Budgeting for Wedding Favors
Wedding favors can quickly add
up to a significant sum, particularly if you are having a large wedding . So it is important that you include a realistic sum
for your favors when you start your wedding planning .
Your wedding budget should include a section for your wedding favors and you need to remember to include the packaging, shipping and taxes (if applicable) in the sum you calculate. You need to take some time researching this figure to make sure it is realistic. Don’t be tempted to just pluck something out of the air and hope that it will be enough – nine times out of ten it won’t be!
As you progress through your wedding planning priorities, ideas and details will change as you start bringing together all the various elements of your day. Therefore it is vital that you don’t make any final decisions on your favors just yet, but instead take an average figure per favor and times it by the number of guests you have on your guest list.
To get an idea of how much favors cost you can do some research online at various online favor stores. Many of these stores will stock the same ranges and although they often compete with each other on price, the difference is often only a couple of cents. If you are having a particular wedding theme then you may already know what you want which can make your task a bit easier (providing you can find what you are looking for that is).
Typically wedding favor will fall in $2-$3 bracket each, this is without packaging, decorations, tags, shipping and any applicable taxes included. Typically you can expect to pay around $1.50 per favor for packaging and decorations with thank you tags. Shipping will depend on where you live but many favor stores have online shipping calculators so you can get an idea of how much it will cost.
Adding these together puts each favor at around $4 which is about the average spend. Times this by the number of guests you hope to invite to give you a lump sum for your wedding budget. For an average wedding of 100 guests this works out at $400 – quite a large sum for a token gift!
If you are having a large wedding with more than 200 guests then you may want to look at bringing the cost per favor down. Here you should look for wholesalers where you can purchase your favors in bulk quantities with good discounts. Online favor stores do offer quantity discounts too but often the wholesale price is better value and you may well be able to get the price down to just $2 each.
If you really need to cut the cost per favor down then look around for special offers, sales, closeouts and discount vouchers. Alternatively lower your expectations and choose something less expensive! Sounds obvious but whilst you may not think a candle is particularly extravagant at $2, changing it for a bag of candies can cost you less than $1 each!
