Personalized Wedding Favors

Here's the latest about our newest online wedding offering: personalized CDs as wedding favors.

We wrote the following article that includes tips to help every couple select the wedding favors for their guests. For more information about the personalized CDs, visit www.pianobrothers.com/weddingfavor/.

From Matchbooks to Music: Five Tips for Getting the Most out of Wedding Favors
By Tim & Ryan O'Neill

Monogrammed matchbooks are hot and personalized candy bars are sweet, but there’s a whole lot more to choose from these days than just tchotchkes and chocolate. From custom-made hand soaps to engraved champagne glasses, personalized wedding favors are taking center stage as brides and grooms get ready for their big day.

As musicians, we’ve participated in thousands of weddings over the years, and we’ve watched as favors have evolved from small reminders of the big day to far more elaborate – and often expensive – keepsakes. Whatever customized wedding favor you choose, keep in mind these five helpful tips to simplify the decision process:

Think about why you’re providing favors in the first place. Favors are a great way to thank your guests for participating in your special day. They’ve traveled from near and far, and taken time out from their busy lives to celebrate the occasion. Be sure to send them off with a token that’ll remind them of the event – and, just as important, you and your personality – each time they use it.

Set a budget. Favors don’t need to be made of diamonds to be memorable. Popular wedding favor sites offer a range of options priced from 99 cents and up. Favors are available in a wide variety of price ranges within each category as well. Take candy: If you’d like to give an impressive gift but are working with a fairly limited budget, provide a small but memorable luxury like Godiva candies as favors for each of your guests instead of more run-of-the-mill chocolates to increase the ooh-la-la factor.

Pick a favor that fits your personality. Devote as much time as it takes to choose a favor that complements the style of your wedding and reception, captures your personality, and acts as a unique, long-lasting reminder of how much your guests mean to you. Thanks to advances in digital music and printing technology, one new twist on wedding favors is emerging as music to the ears of brides and grooms: customized music CDs. The CDs make great bridal shower favors, wedding favors, save-the-date reminders, wedding invitations, wedding party/parent gifts, wedding programs, or thank you notes.

You can choose from many different levels of customization, from ‘CD-only’ printed with the bride’s and groom’s names and wedding date to a ‘Full Custom’ jewel case that can include favorite photos and personalized messages to guests. Some companies let you test the process risk-free and receive a photo proof via email for final approval before placing your order. At our site, you can select your own song list from a library of hundreds of familiar and original melodies, and choose from a wide variety of classic and contemporary design templates to create a truly 21st-century keepsake for as little as $3 per copy. Visit http://www.pianobrothers.com/weddingfavor/ for more information and a demonstration of just how simple the process is.

Keep an eye on the calendar. Planning ahead isn’t just for the reception hall or flowers. For customized items, place your order three months prior to your wedding to allow plenty of time for reviewing proofs, order processing, shipping, or changes in the event of a misspelling or if the favor just isn’t what you had in mind.

Determine how many to order. For small personal items such as candies, soaps or key chains, you’ll need to order one favor per guest. For larger items such as candles, picture frames or custom CDs, one favor per couple or single guest is suitable. For these larger ticket items, you may want to bag or wrap the items and label them with the recipients’ names. Regardless of the type of favor you choose, be sure to order a few extra in case your guest list fluctuates.

With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to finding just the right wedding favor that fits your celebration — and your personality.

For more wedding tips, visit http://www.pianobrothers.com/.