More Uniquely Catholic Wedding Favors

ANGELA MIKRUT

Couples often choose to express their gratitude for their wedding guests by giving out favors at the reception. 

While not a necessity, favors can provide personal touches to your wedding day and can serve as special mementos for your guests. Below you will find, some uniquely Catholic favors for your wedding reception or bridal shower:

PHOTOGRAPHY: NIKAYLA & CO AS SEEN IN HANNAH + JOSH’S PRAYER-FILLED FALL WEDDING

Spiritual Bouquet

Shower your guests with prayer by giving them a spiritual bouquet of sorts on your wedding day. 

Offer mass, pray a novena or another devotion during your engagement for the guests that will attend your wedding. Then make note of this on a sign somewhere in the reception area or give them a small card telling them that you remembered them and their intentions in your prayers. 

Make a donation

In place of a traditional favor, make a donation in the name of your wedding guests to an organization that you and your fiancé want to support. Note this donation on a sign where guests walk into/out of the reception hall, on the table numbers, or the placement cards, etc.

Read more: Uniquely Catholic Wedding Favors

Your favorite treat

You can show your love and thanks to your wedding guests by going above and beyond to extend your hospitality during your wedding day. Food in particular is a good place to start. 

For your wedding favor, consider giving out you and your fiancé’s favorite candy, snack, dessert, etc. This way you can personalize the favor so it has more meaning to you and your fiancé but can also be something that most people would like to eat or snack on at the end of the wedding celebrations.

Flowers

Flowers (or flower seeds) make a good option for wedding favors, especially if you have a lot of local guests coming to your reception. Many flowers also contain a rich Catholic symbolism and can provide a beautiful touch to your guests’ homes. 

If you choose to DIY your bouquets or centerpieces and have a bunch of vases/flowers leftover, you can write a note to your guests in the reception hall that they can take the flowers home as their favor. You can also thrift glasses or collect bottles/jars to use as vases for a thriftier option. 

When deciding on favors, try to think about meaningful gifts that you can share with your guests. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box. Offer favors that reflect you and your fiancé while also showing your guests that you appreciate them.

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About the Author: Angela loves creative work, especially photography, and has a special place in her heart for JPII. She's engaged and getting married in late December.

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How to Make Prayer Cards For Your Wedding

SAVANNA POLASEK

Enhance your wedding day with a unique and thoughtful memento: Catholic prayer cards.

PHOTOGRAPHY: PILLAR & PEARL

These cards will allow you to share your faith in a beautiful, inviting way with Catholic guests and with those from other denominations. 

Give a keepsake of your special day that guests will appreciate, keep, and use for years to come.

Choose a saint and/or a prayer

Many Catholic prayer cards often feature a specific saint. For your wedding prayer cards, this could be a chance to celebrate and recognize a saint you connect with. 

You might choose your or your fiance’s patron saint. Or you might choose a saint that has had a meaningful role in your relationship. Do you and your future spouse have a special devotion to a particular saint? Have you consecrated yourself to Mary or St. Joseph? Does your wedding fall on a particular feast day? If you have trouble deciding, you can look to patron saints of marriage and family life.

After deciding on your saint, find or write a prayer to include on the back of the card. You may want to  research different prayers to the saint you’ve chosen then adapt it to fit your prayer intention.

For instance, for my wedding, I chose Saint Elizabeth of Hungary because she is my patron saint and a patron saint of brides. I found a prayer to Saint Elizabeth in the Treasury of Women Saints by Ronda Chervin and edited it slightly for our prayer cards.

Choose the image

Next, find, make, or commission artwork of your chosen saint. 

If you find artwork you’d like to use for your card, check and see if it’s free or licensed. Is there a watermark? Is the design for sale on Etsy? If the art is not free, consider messaging the artist directly, sharing your idea, and seeing if you can use their work.

Design your card

Finally,  it’s time to design your card. If you’re a whiz with graphic design, you can design your own card using Adobe Photoshop or InDesign. Check out this tutorial for more help. 

If not, head to your local printer. Given the specifications of size (3.5 inches by 2.5 inches) and paper type (I recommend a semi gloss card stock), the printer should be able to put one together for you. You may want to bring a prayer card as an example to further explain or clarify your vision. Make sure you ask  for a sample before approving a full print run. 

You can include your unique wedding prayer cards with your mass programs or at your reception. Or you can display them next to your guest sign-in table, on tables, or alongside favors. If you have extra, you can include them with future wedding gifts or cards for others.

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About the Author: Savanna Polasek is the creator of Memoir Ink, a company dedicated to publishing memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies for people. She believes in the power of personal narrative and its impact on our perception of history, ourselves, our present, and future generations. She is a Catholic convert and currently lives with her charming husband in Austin, Texas. In her free time she enjoys exploring Texas, listening to Catholic podcasts, reading, and writing fiction.

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Editors' Picks | Vol. 11: Wedding Favors

At Spoken Bride, we love a good book, a good meal, a standout statement necklace, a heel you can dance in, and the list goes on. And when we make those discoveries, we want to tell everyone. Every month or two, we share our latest and favorite finds in everything engagement, wedding, and honeymoon-related.

We've shared a selection of distinctively Catholic wedding favors with you before. Today, the editors chat about other give-worthy items that reflect who you are and offer your guests something beautiful, practical, or both.

Stephanie, Co-Founder & Editor in Chief

Personalized Wine Stoppers: For a winery reception or couples for whom wine or cocktails are a hobby, these American-made wine bottle stoppers featuring your names or invitation suite logo look great on countertops and serve a practical need.

Charitable donation: If you’d like one of your first gestures as husband and wife to be an act of giving, consider making a donation to charity. Be sure to share info with your guests identifying the organization and explaining its significance to you; it’s a unique opportunity to share a cause you’re passionate about. To keep things harmonious, I suggest choosing an organization without strong political or moral overtones. Catholic Relief Services, L’Arche USA, and The Laboure Society are all excellent options serving humanitarian causes and the future of the Church.

Christmas ornaments: A festive choice for Advent or Christmas season weddings, send your guests home with something to trim their trees. You might choose something as simple as glass spheres purchased in bulk, or as elaborate as a custom monogrammed option.

Personalized Pencils: A pretty and useful way to share your married names, wedding location, or phrase from a favorite saint or prayer in your wedding colors. I’d smile to receive these from a bride and groom who were teachers, artists, or writers, but would also appreciate them from just about anyone!

Andi, Business Director

Cookies: Consumable favors are my favorite, simply because the majority of guests will consume them and not leave them on the tables after the reception. My preference is to source from a local bakery, one that’s special to you or your wedding destination--my husband and I chose a famous bakery from his hometown--or go homemade with a family recipe.

Spices: One of my clients was a nutritionist who served Greek food at her reception and gave her guests a small jar of Greek seasoning to take home. I’m still using my jar, and every time I use it I think of the couple.

Handmade soap: Another excellent consumable! I’ve received these as favors before and loved using them in my bathroom and in the tub.

Hand-lettered quotes: Most people like inspirational quotes, and prints like these are a simple way to evangelize through beauty and truth.

Custom Rosaries: I was so impressed at my friend, who crafted a Rosary for each and every guest at her wedding. When I pray with it or even just see it, I instantly remember her and her husband’s special day.

Jiza, Co-Founder & Creative Director

Fans: If you are getting married during the hot season or if your reception will be outside, fans can be the perfect practical favor to help keep your guests cool. My husband and I got married in August, which can be very hot and humid in the South, so the fans we provided were well used during our reception.

Prayer Cards: A customized card of your patron saint is a beautiful way to share your faith with your wedding guests. Much like what you would see at an priestly ordination, you too can customize a card with your names, wedding date, patron saint(s), and a prayer. My husband and I created a card with Saint Raphael, Tobit, and Sarah on the front and with our names, date, and a quote on the back.

Food: Who doesn't love food? I can't pick just one category. There is an abundance of ideas out there when it comes to your favorite food as a wedding favor: your favorite spice rub, liquor, coffee, or even hot sauce. You can flip your favorite snack into a bar for creating candy bags or decorating donuts. Maybe you have a bakery or shop that you absolutely love. The possibilities are endless.

We love hearing your ideas and seeing the myriad ways your wedding details reflect who you are as a couple. Share the favors you gave out, or will give out, at your wedding, and the best favors you've received from others, in the comments and on our social media.