Wedding Favor Tags: Seven Wording Ideas by Favor

Start with the favor itself. A tag on a jar of honey reads differently from a tag on a seed packet or a mini bottle. Pick a main line of two to five words that fits what the guest is holding. Add your names and your wedding date below it. That's all a small tag has room for, and it's all guests need.

A favor tag only has room for one thought, so make it the one guests will read first.

1. Thank-you tags that fit any favor

"Thank you" is the safest line on wedding favor tags. It works on candy, candles, plants and bottles alike. Giving several kinds of favors? One thank-you tag lets you print a single design for all of them.

Thank-you wording that fits a small tag:

• Thank you
• Thank you for celebrating with us
• With love and thanks
• Thanks for sharing our day
• From our hearts to yours

The two-word line reads best. Longer lines shrink in a script font and get hard to read from arm's length. Want to say more? Write a sentence on the back by hand for your family table.

Thank-you wording for your actual thank-you cards is a longer job. The guide on wedding thank you card wording covers notes by gift type.

2. Sweet favors: candy, cookies, honey and jam

Food favors invite wordplay. Short rhymes fit the tag and make guests smile.

• Love is sweet
• Sweet thanks
• Meant to bee (honey)
• Spread the love (jam)
• A sweet ending to a sweet beginning (only on a large tag)

Add one plain line for allergens when you can. Rutgers Cooperative Extension's guide to food allergies lists the nine major allergens as milk, egg, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy and sesame. A guest with a nut allergy can't ask the cookie what's in it. "Contains almonds" or "Made with peanuts" under your names saves that guest a guess.

3. Plant and seed favors: succulents and seed packets

Growing favors suit garden and spring weddings. The wording usually plays on growth.

• Let love grow
• Love grows here
• Watch our love grow
• Plant these and think of us
• Grow with us

Seed packets need one more check before you tag them. Penn State Extension warns in Understanding Wildflower Seed Mixes that a mix may contain weeds or even invasive species. It advises checking which plants are in the mix and asking your local extension office if you're unsure. Your guests will plant these in their own yards, often in other states. A packet that holds a single named flower is the safer pick.

4. Drink favors and bottle labels for wedding guests

Mini bottles, coffee bags and tea tins work as favors and as a toast. Tag wording for drinks:

• Cheers to love
• Sip, sip, hooray
• Drink up, it's our wedding
• Love is brewing (coffee or tea)
• Pop, fizz, clink

Bottles often look better with a label than with a hanging tag. A wrap-around label of 7.5 × 1.75 in covers most of the front of a bottle. Before you buy bottles, wrap a strip of paper around one and mark where the ends meet. If that length is more than 7.5 in, the label leaves a gap at the back. If it's less, the ends overlap. Both look fine, but you'll want to know before you stick on a hundred labels.

A drink sign for your bar is a separate job. The guide on the wedding bar sign covers what the sign should list.

5. A donation instead of favors

Some couples skip favors and give to a cause instead. A small tag or card at each place setting tells guests what you did.

• In lieu of favors, a donation has been made to [charity name]
• We gave to [charity name] in your honor
• Our favor to you: a gift to [charity name]

Name the charity in full on the tag. Guests often look it up, and a vague "a local charity" invites questions. If a tax deduction matters to you, the Federal Trade Commission's page Before Giving to a Charity suggests one check. Look up the organization in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool. Do that before you print the charity's name on every place card.

Donation wording runs longer than other tags. If your line passes about 30 characters, a 2 × 3.5 in tag is too small. Set it on a card at each place setting.

6. Keepsake favors: candles, matches and small gifts

Lasting favors call for wording about the day or the light you shared.

• Love is a light
• A little light for a lovely night
• Thanks for helping us light up the night
• Strike up the love (matches)
• To remember our day

Candles and matches suit evening weddings. Check with your venue whether open flames are allowed before you hand out matches as favors.

7. Wedding gift tags for welcome bags and your wedding party

Wedding gift tags go on the larger gifts you hand out: welcome bags for out-of-town guests, and gifts for your bridesmaids, groomsmen and parents. Here you can name the person.

• So glad you're here (welcome bags)
• Welcome to [city]
• Thank you for standing with us (wedding party)
• For Mom, with love on our wedding day
• Thank you for everything

Gift tags for the wedding party are often few and personal. A printed tag with a handwritten name below it looks better than a printed name, because every tag is different.

How many words fit on a 2 × 3.5 in favor tag

A 2 × 3.5 in tag is about the size of a business card standing on its end. It has a hole at the top, so the top half inch is taken. That leaves room for one main line in a script font, your names and a date.

The rule of thumb is two to five words on the front. A longer line makes the type smaller and harder to read. Move the extra words to the back, or to a card at each place setting.

How to choose wedding favor tags wording

Start with your favor, then pick the line and what else the tag must say.

If you want a tag with each guest's name printed on it, our favor tags are the wrong choice. Every tag on the sheet carries the same wording. For a favor that doubles as a seat card, use escort cards, which take a guest list. Or write names on blank tags by hand.

How to print and punch your favor tags at home

Print favor tags on cardstock, cut them with a trimmer and punch the hole last. Test one sheet before you print them all.

Print at Actual size (100%), never "Fit to page". Fit to page shrinks every tag a little, and the crop marks no longer line up. Use cardstock between 80 and 110 lb cover (216 to 300 gsm). Thinner paper curls on a jar and tears at the hole.

Count your sheets before you buy paper. For 100 favors you need 9 Letter sheets of tags, or 10 A4 sheets. Bottle labels print 6 to a sheet, so 100 bottles take 17 sheets of matte sticker paper. Buy a few spare sheets for misprints.

Punch the hole after cutting. A standard single-hole punch is enough. Line the punch up with the printed circle, one tag at a time. Stacking tags to save time pulls the holes off center.

Our favor tags and bottle labels come with crop marks and a marked hole, in the same design as the rest of your wedding paper. You type your tag line, label line, names and date into the personalizer. Then you download a PDF and print it at home or at a copy shop. Every tag on a sheet carries the same line. If you give two kinds of favors, change the line and download a second PDF.

Want all your day-of paper to match? Our day-of suite includes the favor tags with the program, menu, place cards, table numbers, welcome sign, seating chart and signs. You can see the favor tags and labels in all four designs before you choose.