After the end of your wedding reception program, it’s only fitting that you should thank all your guests for taking time off their busy lives to celebrate your wedding. One way of doing that is by feeding them, another is by sending them home with wedding giveaways to remember your big day.
Wedding giveaways don’t have to always be expensive for them to be meaningful. Here are a wide range of giveaways for you to choose from and some examples of local stores where you can buy them. So, whether you have a tight budget or the sky is the limit for your wedding, here are affordable, DIY gifts, and high-end souvenirs you might want to consider.
Divisoria Giveaways
A good place to look for affordable wedding souvenirs is in Divisoria. It’s unlikely that you’ve never heard of Divisoria as it’s the popular commercial hub in Manila known for selling low-priced goods. As my mom puts it, you can find anything you need in Divisoria for cheaper – as long as you know where to look. In this case, it means taking a trip down Tabora Street.
Tabora is filled with decorative items for designers, event stylists, costume makers, and more. You’re also likely to find many souvenir sellers along the street and inside the buildings along Tabora. There are sellers on the side who sell generic souvenirs, but if you look around, you’ll find plenty of stores providing customized gifts.
Wedding souvenirs in Divisoria range in price depending on what souvenir you’re buying. A small generic, non-customized figurine can cost as low as Php23 per piece, while bigger souvenirs like neck pillows can cost Php100. And since it’s Divisoria, you know prices can be haggled if you’re good at negotiation, especially if you’re buying in bulk.
DIY Giveaways
Going DIY can be a good way to save money by doing most of the labor yourself (or asking the help of your wedding entourage members). It’s also a great way of putting a little love into your wedding giveaways if none of the manufactured giveaways are working for you.
Here’s a video I found on YouTube providing really cool but simple ideas for wedding giveaways. I’ve also provided a list on where you can buy some of the stuff listed.
- Honey: ph (Php 2,500 for 1 gallon), supermarket, or your local seller
- Honey jars & small jars: Shopee or Divisoria
- Hot sauce: Contact commercial hot sauce manufacturers (e.g. Mama Sita) for bulk orders, supermarkets, or local sellers
- Paper bags: Supermarkets, Shopee
- Succulent: Shopee, SucculentsPH
- Sea salt: Shopee or a local seller
- Burlap/canvas bag: Shopee or Divisoria
- Coffee beans: Supermarket, café, or directly from a local seller
- Organza bag: Shopee or Divisoria
- Health products: Mercury Drug, Watsons
- Twine, cards, tape, lace, etc.: National Bookstore, Divisoria, craft stores
Take note that you’re likely to save more money if you buy some products (honey, hot sauce, sea salt, succulents, coffee beans) in bulk rather than buying it in stores meant for consumer use. So, to avoid overspending, you can try contacting manufacturers for bulk orders.
To give yourself time and to avoid rushing with the other things you need to prepare for your wedding, our complete wedding checklist recommends beginning your DIY giveaways up to five months before your wedding. Ideally, you should be done with all your giveaways three months before your wedding. But if you’re handing out perishable giveaways like pastries, you need to do it days before your wedding.
Artisanal Soap & Shampoo Bars
Let your guests remember your wedding each time they use your soap. Soak Artisan Soap offers different artisanal soap, bath bombs, shampoo bars, and more. They also offer custom soap in terms of color, scent, and carving (you can have you and your partners’ names carved into the soap!). However, some soaps take 4 weeks to make, so you might want to order them earlier.
Soaper Star also offers artisanal soap, shampoo bars, essential oils, and other body products. Fair warning that you might want to avoid packaging their products like food, because a lot of their products closely resemble cakes and cupcakes, and you won’t want your guests to take a bite out of these!
Scented Candles
Whether you buy from their shop or customize your own scented candle, Happy Island’s candles are refined and elegant, with a long list of scents that can range from extra relaxing to reviving. What’s great about their shop, though, is that they provide packaging services for those ordering in bulk for their wedding. That means they do all the work and you don’t have to add your own stickers to them when you get them.
Alice Blue has a wide range of candle types to choose from. Choose between candles in glass, pillar candles, diffusers, scented chips, and more. They have unique scents, including Baby Shower, Mediterranean Fig, Palawan Mystic, and Boracay Shores – the last two are perfect if you’re having a destination wedding on the beach!
Pastries
For a sweet treat your guests can have on the way home or the days after your wedding, you have a choice between plenty of pastries. Sophie’s Mom offers stunning pastries like cupcakes, cream puffs, and cookies that has that homemade vibe to it.
Bizu Patisserie is more on the high-end side of wedding giveaways (they also do wedding catering – and yes, it’s just as pricey), but you can bet that their pastries won’t disappoint. Their most popular pastry is their Macaron de Paris which comes in 10 unique flavors. A box of eight, however, is Php595, so it might be a bit hefty on the budget for large weddings. Their other pastries include truffles, caramel chews, brownies, cookies, and more.
DIT Treat Bag
Interested in giving out pastries and sweets but scared not everyone will like what you’ve picked? Well, why not give them a bag, present a buffet of candies and pastries galore, and then leave them to fill up their bag with treats to take home? Sweet Tooth Dessert and Candy Buffet offers candy buffets starting at Php10,000 and donut walls starting at Php5,000.
Alternatively, if you really just want a simple jar of Nips or gummy bears, Party Favors PH offers an easier alternative.
Charcuterie Box
Probably the most expensive wedding giveaway in this list is the charcuterie box. Aside from cheese and cold cuts, charcuterie boxes are also filled with nuts, pretzels, bread, grapes, honey, and other things that go well with salty cold cuts. baRusticph has small to large boxes, some of which can even include a bottle of wine.
La Platteria’s charcuterie boxes start at Php2,000, but there’s a 10% discount for those buying more than 10 boxes. If you want this as your wedding giveaway but still want to cut costs, consider buying these per table or per family instead of per person, as their smallest box feeds 3 to 6 people.
Beer and Shot Glasses
A simple and understated form of upcycling, Cristal Glass Project takes old glass bottles and turns it into new items like drinking glasses, lamps, and other glass products. It’s a green gift, one your guest can use for many purposes at home.
For smaller glasses, there are shot glasses customized to have your photo, names, and wedding date. Sign Stop offers clear shot glasses and other drinkware.
Personalized Magnets
Your guests will remember your wedding each time they look at the fridge and see your magnet giveaway. Ref Magnet Wedding Souvenirs Manila have been operating since 1999 and can provide magnets to your exact style.
Aside from their magnets and other popular knick-knacks they sell in their store, did you know that Papemelroti sells customized wedding magnets? And it’s not limited to just flat magnets. Get a 3D magnet shaped like a church, a bride and groom, or many other shapes available. Discounts await if you buy at least 50 magnets.
Reusable Utensils and Straws
For a greener wedding giveaway, why not get them reusable utensils and straw packs? Sip PH is arguably one of the first Filipino brands to bring reusable straws into Metro Manila. Their company offers engraving on their products, and also discounts if you buy in bulk.
For straws in pouches or tikog packs (as well as other green products like shampoo bars, menstrual cups, and bamboo toothbrushes), Go Zero PH offers a natural and local take to going green.
Author: Justine Lubag
Justine loves costumes, puns, horror films, and blue dresses. A literature graduate from the south, she writes online content for a living but is super shy about others reading her fan fiction.
