Don’t let your guests leave your special day empty-handed, give them a wedding favor to remember your celebration of love.

Perhaps you’ve noticed at a recent wedding, but many brides and grooms send their guests home with favors that come in the form of beer can koozies with the couple’s new last name on them, or some form of plastic sunglasses with the date of the wedding written on the sides.

Ideas like these can be overdone, played out, and some might even say lazy. Instead, prioritize giving your wedding guests favors that they’ll want to keep for years, instead of finding the quickest excuse to trash them when they clean out their closet.

According to The Knot, giving wedding guests gifts to commemorate your nuptials is a tradition that dates back to the 16th century. As time goes on, the tradition evolves, and there are many unique gift ideas to send home with your guests that will leave smiles on their faces and spark many fond memories for years to come.

Here are three ideas:

1. Signature Candle

Create a signature scent with your partner and customize the candle vessel to have your guests’ names on it and the date of your wedding. The color of the vessel can coordinate with your wedding theme colors, and this will be a thoughtful yet functional gift for your guests to actually use on a day-to-day basis. Pro tip: to save a beautiful vessel after the candle burns out, put it in the freezer for 24 hours and pop the wax remnants/ wick right out. You now have a pretty new bowl/ dish to keep things in or to leave on your shelf. To make the candle even more timeless/ functional, you could add song lyrics to a significant song from your wedding or just a simple pattern that goes along with your wedding theme.

2. Coffee Bags

Provide your guests with a bag of ground or whole bean coffee from your beloved local coffee shop as a useful and delicious wedding favor. They’ll be able to use this gift for months to come, and every time they smell that fresh brew in their mug, they’ll think of your wedding night. You could even get custom art done on the coffee bags to match your theme if you want to go the extra mile. This will also support a local small business and remind guests that your wedding was in the specific town that this bag was brewed in.

3. Customized Coasters

While coasters are something that nearly everyone has a use for, people rarely think to buy them for themselves. Here’s your chance to sneak in with yet another practical yet thoughtful wedding gift for your guests. Get customized coasters made with the astrology pattern of your wedding day. There doesn’t need to be a date or even wording on the coasters, just a beautiful star pattern design of significance. If you’d rather go the more traditional coaster route, present your guests with coasters in your wedding theme colors, with your wedding date engraved on them, or with their own names. You really can’t go wrong no matter which direction you choose; as coasters are always necessary.

©CTW Features