free worldwide shipping for all custom scarf orders
free worldwide shipping for all custom scarf orders
What guests take home, and one favor we have watched them keep
You have seen it at other people’s weddings. The night ends, the tables empty, and a row of small boxes and jars stays behind with the place cards. Nobody means it unkindly. Most favors are hard to carry and harder to use again. This guide covers what makes a guest take a favor home and keep it, and one favor we have watched them keep, a silk pocket square printed with the couple’s names. We should say the price early. Silk scarf wedding favors start at $35 a guest, from fifty guests, so this is a gift and not a trinket. Further down there is an honest section for smaller weddings and smaller budgets.
A favor has to pass three small tests on the night. The first is whether a guest can use it again. A jar with your date on the lid has one life. The second is whether it fits in a clutch or a jacket pocket at midnight, when hands are already full of shoes and phones. The third is whether it still works for someone who is not you. Names and a date in large letters across the front make an object yours rather than theirs, and guests are polite about leaving those behind.
Edible favors pass by being eaten, often before the cake. That is a perfectly good favor. It is just never one anybody keeps.
The favors that travel home have a few things in common. They are small and light. They can be worn or used the following week without explanation. The couple is present on them quietly, in a corner or along an edge, where it reads as a detail and never as a label. A good candle qualifies. So does a deck of cards, a linen napkin or a small print of the venue. We make one more thing that belongs on that list, and the rest of this guide is about it.
Bloom Wedding & Events planned a June wedding at a villa in Tuscany and ordered a silk pocket square for every guest, sixty-nine in all. The planner brought the artwork, a watercolor of the villa with the couple’s monogram in each corner. We printed it on organic silk twill at 33 by 33 centimeters (13 by 13 inches) and rolled every hem by hand in Como. Each one went into a handmade gift box.
Guests opened them at the dinner table.
Shirley Pisano, the planner, wrote to us a few days after the wedding.
“The scarves were so well received, everybody was enthusiastic. They wore them around their handbags, in their hair, on their suits, even on their phones. It was a brilliant gift.”Shirley Pisano, Bloom Wedding & Events
That list is the reason a pocket square works as a favor. At 33 centimeters it is small enough to knot around a bag handle, tie into a ponytail, fold into a breast pocket or loop through a phone strap, so nobody at the table is left out. It is a pocket square before it is anything else, and Shirley’s line about suits came unprompted.
It also leaves the table. In the photograph below, a guest has hers tied on the handle of her bag, outside in the daylight.
Most couples put their first names, the wedding date and the place in the border, sometimes with a monogram in one corner. The design itself can be the venue, a motif from your invitation suite, or one of our own designs personalized with your text. Kept to the edge, the names make the scarf yours without turning it into merchandise, which is why guests go on wearing it.
You send a print-ready PDF or PSD at the finished size. We check every file for print quality and make small production adjustments where needed. We do not create original artwork from scratch. For fully bespoke design, we recommend Ceci New York. Our guide to preparing a print-ready file covers the details.
Two sizes do most of the work at weddings. The 33 by 33 centimeter pocket square (13 by 13 inches) is the favor for every guest, one at each place setting. The 55 by 55 centimeter neckerchief (22 by 22 inches) is the welcome bag piece, the size guests wear all weekend as a neck scarf, a headband or tied to a bag. Other silks and larger sizes are priced on our custom silk scarves page.
Fifty pocket squares at $35 come to $1,750. Add a printed envelope for each at $6 and the favors for the whole wedding come to $2,050, delivered. An envelope with ribbon is $7.50, and a handmade gift box with silk paper is $11.45 if you would rather they open something. Fifty neckerchiefs at $60 come to $3,000.
These prices are for organic silk twill. They include the print, hand-rolled edges and free worldwide shipping, with customs and duties covered for the EU and the United States. Our guide to what a custom silk scarf costs walks through more order totals.
Once your order is confirmed and paid, production takes about six weeks including delivery. A finished sample is optional. It is $550, takes about four weeks including shipping, and is credited in full when you go to production. Production pauses each August, so for an August or September wedding, have the order confirmed and paid by 1 July. Send us your date and we will confirm what is feasible.
Couples tend to keep theirs as well. Ashlyn DeNeui Lyle mailed her wedding invitations on silk, fifty of them, for a June weekend on the French Riviera. Afterwards she wrote, “I haven’t stopped wearing the scarf, and we’re having one framed at home.”
Sara and Cyrill sent their invitations on silk in 2022. Four years on, theirs is framed at home.
Fifty is the minimum for both sizes, and it is a real one, because every run is set up and color-mixed for your design. If your guest list is shorter, our ready-to-wear collection ships single pieces within the United States. That works well for the wedding party or for parents, with something simpler on the tables.
And if the budget for favors is a few dollars a guest, a good edible favor is the honest answer. It will not be kept, and it will not be left behind either.
Tell us the wedding date, the number of guests and what you would like in the print. Message us on Instagram or write to hello@bybiehle.com, and we reply within one business day with pricing and a timeline. Everything for couples is on our wedding page. Planners will find the same pricing and a project brief form on our planners page.
What wedding favors do guests actually keep? Small, light things they can wear or use again, with the couple’s names kept discreet. Favors that are bulky, fragile or printed with a large name and date tend to stay on the table. A silk pocket square passes all three tests. At the June wedding above, guests had theirs on handbags, in their hair and on their suits.
Is a silk scarf a good wedding favor for men as well? Yes. At 33 by 33 centimeters it is a pocket square, and it folds into a breast pocket as easily as it ties onto a bag. After the June wedding above, the planner told us guests wore them on their suits.
How much do silk wedding favors cost per guest? A 33 by 33 centimeter pocket square in organic silk twill is $35 per guest, from fifty pieces, including hand-rolled edges and free worldwide shipping. A printed envelope adds $6, an envelope with ribbon $7.50, and a handmade gift box with silk paper $11.45. The 55 by 55 centimeter neckerchief is $60.
Can a favor carry our names without looking like merchandise? Yes. Keep your first names, the date and the place in the border, or use a monogram in one corner, and let the design carry the rest. Shorter reads better on silk and gives the design room to breathe.
Can the favor match our invitation suite? Yes. Send the artwork from your suite as a print-ready PDF or PSD at the finished scarf size, ideally 300 dpi. We check every file for print quality and make small production adjustments where needed. We do not create original artwork from scratch. For fully bespoke design, we recommend Ceci New York.
What if we have fewer than fifty guests? Fifty is the minimum for a custom run, because every run is set up and color-mixed for your design. For a smaller wedding, our ready-to-wear collection ships single pieces within the United States.
