Okay so are they really that necessary? Everyone says it's rude to not give them out but come on! I'm giving 100 + people free food including: hor douves; dinner with salad, multiple sides, and two entrees; and a open bar.

I know I could do some DIY favors like candles or tins with candies in them, but even then that will end up being over 100 dollars and take up my time, which I don't have much of when raising my daughter.

So my question is just a flat, is it rude to not have them? And to people that are doing them, what are you doing?

We have a few options for favors...

Option 1: Custom coloring book. A friend of ours is a cartoonist so he'd do the drawings for free, and we just have to print and bind them.

Option 2: Bottles of water. FI works at a water place so we would get a deep discount.

Option 3: Donation in lieu. We have set a budget of $100. If we can't find favors for under that, we will donate the money to a charity of our choice. Then you either get the MC to say something, write a sign on the guestbook table, or put little cards on each table saying you have made a donation in lieu of favors.

Is it rude not to have them? No. No one really remembers the favors anyways.

Well traditionally, you're only supposed to give the females attending the wedding, a favor, so that might cut your cost even more.

Go to ebay, you can probably get a whole set/lot of favor boxes, tins, etc. and candy as well for under $50

Most people expect them, but you can also do bottled waters with your monogram, etc.   It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just a small keepsake of your wedding day.

I don't think they are necessary :-)

If you are looking for something inexpensive/easy, I highly recommend going the edible route. Something like Hershey's "Hugs and Kisses from the Mr. and Mrs." in little bags/boxes would be cheap and easy. Two of the best wedding favors I ever got were edible. One, the bride's mom made chocolate chip cookies, wrapped them in plastic and stuck a thank you sticker on them. YUMMY!  The other was very similar -- a piece of fudge wrapped in fun tissue paper. I think it is one of those things where anything goes!

I'm helping out on my niece's wedding in May.  They too are on a tight budget.  In lieu of cut flower centerpieces, we purchased small clay pots (50% off!) from Hobby Lobby and painted them her wedding colors.  We are then buying flats of annuals (flowers you would put in your garden) and planting a flower in each pot.  These will double as the centerpieces when clustered together in groups of 8 at the round tables, and we're placing a small note on each one thanking the guests for sharing their special day and asking them to plant the flowers and "watch love bloom".  Any flowers not taken home will brighten my summer garden!

At first, when the reception was going to be a sort of brunch/tea party affair, my favors to the guests involved letting them take home the mismatched (purposely) china I was going to buy for it. But now I'm not super sure. I might go the route of personalized fortunte cookies, as they are cheap and I can get them in bulk.

We eventually just decided on getting favor boxes and some ribbon to tie on them. Then buying candy in bulk and filling them with that. My guest list grew a bit out of control so I caved on doing some more of the creative DIY ideas....

honestly ive never been to a wedding where there were actualy favors. Most have bubble tubes but they are just plain. i think it really depends on where you are and the type of people you will have. also i have never been to a wedding with programs or menus or assigned sitting

My friends used their wedding cake as their favors, they didn't actually serve the cake but had it immediately cut up and put into bags for people to take home. So if you have the budget to include an alternate dessert and to use your cake as favors, that is an option! :)

My friend never did favors and everyone still loved the wedding. Like you said... you are already paying for people's full meals! 

For our wedding we are doing favors only if we have enough money to pay for everything else. It really is the last on our list of importance however. Even then we are only giving people coffee beans/fresh loose leaf tea.