I think out of all the wedding-related items, wedding favours are the ones that we’re quite nonchalant about.
Probably because both our supermoms are footing the bill for wedding
favours so we’re giving them free rein on what they want to give out as
our wedding favours! Korang nak kasi periuk ke, sudu garfu ke, happy
call pan ke, lantak korang lah.
Hahahahahaha baik pe majlis orang kahwin dapat happy call pan as berkat. Makcik blok sebelah pun sure datang untuk redeem siot.
Oklah, actually both our supermoms have decided on food items because dorang sepakat cakap: “
nanti kasi kipas lah, bowl kaca lah, bukannya orang pakai, nanti dorang buang… sayang“.
Which I agree with, actually. I’ve been to countless weddings where
they give such things and I’ll just chuck it on my living room table or
selit bawah carpet and before you know it, my mum has already thrown it
away. Buat menyemak, she says.
I usually appreciate food items more because I get to enjoy it, even
if for a few minutes. At least tak buat menyemak, but boleh buat jadi
kenyang, betul tak?!
(Side story: I think one of the wedding favours I’ll never forget is
Iffah’s! She gave away these bloody ~divine~ chocolate cupcakes baked by
a girl who actually does it for leisure and not for business! SEDAP
GILZ LAH SAK.
Iffah also gave away wet tissues (don’t ask me why she had two
different favours) – I know that sounds quite weird – like, huh, wet
tissues??? As berkat??? – but it is super damn practical lah please. We
put ours in my mat punya motorbike box and dude used it everyday since
Iffah’s wedding to wipe his motorbike whenever he’s waiting for me.
(Side, side story: Dude
refuses to acknowledge the fact that he has mild OCD. I have
ten million
pictures of him cleaning, wiping, washing something in my phone and
I’ve threatened to publish a “Saliheen Cleaning Things” album, as
inspired by “
Kim Jong-il Looking At Things” blog so he better
not dismiss me the next time I fret over his OCD.))
Because I have a lot of time to waste (as always) I’ve decided to do a
list of possible wedding favours just to see what other options there
are out in the market. This might also help in case our mothers change
their minds and want something else instead.
Food Item as Favours
Strawberry Jam / Blueberry Jam / Blackberry Jam / Honey
Received jams before from local Malay
weddings. Very nice idea, something that people will eat so tak akan
wasted and tak akan terbuang. Plus you get to be all cute and creative
with the packaging!
I wonder why a lot of people give jams and
honey and not peanut butter, though. Nutella ke. Kaya ke. Discrimination
seh. Must be because more mahal or something.
(As you can tell now, I don’t buy kaya or
butter or jam or honey or peanut butter or nutella for my family so I
really have no idea which one is more expensive than the other.)
Chocolates
One of the more popular type of favour that I always receive at weddings!
This favour can come in different shapes and forms: There’s the
personalized chocolate bar types, the chocolate pop types (which can
come in different shapes and designs), the chocolates-in-a-box types…
(Source: Unknown)
Of course if you want something simple and fuss-free, you can just
buy Toblerone or Snickers or Mar bars in bulk, wrap with ribbons and
there you go! Some might call this method malas ah but
hey – if there are other important things to attend to or pay for,
malas pun malas lah.
Pulut Kuning with Telur
Simple and traditional! As an adult, whenever I go to weddings that
give out eggs as favours, I will always feel very nostalgic. Remember
the times when weddings decor only consist of a plain dais, white
curtain scallops and hanging lightbulbs, families bergotong royong to
masak for 1000 pax themselves and red-stained boiled telurs sitting on
top of pulut kuning in brown glass cups were the de rigueur wedding
favours???
Fuhhh… classic stuff.
Of course nowadays most will give the boiled telur as berkat, but
that’s it ah, it’s just the telur wrapped with ribbons or packed in
boxes je… yang comes with pulut dah jarang.
But in case you want to bring back the glory days of giving traditional pulut kuning with telur as berkats, there’s
Ovenly Sweet who does very simple but cantik ones:
There’s also
Rita Pretty Pastries, but I don’t know if she does pulut kuning for berkat because I didn’t see anything about berkats in her albums.
(Side note: Showed my mother the Facebook
pages of the abovesaid vendors and she told me to get quotes! She
thought there’s no such thing nowadays which is why we never get pulut
kuning berkats from majlis kahwin anymore.)
Macaroons
This is an option that my future mother-in-law is considering. (She
is also considering chocolates-in-a-box but my mat secretly wants her to
choose macaroons heh)
They also come in pop versions!
Macaroons can be quite pricey though, I
think it’s about $3 to $4 per piece? I’m sure we can get a discounted
bulk price for 500++ pieces but will still be pretty pricey as compared
to other favour types.
Muffins / Cupcakes / Brownies
(Source: Unknown)
Popular berkat choices! My mother’s no.1 choice for berkat now is cupcakes.
Of course there’s also the modern
cake in a jar but that’ll be too expensive for a 500++ pax order.
Lollipops / Candies
Back to the mother of all ‘pops’ – lollipops!
(Source: Unknown)
Easy to buy and DIY (or buy in nice
packaging terus) but might not be “appropriate” to give to makcik pakcik
datuk nenek moyang all. Nanti they sure say things like “Eh ape ni, kau kasi aku gula gula gini, ni semua untuk budak budak je!“
Eh engkau. Kalau aku bukak kau nya gigi
palsu, lollipop jugak one of the few food items yang kau boleh makan
without kau peh gigi kan?!
Cookies / Biscuits / Wafers
Ok lah, pun not bad. Might seem a bit like
school carnival/ school fair-ish, though. Last time during secondary
school banyak seh orang will sell cookies during school fair, sampai
bosan aku dibuatnya. Abeh semua rasa sama je. Biskut betul.
Popcorn
Korang ingat tengok wayang jer eh boleh makan popcorn?! Weddings pun
boleh kasi popcorn as berkat ok! Cuma so far I haven’t dapat popcorn as
favours from the weddings that I’ve been to ah. Sedih pe hidup.
Ok lah maybe because popcorn boleh cepat
lemau if never package properly and maybe because makcik pakcik auntie
uncle datuk nenek moyang tak reti nak makan popcorn so tak makes sense
lah eh to give such things to them.
Most of the time, pengantin nowadays yang
nak popcorn at their wedding will just rent popcorn machine jer, like
those provided by
Petitfour Express.
(Nani engaged them months back for her wedding! One of the things that
I’m looking forward to this September is hogging the popcorn machine at
her wedding hahaha)
Cinnamon Rolls
One of those favours which is impossible for
1000 pax guestlist (or even 500++) because I’m sure it will became
lembik and tak shiok but I’m listing them down anyway because they’re
sedap and lawa and sedap and lawa AND SEDAP.
And also got the ‘pop’ version!
Bagus eh sekarang, semua pun turn into the
‘pop’ version. Maybe should ask the vendors who sell pulut kuning for
berkat whether they can buat into ‘pop’ version jugak hahaha
Teabags
I’ve only gotten teabags as wedding favours once before but I really loved it ok!
Probably because I’m a hardcore tea lover – the only downside was
that I couldn’t bear to brew the tea because they were so fragrant and
so pretty :-(
(The one I got had five different flavours in one box somemore)
Somewhat related but actually tak penting…
How freaking cute are these teabags?! Nye heh heh heh.
Eh… idea…..
Might just be something that we can seriously consider…
(Oh, and if we do end up giving out teabags and you’re my guest and
you don’t like tea then whatevz ok, soak it in and suck it up, bitch.)
*****
Of course the concern with food items is that it might cepat basi or
berdanau, especially if the vendor tak jaga the timing of when they
bake/make the food items! (One of my girlfriends’ cake berkat started
berdanau around 3pm, I think the earlier batches yang dah give out to
guests might have been affected as well if they belum makan the cakes)
Which is why some people opt for non-food items as wedding favours instead.
Non-Food Items as Favours
Fans
(Source: Unknown)
I’ve received the sandalwood cut out fan kinds and the paper fan
kinds from weddings before! So far belum pernah nampak pengantin kasi
rattan fans
as wedding favours ah and I wonder why hahahahaha. WHAT WHAT. Family
melayu kan always go beach go chalet to barbeque barbeque! Very penting
to have these rattan fans to kipas kipaskan the charcoal so the food
gets barbequed properly ok. Got guna ok.
I actually suggested giving away
battery-operated handheld fans
because as a guest, I probably wouldn’t mind getting one to battle the
heat during train rides and in the office! But my mat was being a loser
about it so… we’ll see how that goes.
Fork and Spoon
I think giving fork and spoon favours is good and practical! I once
received this at a wedding and am now using it in office whenever I pack
lunch from home. Some even
come with chopsticks! Will be even more bermakna if your spouse-to-be is Chinese lor.
Travel-sized Grooming Kit
Pun pernah get travel-sized grooming kit as wedding favour. Can be
quite useful for some people ah… for some reason I didn’t have a reason
to use it so I decided to throw it away after keeping it for awhile
“just in case”.
Hand Towel / Handkerchief
Not really a big fan of hand towels because I don’t really have a use
for it. I think my mum usually use them as spare kain for air tumpang,
kuah spills, that sort of thing ah.
The omputeh handkerchiefs are very nice though!
Unfortunately, I don’t know how practical it
is to print personalized handkerchiefs as wedding favours here in
Singapore. Might cost an arm and a leg?
Soap
I don’t usually use soap berkats that I get from weddings but soaps make such pretty berkats!
Candle
Terus terang cakap kalau dapat lilin as berkat selalunya aku tak pakai ah. Haha.
I do have friends who minat this sort of
thing though (you know, aromatherapy, potpurri, stuff like that) so this
might appeal to those who are into that sort of thing.
Salt and Pepper Shakers
(Source: Unknown)
Quite cute, but I don’t use the
salt-and-pepper-shakers favours that I’ve received. They usually end up
under my bed for months before getting thrown away during my bi-monthly
spring cleaning exercise.
My mother pun tak pakai, because she will
continue using her trusty gedabak containers where she stores her rempah
ratus and stuff.
Mugs
Quite ok as wedding favours!
Having one extra cup to use in the house is not really a bad thing, what.
Ok sidetrack sikit, please tell me how adorable is this:
(Source: Unknown)
So cute, can parking your biskut bawah your cawan.
Mini praying mat
Quite a good idea, yes???
My friends and I went out for dinner one
night and we were joking around about berkat orang kahwin (I have no
idea why and how we can even come up with jokes about berkat orang
kahwin haha) and someone said in jest “Kasi kau sejadah baru tau”
or something along that line, and all of us burst into laughter –
before finding out that one of the kahwing-kahwing couple at the table is going to give a mini sejadah as berkat at their upcoming wedding! Haha whoops!
I MUST clarify, though, that it was NOT
the idea of giving sejadah as berkat that we were laughing at! It was
in response to something someone said and the reply “sejadah” just made
it funnier, that’s why kita laughed lah.
The idea of giving mini sejadah as berkat itself is a good idea seh. And so mulia!
Glass Coasters
Hmmm ok ok lah, my mother pernah received
coasters as berkat before but as with some of the other things, itu
bendealah kumpul habuk je lah dalam her kitchen cabinet.
I don’t think my mother would want to give
glass coasters as berkat but if she did, I’d totally bug her to engrave
this pantun on them:
“Pecah kaca, pecah gelas, sebelum minum, harap alas.”
Hahahahaha amaciam baik pe aku nye pantun skillz.
***************
I’ve browsed through several sites yang ada
provide berkat services and I think I’ll do a run-through on their
prices when I have time at home – and yes, I will have time at
home since Ramadhan starts tomorrow! (Cannot go dating dating with my
mamat so kena stay home and main angin only ma)
Since I’m on the topic of berkats kan, can I just say that I was so
tickled when my mother dapat Maggi Mee as wedding favour?! I’m sorry lah
to those who have given out packets of Maggi Mee to their guests or
planning to do so but macam a bit lepak kan kasi Maggi Mee as berkat
hahahahaha.
And the one that my mother got was not even the whole package with
five Maggi Mee kat dalam seh, it’s ONE packet of Maggi Mee. ONE. LULZ
At least kasi lah dengan telur sebiji ke, boleh jugak masak Maggi Mee dengan telur.
Oklah, maybe because nak budget lah, nothing wrong with that, cuma
kalau budget pun, to kasi Maggi Mee as berkat seems… unconventional.
Bimla ada ape kalau nak budget!
Ni dah bukan “
No problem, ada Bimla!” lagi tau, ni dah jadi “
Don’t worry, ada Maggi!” seh hahahahaha
