A DIY-loving bride has left people seething after revealing what she thought was a “cute” wedding favour.
Wedding favours are small gifts given out to guests by the bride and groom, as a little appreciation for attending their big day.
Popular choices are small bottles of booze, sweets, personalised bottle openers and other trinkets to keep around the house.
But one woman who has decided to create her own favour ended up in hot water with the internet.
Lexi, 24, has filled mini corked bottles up with sea salt for her guests to take home.
She shared the DIY process in a now viral TikTok video, which has totted up nearly two MILLION views.
The budgeting bride decanted a 5.44kg jar of sea salt into tiny glass bottles from Amazon, and stuck a sticker on each one to mark the big day.
“A little sea salt for all my favourite people,” she said.
The response has not been wholly positive for Orange County-based Lexi, though.
Attackers of the idea have branded her “cheap” and “unimaginative”.
“I would simply throw that away,” one critic responded.
“If you give me sea salt as a wedding favour then I’m giving you pepper as a wedding present,” a second said.
“So excited about my bottle of sea salt from Costco,” a third sarcastically penned.
Others found the favour confusing – and questioned why Lexi didn’t opt for a more “exciting herb” like paprika or thyme.
“My friend did this and it’s still in the kitchen unused,” one TikTok user weighed in.
“It’s been over a year.”
By Josie Griffiths, Deputy Digital Fabulous Editor and bride-to-be
When was the last time you spotted something in a shop window or browsed past it online and thought “that would be the perfect gift for 120 of my closest friends, work colleagues, relatives and boyfriend’s mate’s partners I barely know”?
I’ll tell you when, never, because there is NO universal gift everyone is going to love – unless you want to bankrupt yourself buying Rolexes and Tiffany jewellery, and even then they wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste.
So why do brides still pile the stress (and expense) of wedding favours on top of everything else we have to organise?
I’ve been to dozens of weddings over the past five years so when I got engaged, I already had a mental list of dos and don’ts for my own big day, and ditching wedding favours was firmly on it.
The cost of buying an individual present for everyone coming is huge, meaning many couples try and keep it in the under-a-fiver category.
But the reality is no-one wants a cheap, ill-thought-out keepsake – they’d probably rather one more free drink from the bar.
It’s not only that, wedding handbags are notoriously small, with no room to stuff an unexpected gift in, and catering waiters have a bad habit of whisking away the wedding favours when they’re clearing the coffee mug off the tables.
I bet none of my guests will even notice the lack of random gift on their dining table.
If you really hate the idea of not buying something for your guests, charity donations are always a nice gesture.
But the last thing your friends and family need is more random tat cluttering up their homes – so it’s time to save them the guilt of binning your Etsy-bought keyring.
However, some people said the idea was “thoughtful” and that they’d sprinkle the salt over their dinners for months after the wedding.
With the rise of themed nuptials, favours have begun to reflect the wedding’s theme or the couple’s personalities.
Food items, such as chocolates, cookies or regional delicacies, are popular choices.
And recently, there has been a trend toward environmentally friendly wedding favours, such as seeds, plants or sustainable products.
Modern trends also include digital favours, such as personalised playlists, e-books or virtual thank-you notes.
