Wedding favours are small presents given to wedding guests by the bride and groom at their wedding. Normally the gifts are placed at each table setting at the wedding reception however, depending on the culture of the wedding and the bride's preference, they can be given at any point during the reception or indeed the ceremony.
The custom of giving wedding favours dates back a long time and it is though that the first wedding favours were given by wealthy aristocrats in Europe and were then known as bonbonniere. Bonbonniere are actually small decorative boxes made of crystal, precious stones or porcelain and these boxes were then filled with sugar cubes and given to the wedding guest
. It may seem strange that sugar was given as a gift, but at this point in time, sugar was a very expensive item and one that was only enjoyed by the most affluent families, it was also believed to contain medicinal properties and therefore made the ideal igft to impress wedding guests.
Over the years, as the price of sugar came down, the tradition of giving gifts to wedding guests moved away from being solely a practice for high society and reached the working classes. The added affordability meant that sugar become much less desirable as a wedding favour and was increasingly replaced with almonds. For many years, almonds were freely distributed at weddings to signify the bridegroom's best wishes to the guests for his new life.
In the thirteenth century, the now humble almond was replaced by a sugar coated version at that point know as confetti. Confetti were soon renamed as sugared almonds and it is this item that evolved into the modern day wedding favour. Traditionally five sugared almonds are given in either a presentation box or wrapped in decorative fabric and this is thought to represent fertility, longevity, wealth, health and happiness. It is also thought that the bitterness of the almond combined with the sweetness of the sugar is meant to signify the bitter sweet nature of marriage!
In the modern day gifts to guests are almost always known as wedding favours or wedding favors and are a culture that is shared across the world. Wedding favours are now part and parcel of almost every wedding and there are almost 1 million internet searches per year for them. No longer are they restricted to sugar or sugared almonds, they can now take the form of almost anything the bride and groom desire. Many choose wedding favours based on the theme of their wedding, many based on their hobbies or interests and there are many still who go with tradition and opt for the sugared almonds.
Where will wedding favours be in a hundred years time? Who knows, but I am sure there will be someone writing about the antiquated time in the early 2000s when people used to give wedding candles and personalized ornaments as gifts to their guests!
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