One unique yet useful wedding favor you can consider giving out on your wedding day is the coaster. They are perfect as reminders of being guests at your wedding, which can be used at both formal and informal occasions.
Just like their commercial counterparts, coaster wedding favors serve the same purpose – reminding those who look at them of who they represent while ensuring that your tabletops are clear of any liquid rings and stains. Depending on the design and style of the coasters, they can be used both in the home and at more official places like the office or retail outlet.
While once upon a time, a coaster was literally that – just a coaster – today, they are not as straightforward. Coaster wedding favors can be simply designed drink mats to place your drink on and double up as place card holders or photo frames. And with such elaborate, exquisite designs on them, it is no wonder that you can find some of them framed up on the wall on display!
Coasters today come in various shapes and forms. Usually, they are square but contemporary lifestyle has dictated that there should not be one shape to the coaster. You can find circular or triangular shaped ones and even hexagon or pentagon shaped coasters. Combine these varieties of shapes with the endless possibilities of design and color, and you have a limitless choice of coaster wedding favors to choose from.
The simplest coasters are relatively uncomplicated ones both in design and style. Simple pictures can be laminated on them. Some inexpensive materials that coasters can be made of are hard board, thick plastic and paper fiber. Most expensive ones are made of ceramic or glass (usually frosted). They can even be almost totally plain and fully transparent. Photos of the bride and groom can be laminated onto the coasters on one side, with details like names, wedding date, venue and an appropriate, meaningful phrase on the other. Lamination is often used for the ones made of cork, plastic and paper fiber. The ones made of ceramic or glass will usually have the photo placed on them with a layer of thin hard plastic on the top to protect it.
If you are too shy to put your wedding pictures on the coasters, you may want to laminate other appropriate pictures based on your wedding theme, location or color. For your wedding by the beach, for instance, you can laminate pictures of footprints in the sand, waves, seashells, starfish, sailboats, flip flops or beach balls instead. For a winter wedding, use pictures of snowflakes or Christmas trees and for spring, frame your picture with floral designs and happy daisies. In all situations, however, do keep your wedding details on them as this will be your only personal stamp on the coasters.
Different styles of laminating, printing or sticking pictures onto coasters can be adopted, all of which are permanent. This restricts its flexibility and usefulness which is why coaster wedding favors today have more or less, evolved in to a dual role. Modern versions will have detachable photo compartments between the actual coaster and the layer of plastic on it. This means your wedding photo (or any other picture you place in it) is replaceable with any other. This will be better for your guests, as now they can truly make the coaster their own.
Your coaster gift can now hold their own precious pictures with your personalized message on them as a constant reminder of your wedding. Aside from photos, your coasters can also hold business cards, which will not just look pretty at home, but unique and adds a personal touch on your office desk or shop. Replace the business card with a photo of your retail outlet and voila, you now have an official place card holder with a picturesque view of your shop.
Coasters as wedding favors are not boring gift items. Gone are the days when coasters were just pieces of hard boards lying around on the table all stained and smeared. Today’s coaster wedding favors are often elegant, sometimes exquisitely designed. Some may even be of premium designs – designed by world-renowned clothes designers and branded as such. It is not difficult to see coasters decorated with motifs of entwining vines and hearts with a stamped picture of the bridal couple in the centre, or daisies and dandelions seemingly bending in the wind with a couple walking through the field through it all. At first glance, they may look like photo frames and it is only on a second look that you will realize that they are in fact, coasters.
