Cheap party/table favors?!
Cheap party/table favors?
Not sure if I'll be given the funds to provide table or individual party favors, but we're having a company reunion in January, for about 200 people. Need something really cheap since it's going to probably be on me.
Our office products company was bought out 3 years ago by a bigger company (competitor) and our fomer chairman has graciously offered to sponsor a nice dinner here, in Southern California.
I supposed I could be really "goofy" and just put paper clips on all of the tables. That was our "first" and best selling product!
7 months ago
The Chairman is known for being very generous so no one will be likely to judge anything by the cost of party favors. The company closed 3 years ago and our memories have already been set - and they were good.
7 months ago
To clarify - the guests were all laid off except for a few that were transferred to the "new" company. But everyone loved the chairman and over 200 people are thrilled to come to this dinner. No hard feelings.
Answers:
7 months ago
The Chairman is known for being very generous so no one will be likely to judge anything by the cost of party favors. The company closed 3 years ago and our memories have already been set - and they were good.
7 months ago
To clarify - the guests were all laid off except for a few that were transferred to the "new" company. But everyone loved the chairman and over 200 people are thrilled to come to this dinner. No hard feelings.
Buy the box of plain sugar cookies at Walmart Bakery - they are 24 cookies for $3.00. Mix up a batch of icing using confectioner's sugar and water. Ice the cookies and then let the icing set up. Take one of the tubes of icing that already has the tip - and draw a paperclip on each cookie. Let dry and then wrap the cookie in cellophane, tie on ribbon. Place one cookie at every place setting.
Find the Giant paperclips - attach a small helium balloon on a ribbon to each paperclip and place one at each place setting.
Buy the little tiny white favor boxes that brides use for weddings - I think Walmart sells them very inexpensively with the wedding stuff in the craft department. Fill each box with some candy, close and tie with a ribbon. Make a small bow with a large paper clip tied in it. Hope these ideas help!
Dollar Tree
Why not take the products and use them in bowls. A bowl of clips mixed with other products and then in the middle put a few votive or tapered candle. You can even attach some of the items to a bunch of balloons.
~Good Luck~
I think paper clips are a great idea, but you can add to them to make it a bit more.
Get glass globes and/or cylinders and fill them with some paper clips and add flowers or alternate layers of paper clips and decorative stones.
I just finished a fundraiser sit-down dinner for about 150 people. We did super simple table decorations. We had a tall glass cylinder candleholder w/ 5 small votives around it on a colorful piece of fabric with ivy positioned around it. The candles were the most expensive, but you may be able to cutback a bit on those. Candles are simple and elegant, though.
Better to not put any favours out at all...anything you get that is cheap, will be cheap and likely your company will be remembered for that as a result. Put the extra money into the dinner instead.
Okay, if I understand your situation, the dinner is for employees of the non-gone company, right? In that case, I have two suggestions:
1) See if you can find anything (even those paper clips) that have the old-company's logo on them. In other words, the souvenir/favor comes from the fact that it keeps alive the memory of the old company. It could be ashtrays, stationery, amost anything that has the logo and brings back the memories.
2) Find something (or a few things) that are valuable enough to keep for themselves. Then, instead of cheap favors, give them out as door prizes. Everyone gets a number, and after the speeches are over, the winners are called out. The nice thing about this is that you can give away something worth having. (How about talking to the restaurant--which is going to get a lot of business from the dinner--about donating a gift certificate for two people for a future dinner? That wouldn't cost you a dime.)
Good luck!!
You could buy somelovely chocolate-covered almonds
in bulk, and some cellophane bags and pretty ribbon, and
pack them yourselves.... buy some little fake flowers, and tie them in with the ribbon... the packaging can be half the fun, especially if it includes something that can be kept as a little keepsake for a while .... to put up on a little shelf in the
kitchen, say, or on one's desk at home.
Don't use anything business-related.. It's after five, and
if it is boring to take your work home with you, it is even more boring to take it to a dinner party!
P.S. If the former chairman is sponsoring the dinner, why ever would you be responsible for the favors?
I have to admit that my favorite idea already given is the helium balloon held down with giant paper clip with little paper clips sprinkled around it. A fun idea as people walk in might be asking everyone who is attending to send in a picture and make a board with pictures of past employees in it and see how people everyone recognizes....even if many are still employed at the new company. Or does anyone have pictures of the old company with logo and stuff? Ask others to help with ideas for a trip down memory lane. Keep the table decoration simple and concentrate on the dinner and the fond memories.
Have a blast!