberries.html
A thought I had to do for one of my kids’ weddings (I may yet get to do it) is to print out tefilas haderech on card stock, laminate it, punch a hole and hang a keyring off it. I know some people who have made little candy boxes and filled it with some kind of candy. Another one had a relative who made chocolates and she made mazal tov chocolates and individually wrapped each in candy foil and left one on each plate. It’s a nice idea. Not necessary, but nice.
How about a recipe book.
Why is it necessary to give out favors when you’re feeding everyone? I’ve made Sheva Brachos numerous times with friends and we never did this. Why does this have to become the norm when making Sheva Brachos is enough of an expense?
agreed!
How about buying chocolate bars (I did the really small size) and make a new wrapper with their monogram or picture. Just remove the paper wrapper and print a new wrapper, cut to size and wrap around. I didn’t even wrap it totally covered, just over the top and sides (not the edges).
The best…and most frugal…sheva brachos I ever hosted with friends was done Southern-style! We had a barbecue with buns, hot dogs, grilled chicken, burgers, pickles, cole slaw and cake and watermelon for dessert. For ‘centerpieces’ we used barbecue sauce bottles tied with a colorful ribbon and balloon. We told everyone to dress up Southern comfortable style…the chussin and kallah loved it…they were tired of formal wear! We also gave them decorated aprons and had the hosts and guests sign their names in puffy paint!
Try jYOUlry.com…great favors and Lisa will make any design or photo. I ordered some Shabbos and Pesach and Wine Bottle stoppers for hostess gifts. You can get wedding photos or the names or monograms with wedding colors. The more you order the less you pay per stopper, wine charms, magnets, bracelets etcm
So after considering MANY possibilities (half the fun is just thinking about it 🙂 ), I decided to go with a homemade goodie. I’m debating between chocolate-covered pretzels with something fun sprinkled on top, Rice Krispies treats cut into heart shapes, truffles, or a giant cookie. I’ll put whatever in a clear cellophane bag, tie with a ribbon and print out a cute label for the front. Thanks, everyone!