Every bridal shower host wants to find the perfect favor for party guests, something that works with the theme of the party, is enjoyable and useful, looks pretty and is inexpensive. With perhaps 50 to 75 guests at some showers, these essential purchases add up! Now that many showers have gone co-ed, with both men and women attending, party hosts have even more to consider – how do you choose a favor that everyone will love?

We have the top suggestions right here:

Favors to Eat

•Godiva chocolates: from raspberry-filled starfish shapes to key lime truffles, rich dark and white chocolate in theme-appropriate forms, Godiva is the gold standard of edible party favorites since each two- to three-piece box is under $4, www.godiva.com.

•Homemade chocolates: You might get them at a candy shop or make them yourself using melted chocolate and plastic candy form trays, adding sticks to turn your creations into chocolate lollipops. Craft stores supply candy form trays in a host of theme shapes: beach (starfish, seahorses and beach balls), hearts, wedding, winter (snowflakes and snowmen), flowers, etc. Use tinted chocolates bought right at the store to make your home-melted favors conform to your theme.

•Chocolate roses, with the ends wrapped in color-coordinated foil.

•Fortune cookies: Buy these in bulk at an Oriental market, or make your own. For a little extra flair, dip them halfway in melted chocolate and dust with colored or theme-appropriate edible baking sprinkles. Gourmet shops sell theme-shaped sprinkles in the shape of hearts, snowflakes, balloons, fish, you name it.

•Chocolate-covered everything: Dip some strawberries, dried apricots, cherries, peanuts, Oreos, pretzels, and even coffee-stirrers and spoons into melted chocolate and then let solidify on wax paper before packaging as favors. Use a specifically packaged mix, which you’ll find in gourmet shops and supermarkets, to get the best results. They’re incredibly easy, microwavable, a great group project to work on, and they taste terrific.

•Sugared almonds, the traditional bridal gift, either in white or pastel shades. While you’ll find these in craft shops, you can also find them in bakeries and gourmet food stores, as well as online.

•Petit fours. These little frosted cakes are another traditional choice among the bridal set. Like mini-wedding cakes, these might be filled with strawberry, chocolate, or whipped cream and iced with pastel or white frosting and a mini-rose piped on top. Box these individually in Lucite boxes for the best presentation.

•Jelly beans or packaged candies like Mounds Bars, Twix, or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in bags, boxes or tins. Hit the bulk warehouse store to get these by the case, and get your presentation packaging and ribbons at www.blissweddingsmarket.com.

•Brownies: Dress them up with theme sprinkles, frostings or use a cookie-cutter to shape them into stars, hearts, or other theme-oriented shapes and package individually.

•Sugar cookies: Make them yourself or use a pre-packaged sugar cookie dough. Cut them with a fun, theme-oriented cookie cutter found at the craft or gourmet store, frost with a thin layer of colored icing, and pipe on designs with white icing.

•Chocolate-chip cookies: Bake yourself or let Mrs. Fields do it for you in a variety of flavors.

•Meringue cookies. Get a great recipe and pipe out these white or pastel-colored clouds to harden and serve.

•Tea basket: Fill a basket with a beautiful or fun-message tea cup, a selection of packaged tea bags in a variety of flavors (try the Tazo sampler at Starbucks), some individually-wrapped cookies or sugar wafers, and a great paperback novel.

•Personalized wine or beer bottles, with labels you can create yourself.

Mood-Setting Favors

•Candles: Choose from an enormous variety of shapes, colors, scents and sizes at the craft shop or online. Add a pretty candle holder or candle platform tray to complete the gift.

•Aromatherapy products: They might be candles, scent oils, scented room mists, and potpourri.

•Pampering Products: Fill mini-baskets with assorted pampering products like hand creams, cocoa butter lotions, oatmeal soaps, salon-style hair products like shine enhancers, bright and sparkly nailpolishes, etc.

•Massage basket: Fill a basket or tin with a selection of massage oils in several scents -- vanilla, lavender, sandalwood, and jasmine are just a few romantic choices in aromas – and add a gift book or video on how-to’s for couples massages, foot massage and reflexology charts, and a CD of relaxing music as background.

•Music CD’s: Select a variety of mood-enhancing music from soft jazz to instrumental to Native American sounds. Pick your favorites and burn your own CDs, or ask a store clerk to help you choose some unique selections at a bit more of an expense.

•Champagne basket: Fill a basket with a great champagne and two champagne glasses, and add in a small packet of fresh strawberries, which enhance the flavor of the drink

•Wines: Check www.winespectator.com for ideas on unique vintages and the latest top-rated wines on the market.

•Single flowers: The most elegant and beautiful favor I ever received was a single freshly-cut white gardenia set in a clear, square Lucite box, with silk greenery and just a bit of water added to the box to keep the flower moist. Simply gorgeous. Another option might be individually wrapped single roses, lilies, sunflowers, or a big, bright Gerbera daisy, which you can get for just a few dollars each at a nursery or flower wholesaler, even at bulk warehouse stores like Costco.

•Gift certificates for dinner or dessert at a dimly-lit, romantic restaurant or lounge in town.

Favors with a Future

•Picture frames (with or without a photo of you and the guest): Choose from swirly Victorian silver styles to modern silver frames, laser-cut wood frames, novelty frames in color and with decorations, or a frame on which you’ve engraved the person’s name or a favorite quote.

•Picture-feature gifts: If you have a great photo of the bride, or even a great photo that works with your theme (such as a shot of the Eiffel Tower, or a sunset over the ocean), feature that photo in a keepsake favor at www.shutterfly.com or your favorite film developing site that can imprint your photo on anything from coffee mugs to magnets, tee shirts to calendars to mouse pads to coasters.

•Books: Choose from inspirational gift books, poetry collections, quote books, humor titles, books by a favorite author, recipe collections, or small, graphic-oriented books that work with your theme, such as a book about flowers, seashells, lighthouses, etc. Some of my favorites for books as prizes or favors are:

     •Gift From the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
     •A Short Guide to a Happy Life, by Anna Quindlen
     •Highballs, High Heels: A Girl’s Guide to the Art of Cocktails, by Karen Brooks, Gideon Bosker and Reed Darmon
     •365 Ways to Relax Mind, Body, and Soul, by Barbara Heller
     •Even God Is Single: So Stop Giving Me a Hard Time, by Karen Salmansohn
      (Great for your single friends!! This book is laugh-out-loud funny
      and empowering for the uncoupled friend or bridesmaid)

•Bookmarks: Printed either with theme-oriented graphics such as the Eiffel Tower or a Tuscan vineyard, famous quotes like Anais Nin’s “Dreams are Necessary to Life,” superheroes and children’s book characters, flowers, sandcastles, inspirational sayings, etc.

•Journals with pens. Check out both larger and smaller, specialty bookstores for a wide range of journals with decorative covers and inside quotes and messages

•Magnets with great sayings on them (as in, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all” – Helen Keller)

•Keychains with great sayings, quotes, pictures, or even mini mirrors on them

•Coffee mugs with great sayings on them (as in my absolute favorite from Maya Angelou’s line of gift items: “Only equals can be friends”)

•Potted flowering plants or seedlings the guests can plant and watch grow for a season or forever. Here’s a great tip for a truly useful potted plant that looks more expensive than it is….Buy well-grown rosemary seedlings that stand more than four inches tall and wrap the plain plastic holder with colored foil and a ribbon.

Favors to Wear

If your guest list is small, under 20 people, you might want to give out slightly more expensive favors with style:

•Charm bracelets

•Initial necklaces

•Good luck bead bracelets (such as the popular feng shui ‘love charm’ bracelets and holistic jewelry at www.mjgdesigns.com)

•Ankle bracelets

•Heart locket necklaces or bracelets

•Tiaras: Get these fun, colored styles at accessory shops where the pre-teens go. Especially in the months before prom-time, you’ll find a ton of great tiaras, jeweled hair clips and ultra-flirty accessories to choose from.

•Imprinted, colored rubber band bracelets with great sayings on them (as in, “My diamond bracelet is being cleaned,” “I’m the favorite,” and “Woman of Substance”)

•Tee shirts with great sayings or graphics on them. Buy these from a gift catalog or make your own using graphic transfer paper and a printout from your home computer, or use fabric pens to write out a message or draw designs.

•Hats with great sayings printed on them

•Fuzzy slippers

•Robes: Go with a lightweight silk or satin in a pretty pastel color…or fire engine red!

•Scarf and gloves sets: Elegant neutrals or bright and playful blue leopard print

•Sunglasses: Again, you can choose elegant styles or bright colors

•Nail polish sets: In useful wine colors, brights, pastels or playful sparkly or iridescent teen-type styles

•Perfumes: Always a great gift, choose something new and original, or go with a smaller scale of a fine perfume. As an added plus, the perfume might work with your party’s theme, such as ‘Sunflowers,’ ‘Happy,’ and ‘Ocean Breeze.’

Gifts of Charity

Some hosts prefer to make a donation to charity in lieu of favors both at weddings and at bridal showers, especially if the bride and groom are very active with a particular foundation or cause. So if you decide to donate, create pretty announcement cards on your home computer using attractive card stock, and be sure to attach a little something to the card, so the guests get a little treat as well. Some ideas:

•A foil-wrapped chocolate heart to accompany a donation to the Heart Foundation

•A pink ribbon pin to accompany a donation to the fight against Breast Cancer

•A small panda magnet to accompany a donation to the World Wildlife Federation

•A small starfish magnet or charm to accompany a donation to an oceanography institute

•A pack of mints as a ‘Breath of Fresh Air’ to accompany a donation to the American Lung Cancer Association

•A baby picture of the bride to accompany a donation to the March of Dimes

•A small picture gift book on the same subject to accompany a donation to a specific charity working to save, say, baby seals, whales, the spotted owl, etc.

****NOTE: Please check out any charity or foundation you’re planning to donate to at www.give.org, a clearinghouse that publishes the ratings and legitimacy of established charities out there right now.****

Favors for Co-Ed Showers

The men are not likely to want a charm bracelet or a book of romantic poetry, so if you’ll have a co-ed guest list where you’ll need each gift to please both the men and the women, then choose favors from these Co-Ed Friendly possibilities:

•Bottles of wine

•Bottles of liquor, such as brandy, cognac, Grand Marnier

•Martini sets

•Unique shotglasses or martini glasses

•Travel decanters

•Cocktail shakers

•Decorated coasters

•Unique microbrew beers from different countries or states

•Godiva chocolates

•Picture frames

•Music CD’s

•Movie videos or DVD’s

•Coffee mugs

•Travel mugs

•Gift certificates to coffee shops, music stores, movie rental stores, movie theaters, restaurants, and more.

•Coffee baskets

•Keychains

•Books and gift books, with a theme-oriented bookmark

•Boxer shorts with team logos, sayings or graphics like smiley-faces, hearts, snowmen or tropical fish. Check out JoeBoxer.com for a wide selection of styles for men and women.

Favor Bars

No, not chocolate bars. These are lineups of craft supplies at a table where guests create their own custom-made favors in a scent, color or design of their choosing. Consider the following:

•Massage oil bar: You supply small bottles of oil, and then set out a variety of scented essential oils, like rose, musk, lemon, sandalwood, etc. Guests can mix their own scents in a pure aroma or combine several favorites for a unique blend.

•Bath salt bar: Set out pretty containers of scented and colored bath salts, along with scoops and clean containers in a variety of shapes, and guests create their own layered bath salt dispensers in colors that match their bathroom décor.

•Potpourri bar: Set out several different kinds of potpourri mixes, along with several different kinds of containers. Again, guests can choose their favorites or mix their own arrangements.

•Chocolate candy bar: Set out baskets or containers ready to be filled with the guests’ selections from a dozen or so brands of mini-chocolates or flavored truffles in dessert cups.

•Pamper Me Bar: Guests fill their ‘shopping bags’ or baskets with an assortment of mini- or travel-sized pampering items, such as cuticle cream, lotions, lip glosses, lip shimmer,  hair shine spray, colored eye pencils, lipstick cases, perfume spritzers, soaps, and oil blotting papers.

•Photo Bar: Get out those Polaroid cameras with plenty of film cartridges, and have guests take fun group or pair pictures throughout the party. Afterwards, they can put their favorite pictures in decorated paper stock picture frames for taking home afterwards.

Wrap It, Box It, Tie It

You can make a great favor even better by wrapping or packaging it in a way that makes for a terrific presentation. Even the most inexpensive favor – like a tea candle – will look terrific if you place it in a little velvet bag tied with a gold string and tassel, for instance. So check into the following ideas for great gift presentations:

Place each favor or gift in a:

•Décor-printed cardboard box

•Plain cardboard gift box that you’ve decorated with theme stickers and a bow

•Clear or pastel-colored Lucite box with a lid and a ribbon tied around it

•Velvet bag, tied with a braided cord with tassels

•White or colored tulle bag, with curly ribbon or printed velvet ribbon tie

•Plastic tube or shaped container, such as a heart-shaped gift box

•Printed Chinese takeout container

•Gift bag, either plain colored paper ones, cellophane bags, hole-punched luminaria bags (some come in metallic colors).

•Gift bag you’ve used rubber stamps and stickers to decorate

•Baking tin (Check gourmet and even craft stores for a great variety of designs and sizes)

•Votive candle holder

•Mini-vase

•Martini glass

•Nest (buy these at craft shops – perfect for placement of sugared almonds or egg-shaped candies)

•Mini fishbowl

•Small, carved-out pumpkin with orange or yellow shredded paper filler or tissue paper placed inside

•Small basket (bought for $1 or so at a craft store)

•Decorated oversized envelope (for gift certificates and charity donation announcements), topped with bows or attached silk flowers, ribbons, or keychains. Visit www.blissweddingsmarket.com for all of your favor packaging supplies and accents.

For any packaging, always perfect it with the little details: colored shredded paper filler, tissue paper in pastels, brights, metallics, or iridescent, shaped confetti in larger amounts, colored stones or fishtank gravel, even white or colored feathers – which is becoming very popular right now as a gift box filler.

Print out a lovely label for each favor or prize. Use a pretty, decorative font on your home computer along with some colored or patterned card stock to create labels, and choose your message. ‘Thank you for sharing this day with us’ might be a great message for co-ed shower favor labels.

Another label idea is to print out any directions the favor might require, such as directions for planting a seedling, or whether or not chocolate-dipped items need to be refrigerated. Attach labels with a length of ribbon, to make it easily removable from the gift item.

Looking for a way to personalize decorative favor boxes or bags? Use the bride’s first initial, or both the bride’s and groom’s initials entwined in a heart.