Favors

I love getting favors at weddings and I love giving out favors. However, I can't stomach the idea of spending thousands of dollars on favors for one event. The truth is, favors aren't necessary. A friend of mine chose to forgo favors and nobody missed them. Still, it would be nice if we could give our guests a little something extra. I thought about chocolates, but having lots of chocolate delivered during such a hot summer.. well, they might arrive half melted. Eventually, I got sick of thinking about favors that people would like, but wouldn't break the bank. So I had every intention of skipping favors. That is, I had every intention of skipping them until I ate at the Mermaid Inn.

At the Mermaid Inn, you get something called a Fortune Fish after your meal. It's a thin piece of red plastic shaped like a fish that you place in your hand. You wait for it to curl and then read on the packaging what it means, depending on how the fish curled. My fiance and I always have fun playing with the fish, and we often bring it home to play it with again later. So one day, we had dinner at the Mermaid Inn and wondered how much one of those cost.

As it turned out, they don't cost much at all! So then we thought, "Wouldn't it be cool to give these to our guests?" Thus, the idea of using these as our favors was born. It's actually quite appropriate. It's red, which is a symbol of happiness and fortune. It's also a fish, which is a symbol of plentiful food. In Chinese, there is a saying that goes something like, "Every year there will be fish," which means that you will always have food and never starve. That is why a fish dish is traditionally present at weddings and other festive banquets.

Another item is now off my list! If you're curious, I ordered them online from here:
http://www.fortunetellerfish.com/?gclid=CMCrtciMj6MCFZdL5QodETkodQ