It’s encouraging to see couples working towards reducing the carbon footprint of their wedding. The wedding favour is an ideal way of saying thank you to your guests whilst sharing your sustainable values.

Wedding favours are a fantastic way of saying thank you to all the lovely folks who’ve shared in your wedding day. In the days of old, guests would be given a wee bag or box containing five sugar almonds. These stood for the five blessings of health, wealth, happiness, fertility and long life. We’re no longer living in days of old where sugared almonds abound as favours. When was the last time you even saw a sugared almond?! We’re living in days where we’re working towards reducing our carbon footprint and living more sustainably. Here’s a few of my favourite ideas for eco friendly wedding favours. They’ll speak of a worthy principle as well as encouraging your guests to think a little more about sustainability.

Fair Trade or Organic Coffee

This one is a little biased towards the caffeinated crew but could be easily flipped to incorporate tea blends. Why not pop along to your favourite independent coffee shop and chat to them about buying a coffee blend from them and gifting a wee bag to each guest. You could even serve that particular blend on the day too. Whichever option you choose, you’d be supporting a local business as well as sourcing eco friendly coffee. With Fair Trade and Organic, you’re contributing towards protecting the welfare of the producers. One of my favourite local coffee shops is Glasgow based Toro. You’ll find a friendly bearded chap who can assist you in your coffee favour dream. Believe me when I say your coffee loving guests will love you more than they already do.

Reusable Straws or Cutlery

It’s staggering that single-use plastic cutlery continues to be used. Take a stand against this madness by gently encouraging your guests to get onboard with zero waste behaviours. If they’re good friends of yours it’s likely they’re already on board with this philosophy. Nevertheless, by gifting them their own eco friendly straw or cutlery item, you’re helping them replace a habit they’ve perhaps been considering breaking. A slight spin on this would be to offer a reduced number of these favours. This approach would be taking into consideration that some of your guests will already be in possession of their own reusable straw or said item. You could pop a wee note, written on recycled paper, on your guests’ tables explaining your approach and direct them to where they can collect their favour, should they fancy taking you up on your kind offer.

Home Made (or locally and organically sourced) Preserves

Let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a jar of home-made jam, marmalade or shortbread? This is an all round crowd pleaser. Perhaps you’re having a wedding with large numbers and can’t quite face making the volume required to make the favours. An easy eco friendly alternative is to purchase the item you’d like to gift from a local farm shop. There’s no shortage of farm shops in Scotland and it’s a lovely way of supporting local businesses.

Seed Packets

Here’s another fantastic eco friendly wedding favour your guests will love. I’ve seen this done in various ways. One of my couples gave packets of lavender to encourage the local bee population. I’ve also seen a couple of weddings where the mighty Seedbom has been gifted with a personalised note. Seed packets tend to be light and easily transported, particularly kind on those travelling to your wedding. A couple of caveats: be sure not to distribute an invasive species. It’s worth keeping in mind that international guests may not be able to transport seeds or bulbs through customs.

Plant a Tree

You could consider offsetting the carbon footprint of your wedding by contributing to the environment. A way of achieving this is to sponsor the planting of a tree. If you’re mathematically minded, you could tally up the cumulative mileage of your guests then plant the associated number of trees to offset their journeys. Check out Greenpop and Platbos - both organisations will be happy to help you with this.

Floral Centrepieces

The waste generated from weddings can be frightening. Avoid this and recycle what you can. If you’re planning on having floral centrepieces, why not double them up as favours? You could source a load of vases or glasses from charity shops for guests to pop them in at the end. Alternatively, instead of having one large centrepiece, you could have a few smaller ones. That way you still have the pop of colour from your flowers and then your guests can take one away with them as a lovely memento from your wedding.

Consider the Birds

A lovely gesture which will appeal to your nature loving guests. Bird seed is fairly inexpensive too. You could pop some in personalised biodegradable packaging, along with a note explaining what it’s for. The seed doesn’t rely on each guest having a garden and bird feeder. Scotland is a bird nation and so this lovely token of appreciation can be scattered wherever folks fancy.

Candles

Candles are a thoughtful wedding favour because your guests can enjoy them long after they’ve celebrated with you on your wedding day. You’ll need to do a little research to ensure your choice is eco friendly. Avoid candles containing chemical additives, harmful to the planet. There are plenty of eco friendly ones to choose from. My personal favourite is soy wax like those made by the wonderful Our Lovely Goods. The other consideration relates to packaging. You’ll want to ensure you’re avoiding a company using single use plastics.

Say Goodbye to Wedding Favours

There’s a strong argument to opt out of this tradition altogether. Some couples choose to make a meaningful donation instead and inform guests of their gesture. There’s no end of options. All you need to do is share a note at each guest’s place setting with details of the organisation you’ve made the donation to, explaining, if you know, how the money will be used.

Rent Rather Than Buying

Okay. Not strictly a wedding favour point but it’s definitely a point worth putting out there. It’s a point I always make to my couples. There can be so much needless waste at weddings. Why buy when you can hire? Head over to Virginia’s Vintage Hire to see what I mean.

Photo Credit: Foto Maki — Photo Credit: Joy Story

Eco Friendly Wedding Favour Ideas