Best Wedding Favors Guests Will Actually Keep

The one-ounce jar you often get with a hotel breakfast, made by a family farm in Essex, England. Mini jars of jam were listed as a best favor in one WeddingWire thread (taken by guests, with a few left behind), and this is the no-cooking version, gluten free, vegan and made in a nut-free factory. It's sold as a case of 72 at about $0.74 a jar, so it suits 60 or more guests and leaves leftovers for a small wedding; strawberry is the only flavor in this listing. 4.7 stars, 739 reviews.

Each straw holds one teaspoon of clover honey with natural lemon, made for stirring into tea or squeezing straight into your mouth. Jars of local honey were another WeddingWire "best favor" that guests used often; these are the cheaper, pocket-sized version. At about $0.16 each they're the cheapest favor in this guide, and small enough to slip into a place setting or a bag of other treats. They get sticky if one splits, so keep them in their own small bag. 4.6 stars from 234 reviews.

Single-serve packets of honey infused with habanero, each a little over two teaspoons, tucked easily into a pocket or clutch. At roughly $0.49 each it's an inexpensive way to hand guests something fun to eat, but it is spicy, so offer it alongside a mild option like the honey sticks. 4.4 stars across about 3,000 ratings.

A white tea blend with vanilla, lemon and rosebuds, in whole-leaf sachets inside a teal tin made for weddings. Single-serve tea turns up on many favor lists, and at $0.50 a sachet it works if you open the tin and bag one sachet per guest; one tin covers 30 guests, so a 100-person wedding needs four. Each cup has 40–60 mg of caffeine, which matters for an evening reception. 4.6 stars from 271 reviews.

The practical one: a basket of flip flops for guests whose shoes hurt by the second hour of dancing. You get 13 pairs in each of four sizes, each pair tied with twine and a size card, plus a "Here's a treat for your dancing feet" sign. That works out to about $2.06 a pair; the largest is a US size 10, so some bigger feet won't fit. 4.5 stars from 814 reviews.

For a summer or outdoor wedding, a plain folding fan is a favor guests use in the moment and then take with them. A WeddingWire poster was told that guests who pick one up tend to keep and reuse it, and another that about 80% of guests at a June ceremony would want one. These are 9 inches open and plain white, so you can add your own tag; about $0.36 each, 4.8 stars from 160 reviews.

Bottle openers were the most consistently praised non-edible favor: one WeddingWire commenter said a bottle opener was the only favor from past weddings they still use, and a bride who used skeleton keys as escort cards said few were left behind. Not every thread agrees (in another, key-style openers flopped, and a commenter warned that cheap bulk openers can be flimsy), so test one first. This pack has five key styles with thank-you tags and key chains, about $0.37 each, 4.8 stars from 1,856 reviews.

A ceremony prop more than a take-home gift: you leave a pack on each seat, guests use them on the spot, and there's nothing to leave behind. Each pack holds 7 three-ply sheets in a resealable pocket pack, and it isn't printed with names or dates. About $0.29 a pack; 4.7 stars from 345 reviews.

A zip bag with electrolyte powder, vitamin C, mints, a collagen eye mask, a makeup-remover wipe, ibuprofen and an antacid. At $6.20 a kit this is the priciest favor here, so it makes sense for a wedding party or a destination weekend rather than 100 guests, and some couples will want to skip the pain reliever. 4.8 stars from 573 reviews.

For a beach or garden wedding: single-use gel packets of about 3 ml each, enough for a quick top-up of face and arms rather than a full-body application. In a beach-wedding forum thread, a couple planned to hand out sunscreen and bug spray for their boat outing, though nobody reported how guests reacted. About $0.19 a packet; 4.6 stars, but only 54 reviews so far.

The seeds are already in the envelope, which is worth checking because many cheaper "seed packet" listings are empty envelopes you fill yourself. Each packet (3.25 × 4.5 in) carries a short thank-you poem instead of names and dates, so it isn't tied to your wedding and guests have no reason to leave it behind. About $0.95 a guest; 4.7 stars, though only 59 reviews so far.

This is the holder, not the tickets: 100 small glassine envelopes (2.5 × 4.25 in) that you fill with $1 or $2 scratch-offs and seal with your own sticker, which isn't included. Scratch-offs came up in several WeddingWire and Mumsnet threads, and one couple said guests loved them even when they didn't win. About $0.19 an envelope plus the ticket, and lottery age limits are 18 or 21 depending on the state, so check yours. 4.6 stars from 467 reviews.

Better as a table prop than a take-home: leave one per table, collect them at the end and you get the candid shots no photographer takes. Each camera has 27 exposures and a built-in flash, and developing the film costs extra, so budget for that before you order. One WeddingWire poster described photo-booth strips as memories rather than candy; this is the low-tech version of the same idea. 4.7 stars across 849 reviews.

Champagne-colored ribbon wands with a warm LED and a small bell, meant for the exit photo. They're a handy substitute when a venue doesn't allow sparklers. About $0.64 each, with three light modes; 4.4 stars from 202 reviews, a little lower than the other picks here, so test one before the day.

Only worth buying if you plan a bubble send-off: in one WeddingWire thread, heart-shaped bubble bottles were the favor nobody used because there were no kids and no exit. Each wand is a 4.25-inch tube with a leak-resisting stopper that fits in a pocket, and the listing pitches bubbles as the alternative to rice that doesn't attract birds. About $0.26 each; 4.7 stars from 1,162 reviews.

Per the listing, each set has a coloring book, a six-color crayon pack, a game or scavenger-hunt card and a paper bag to take it all home in. Mumsnet posters suggested activity packs for children, and this one is about $1.29 per child. 4.8 stars, 93 reviews.