All About Wedding Favors

Leading wedding favor manufacturer, Fashioncraft, unveiled even more new favors today. Thye've already added hundreds to their product line in the past few months, so it was a big surprise to see even more popping up on their new arrivals page this morning.

Here are just a few of the new wedding favors available:

Let's face it - visit any wedding favor retailer online and you're bound to see many of the same favors you saw on all of the others you've visited. There isn't much unique to choose from anymore.

Why is that? Where are they all coming from?

There are several well-known brands in wedding favors. Most of them offer drop shipping services for the retailer. This means, when you - the consumer - buys an item from the retailer, it's actually being shipped to you directly from the manufacturer/importer and NEVER sees the retailer. There are good points to this, and negatives too.

OUT OF STOCK. When wedding favors are drop-shipped to a majority of vendors, you'll find that when one is out of stock, they all are. The advantage to finding a retailer who self-stocks is that they'll have an inventory of your favorite favor when no one else does.

MINIMUM ORDER. Many retailers must meet a minumum order requirement. They will pass on this requirement to their customers. So if the wholesale drop shipper says 48 must be purchased by the retailer, then you will be forced to buy 48. If the vendor self-stocks, they can buy the minimum and then set their own requirements for the customer.

SAMPLES. Many drop shippers won't send out just one item because it isn't cost-effective. Self-stocked retailers will usually send out a sample.

Who are the popular wedding favor brands, and which ones drop ship? Here's the top list:

1. Fashioncraft
Fashioncraft-Excello, Inc. is wholesale-only and offers free drop shipping but has some high product minimums.
2. Kate Aspen
Kate Aspen is wholesale-only, offers free drop-shipping, no minimum order, and premium automated shopping carts.
3. Cassiani Collection
Cassiani Collection is part of DC Imports and offers free drop-shipping.
4. Event Blossom
Event Blossom is wholesale only and offers free dropshipping with no minimums except on personalized items.
5. Weddingstar
Weddingstar retails directly to consumers and also wholesales to vendors, with drop-shipping that incurs a per-order fee.
6. Wedding Belle Favors
Wedding Belle favors is a small business with handmade items and offers free drop shipping.
7. Hortense B. Hewitt
Hortense B. Hewitt is wholesale only and offers drop shipping with a per-order fee.
8. Lillian Rose
Lillian Rose is wholesale only, has very few favors (is mostly other wedding supplies,) and charges for drop shipping.
9. Beverly Clark
Beverly Clark is wholesale only and offers drop shipping with a per-order fee.
10. WeddingShip
WeddingShip is wholesale only and offers free drop shipping with no minimum on most products.

As a consumer, the drop ship fee should matter to you. It means the price of the items will be higher to cover the associated wholesale costs. Items from wholesalers who offer free drop shipping will usually have a lower retail cost, since there is less expense for the retailer when ordered.

There are several other wholesale favor vendors, but I can't divulge all of my secrets!

:-)

I don't know if chess is as popular now as it was in the 80's and 90's, (remember Bobby Fischer?) but these bride and groom king and queen chess piece candles are certainly unique and adorable!

Newly launched by Fashioncraft (a wholesale importer of wedding and party favors,) this pair of bride and groom chess piece candles comes in a gift box fit for royalty.

I have to admit, I did meet one of my high school boyfriends in chess club. Back then, I was considered a little geeky for playing chess. I don't know if that stigma has changed, but I would imagine people appreciate safer, intellectual hobbies like that a bit more.

These candle favors are great for couples who love to play chess, but they're also great for fairytale themed weddings - since they're a king and queen, and chess was popular in renaissance times.

Fashioncraft definitely came out with a truly unique favor (as I haven't seen anything like these on any other popular favor brand web sites,) and I think they'll be a big hit.

Available at FavorBonanza.com for as low as $1.35 each!

My now-husband and I wanted to stay inexpensive and unique. It was 2005 and I was browsing online favor shops, while he was thinking of ways we could construct our own favors for much less money.

We took a trip to the Yankee Candle Company's huge warehouse store in Deerfield, MA a few months before our wedding. We were looking for Christmas ornaments before the season began. We found a few, but our biggest find was a totally unexpected one - our wedding favors!

In the clearance room was a shelf filled with hundreds of candle-toppers marked 49 cents. As I approached, I was shouting gleefully, "Honey, I just found our favors!" They were glass, almost in snow-globe fashion, and they were filled with champagne bottles, silver gifts, doves, and gold wedding bands! Sadly, others heard my shout and flocked to where I stood. He ran to help me and we grabbed handfuls at a time, shoving them into our cart. I didn't care about whether they were broken or defective - I just needed to be sure we'd have enough. Our wedding list was 190 people and we figured at least 180 would show.

As we emptied the shelf, another couple glared at us. Their measly little cart of about 20 looked sickly next to ours. We had done a great job of cleaning house.

We sifted through to see if they were broken. We put about 5 back on the shelf and left with 185 of them.

When we got home, I started thinking of ways we could make them into place card holders. We'd set them all at a main reception table with the guestbook and let our guests find their name and table assignment. I decided to hot-glue white satin ribbon around them and then hole-punch some place cards I had gotten at the local craft shop. I printed the place cards in my deskjet printer and we spent a night glueing and punching. It was a creative endeavor for both of us, (and as Libras with the same birthday, we both enjoyed it very much!) We talked about our upcoming day and shared our expectations and hopes. It was magical.

Most of our guests didn't know what the candle toppers were. Afterwards, my Mother told me that everyone was asking her if they were paperweights. She said it was a rather stupid (her words) favor, since most people in our family don't burn candles. But we thought it was perfect. And if they wanted to use them as paperweights - what a novel idea!