Wedding favours are a beautiful way to show your guests a token of appreciation for celebrating your wedding with you. They are also a lovely memento to keep in a wedding memory box to remember some of the easily forgotten details from big day.
Nowadays some of the most popular favours are love hearts, bags of sweets, little bars of soap – we’ve even heard of some couples giving out scratch cards! But where did the tradition start? And what did couples from yesteryear give out to their beloved guests?
France and Italy
Back in the 16th Century France and Italy, wedding favours called ‘bonbonnières’ were encased in small ornate boxes made out of precious materials such as porcelain and crystal and filled with sugar cubes. Sugar at this time was a precious (and expensive!) delicacy, and were said to represent wealth, status and most importantly prosperity for the couple to be. It was seen to be an incredibly generous gift.
As sugar became more common, bonbonnières developed into giving sugared almonds, with couples often gifting 5 sugared almonds to each guest to represent health, wealth, happiness, fertility and longevity. This tradition spread throughout Europe, with many couples still gifting sugared almonds to their guests to this day!
Ancient Greece
There seems to be a theme with sugared almonds here. In Greece almonds are seen as a sign of good luck. Love At many wedding parties, 5 sugared almonds were offered, a prime number that is indivisible, and symbolic of the newlywed couple. The tradition is thought to come from the tale of Demophon, the king of Athens who’s wife Phyllis killed herself as she presumed him dead when he didn’t return from a trip for months (very Romeo and Juliet!) The Gods reincarnated her into an almond tree, and this is where the legend of almonds symbolising undying love comes from. The bittersweet tale is said to represent the bittersweet nature of life, the ups and downs that can come with marriage, and the giving out of almonds is said to bring both guests and the couple prosperity, luck and love to come.
England
Back in the 16th Century, there are records stating that couples used to give out knots of lace and ribbon to their wedding guests, symbolising their love connection and bond. This tradition carried on into the Victorian age, as well as giving out silver lockets or engraved charms, meaning to symbolise everlasting love.
We hope some of these ideas inspire you for a unique idea for you to give out at your wedding. Just remember to keep one aside for your memory box as all the little intricate details from the day are the ones that mean so much in years to come.
