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Favor Ideas for a Geeky Wedding?
Rachel Grey asks: "I'm getting married in September to a fellow geek (in the MIT chapel, no less), and we're trying to find geeky wedding favors to give at the reception. Ideally these would cost $4 or less and would provide some instant fun for the guests, so that it doesn't matter if they actually take them home. Some good ideas we've had so far are tangrams (available in bulk for a little under $1/set) and micro Hoberman spheres ($4 apiece). Any more ideas?"
Why not do something in the spirit of OS, such as having one big "thing" and everyone having a "piece" this would involve everyone and could be fun. I'm sure that someone out there has an idea on what this "thing could be"
So how geeky is this going to be? Did you propose on slashdot? Is the wedding going to be webcast?
Carpe meam simiam!
I've been watching too much Futurama lately...
Or little water guns... but that might be messy.
Ah, screw it. Little bottles of alcohol.
is always fun! Of course... so is string, or paper, or anything if you know what to do with it.
Mini 2x2x2 versions are $5 or mini original 3x3x3 keychain versions are also $5...little more than you said it should cost but they would be entertaining for sure.
Just buy a bunch of lego type building blocks in bulk (real ones will cost more), and dump piles on each table. People can build things, and trade pieces, etc. Lots of fun.
Google doesn't index user sigs, so stop trying to "Google Bomb" with them.
The only wedding favor I still have is a yoyo. Much fun was had by all...
How about different colors of silly putty? You can buy bulk quantities of putty from Crazy Aaron's Puttyworld, http://www.puttyworld.com/index.html. You could then give everyone a portion, and they could play with color mixing and other fun uses for putty.
while they are a bit more expensive, you could get those little handheld remote control cars, maybe putting one per table or some. They are so simple, yet so cool.
j.goforth
legos
Nintendo Watches are cheap, nerdy, and the coolest!
I got my roommate a Flint sparker lighter thing at Home Depot for $3.50 or so. It's fun to play with, although I'm not sure if the sparks are dangerous. basically you squeeze a handle and it rubs flint against a piece of metal.
--burn the wedding pics and small vid clips right there at the wedding / reception and give out copies on cds. You can get the blank labels printed up now in advance so they are semi pro looking.
and had my father's memorial service there... Its a beutiful place, and I hope you have the wedding during good daylight so the light comes in through the moat nicely, its very pretty. Goodluck
Sleep is for the weak.
How about the Matchbox version of Lockheed-Martin's X-33 "Venture Star"? Unfortunately they don't do much other aerospace (if any).
(Maybe you can get a bulk discount?)
If you look around in wholesale surplus places you can often find the little calculator-style multi-meter in black plastic folding case for less than five bucks. Have a printing shop foil stamp the plastic cover. Duct tape is good, too...
*whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"
A good browse on American Science and Surplus should find you geeky and weird things for low-cost.
Yeah...hehe...we gave everyone at our wedding a copy of Loaf
You'll have that sometimes...
Does anyone else find it kind of telling that an article on X-Box posted at 02:47 has 106 replies whereas one about weddings posted three hours earlier only has 22?????
We geeks need to do more procreating or we'll just die out!!!
G4 Hackintosh
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
When my friends go married a couple of years ago they had sticks of rock with their names written in it, just like "Blackpool Rock".
"Watch the skies, keep watching the skies"
How about the Kinder eggs. You know the chocolate egg with a small capsule inside with a toy you can build. http://www.kindersurprise.com/ Guaranteed to keep people entertained for moments.
Make a CD of the wedding music, or your favorite songs, or make a theme. If you have a decent color ink-jet printer you can print cd labels and case inserts pretty cheap. Total per cd will be about $2.
Or if you want to be legal, you could burn and give out your favorite Linux distribution, or that GNUWin2 cd.
Another option is the Rubik's cube. You can buy a mini cube or a 2x2x2 cube for pretty cheap at www.hessport.com. Just remember to make a small initial purchase to get 10% off all subsequent purchases.
Congratulations and good luck!
Lasers Controlled Games!
Modify one of those air powered ping pong ball shooters to fire packets of rice. That way, geeks with bad arms and those who throw like girls (including girls), could get a better shot at you as you are leaving...
---- The geek shall inherit the Earth.
A buddy of mine gave out screwdrivers (as in hand tools, not mixed drinks), but he's a mechanical engineering geek, so that sort of thing might not be totally to your taste.
Canthros
Mousepads. Either get someone to put some text on it, or do it yourself. You could even have some nice, non-wedding clothes pictures done up before hand and out those on them.
Gorkman
They're a blast!! You can get them here (click on Miscellaneous Stuff), here, here, or any of these places. Adults and kids love them!
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
I would humbly suggest that, unless your families are geeks as well, you take it easy on the geek themed stuff. Hell, my family IS geek heavy (3 civil engineers, 2 electrical, 2 mechanical, 1 ceramic, 3 nurses, 2 physical therapists, geologist, and environmental science) and we gave traditional favors - Italian, to be exact.
Remember that favors are NOT gifts from the couple to the guests. They are tokens and remembrances. They should trigger fond memories when viewed in the future, not provide a distraction for the attention span challenged during the toast.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
My wife and I did bookmarks. Sure, its not terribley geeky, but perhaps you could do something in theme. We had a couple bible verses. You could try doing something similar, but use something like the GPL on it or something. :-)
:-)
Another idea is to use a love letter or something you sent him/her on the book mark. In retrospect I could have used the first email I asked my wife out on a date with. It went something like this:
int ask_for_date(char *me, char *you) {
if (boyfriend(you) == true)
return APOLOGY;
if (!free_friday(you)) {
rain_check(me, you);
} else {
return wanna_head_out(me, you);
}
}
But if you have anything similar to that, like a love letter or something that you both share and put it onto/into a bookmark I think its pretty cool.
(btw, that all compiled down into the wrong byte code when it ran, she did have a boyfriend, but I still got a rain check.
Norris/Palin 2012
Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
...didn't you notice my name is Rachel? It's not clear to me how I could be a fag too. Care to clarify, or would you like to just fuck off and leave me alone? Either option welcomed. (why i reply to these things is beyond me, sigh)
Anyway, sometime yesterday we also got the idea of slinkies. They provide a nice range of nerdiness depending on the user... to some they're just something fun to flip from hand to hand, but you can get as deep into the physics of the things as you want. And if people get sozzled enough they can run slinky races down the stairs at the hotel.
As for spending a fortune, isn't that what weddings are for? Seriously. Also the article suggests that $4 is an acceptable price point. I can guarantee you that EVERYONE will take home their mini tetris. Even if they don't want it they will know someone who does.
Lasers Controlled Games!
nah, the little key chain ones aren't that expensive...i've seen the 3x3x3 key chain rubik's cubes sold in dollar stores...they'd be fun...until everyone gets frustrated and starts hurling them across the room...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
wedding customized condoms...you know, condom's where the package says "Dave & Rachels Wedding, January 24th, 2002", or whatever is applicable...
Ideally these would cost $4 or less and would provide some instant fun for the guests, so that it doesn't matter if they actually take them home.
i'm sure you could get these for under $4 a piece...and hey, the reception could definetly become "instant fun" if people start using them!
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
The local skating rink has these flashy LEDs mounted on rare earth magnets for $2.50 a pop - their use is to turn off the lights and let the rink be a sea of flashy thingies.
The other good cheap but fun one would be to hand out kazoos and hope that a critical mass of people end up inspiring the crowd to play a piece together.
"You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
How about saving money on geeky favours and buying the universal party favour: Alcohol. Lots of alcohol. It wouldn't hurt to invite as many women as possible. This will only help the chances of the other geeks at the party. What do MIT geeks really want? Drunken women or geeky flashlight keychains?
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
I gave Swiss Army Knives to my grooms men. What geek doesn't need a good Swiss Army Knife.
The tardition at weddings (at least around my area...) is that the couple kisses everytime someone bangs their soon on their glass. Many recient wedding have required the guests to instead sing something, which is a lot more fun. (more so if they can't carry a tune. Anyone over 7 should be shot for attempting the Barney song though)
In your wedding make them do something with the gift instead. Mess up all the rubiks cubes, and only kiss when shown a solved one for example. Warning, make sure half the cubes are something simple like the donut holes, people will be mad if it can't be done, but if there is something simple, and they can try a few neighbor's cubes until they remember the trick they will think it fun.
What we did was buy some $9 2000 piece lego crates and dump them on the tables. They were colorful enough for the non-geeks to appreciate, and kept the geeks/nerds and kids busy while those who were more "sophisticated" could talk. Our reception had the fewest kids crying at it that I've ever heard of for 100 people -- and people stayed later than average, too.
If you're sponsoring an open bar, don't do the legos.
Hopefully, Mike will forgive me. You can see a few pics of our reception here.
Ha ha! I love your Lego cake picture. What a simple idea... but it really works.
You have to call this place!!! Tell them that you are putting together a geek wedding, they will be able to help out. They have TONS of stuff that would be awesome.
Here's the link.
I'd also get some Futurama items too.
Dolemite
Save the World! Use a Quote!
Why don't you burn linux distros for everyone? Maybe throw some FreeBSD in for flavor... CD-Rs are virtually disposable, so the only real cost would be the time spent burning them. Since your wedding is in September, wait until August so you can give all your non-geek (and geek) friends and relatives a nice shiny new version of your favorite distro.
"The chief enemy of creativity is 'good taste'" -Pablo Picasso
Seeing what higher education gets you these days, how about some nice applications at Burger King (seeing that McDonalds is closing...)
asking the government for permission to have sex?
and would be highly appreciated by most geeks.
Maybe you can invite lots of desperate elementary education coeds and serve lots of alcohol!
Sorry, couldn't resist that.
Seriously, though, I thought of those little XXX In a Box things that they sell at the checkout registers in bookstores. Like Zen Garden in a Box, and so on. I'm not sure if you could get them for your target price, but they would make cool favors. You could pick one that you like, or get a variety. They might be cheaper if you could get them in bulk.
You could try these:
Desk Toys
Mini Kits - this appears to be the original source for the kits.
Congratulations and good luck with your wedding!
Floating face-down in a river of regret...and thoughts of you...
Do what my wife and I did: don't buy silly trinkets. Instead, we placed cards on each table stating that we'd spent the equivalent amount of money ($1000) on donations to two charities (The Canadian Cancer Society and the Huntington Society of Canada).
You could do the geeky thing and make a donation to the EFF or something.
but it sure is fun. Whoopee cushions. If you get them at www.branders.com you could even have your names and the wedding date put on them.
Got to have the right kind of friends to appreciate them though.
dar
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
Customized Knoppix GNU/Linux CDs with some MIT and couple-specific media files on it. If you really want to go for the gusto, customize some of the games to incorporate pictures from the event. Dirt cheap if you burn them yourself.
Congrats, I just got married myself this past September. For my side of the wedding party (males) I got everyone a webcam. I thought it would be cool to let everyone keep in touch with each other, and the price was right: $C45.
just = (My)Opinion.toCents();
.. and which geek hasn't already one ?
Archie McPhee. And if not, you'll have fun shopping.
My husband and I gave out slightly geeky favors when we got married 13 years ago. A candy-making store searched their catalogs and found a floppy disk mold (5.25 inch, and thicker than the real thing) for us. We ordered floppy disks in dark chocolate with crispies, peanuts, and plain. The candy store shrink-wrapped each one. We created labels for 5.25" floppies on a dot matrix printer - with puns about combining our last names, and cute and humorous filenames on the 'disk'. The candy store attached the labels for us, and delivered the 'favor disks' to the reception place, which put them in the fridge for us.
We handed these out 1.5 hours into the reception, and geek and non-geek friends made lots of puns about them, and had fun with the idea.
We made enough extra to bring to workplaces for people whom we hadn't invited to the wedding.
glowsticks
rattlebacks
Kinky!
I'm sorry dear, I didn't realise what my geek friends would do with that much duct tape. We can try apologising to your brides maids again, can't we? I know those photos didn't make it too far on the internet, the link just got posted to a little visited site called slashdot. I'm sure those photos will never again surface to embarass your best friend. But you have to admit, they were right about being able to duct tape your father to the ceiling and the sticky would hold him in place. Honey, please tell me you are going to use that carving knife to cut me loose from all this duct tape, right? Please!
Some day we'll all look back on this wedding, laugh nervously and change the subject.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
If you are getting married, you are no longer a geek. You just another square who goes with the flow...
J.
Make felons out of your friends - and your inlaws! Dirt cheap and oh so NAUGHTY!!
... give one to every client ... customer ... entrant ... whatever! and tell them to pelt the bride when the minister says "You may now kiss the bride".
I myself had one in my pocket and gave it to my bride. Definitely confused her.
Infuriate left and right
Are you that guy who used to hang around on #trolls at irc.trollaxor.com? The bitter one that picked on girls?
If I remember correctly, your name on there was 'ian' and you were a sad loser who couldn't hold down a job. Spent all your time on the channel complaining about how you couldn't get any ladies. Your only point of contact with a girl around your age was the one behind the counter in the gas station.
Ah yes, I remember it well. For a while you were very nasty to serenarae in her journal, kept on going on about 'deep dickings' and so on like some sort of wierdo rapist. You obviously have something against girls, and should really see some sort of mental doctor to sort yourself out.
or give small bonsai trees, and help the environment.
Whatever, dude. You're still a useless waste of space, you insolent prat.
Shut your face, hypocrite, and stop picking on the nice lady.
Marriage, for all the idealism shared between the bride and the groom,
is not a contract between the people getting married.
It is a contract between themselves and the State, limiting
their rights, increasing their liability to the State, and
granting them few if any privileges that would not otherwise
be available.
If one actually *reads* and *understands* the laws and
bindings that he subjects himself to under the State (remember,
you're not binding yourself to your *spouse* but to the *State*),
and if one so informed still believes that he is making a rational
decision, then he has my blessing.
But not before he has actually (*actually*) read every word of the
marriage contract with the State, and certainly not before he has read
the case law regarding marriage in his State.
Which browser each of your guests used?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The best place to buy all your geeky stuff is at ThinkGeek.com!
he sucks so much fucking dick. that fucking dickhead. his everything sucks, not just his code. he is a fucking buttfuck asshole. he will die unhappy, prematurely, untimely. i want to kill him.
fucking linux sucks you fucking fag. you fucking stupid fag. linux hahahaha. /usr/include/linux, thats all i got to say about that "unix" your fucking cheesy piece of shit kernel is incoherent and poorly documented and its a fucking worse that solaris almalgumation of SYSV and BSD. FUCK YOU
Fuck you you windows loving fucking carpet munching bitch. FUck you.
MIT? and you fuck with windows?
FAKE FUCKING GEEK CUNT.
You are a fucking WINDOWS BITCH CUNT.
aahahajajajajajajhhshahahaha
You claim to be MIT and program windows screen savers as projects? HAHAHAHHAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH
FUCKING FAKER CUNT BITCH HAHAHAH
BWAHAHHAA
Die bitch. DIE.
At the reception, you can make your wife Open Source. (i.e. - free as in beer)
Of course, if Richard Stallman is there, he'll want to call her GNU/wife...
--- Generation X: The first generation to have SIG lines inferior to their parents... ---
Judging by all the laughter and other comments everyone had a good time and at the end of the evening a substantial number of tableclothes were missing.
Best of luck getting spliced.
Ed Almos
What could be more geeky than T-Shirts ?
I had custom T-Shirts made up. A friend who is an artist did a Hershfeld-style characature of my wife and I. We only had enough printed for the rehearsal dinner (which was still 50 people).
However, they were a big hit and in retrospect would have been great to give out to everyone. And as an added bonus, if I need to remember my anniversary I just look in the closet -- the date is on the shirt!
You could decorate the entire hall with them and I'm sure you could get thousands and thousands of them for free!
Buy a lot of stuffed tuxes/penguins from linuxmall or thinkgeek and hand them out. Everybody would love them, and the kids would have something to play with :)
Your a Geek, you tell us!
Hrrm... I usually just sign my name.
It's pretty severely Geeky, but you could include an insert or on the label a bit of an explanation of what it is. A great way to open a lot of people's eyes to Linux/OSS.
Great because it will boot on most everybody's computer and runs from there. no need to install.
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
Aa dude its your wedding maan!
Go to an old computer store buy simms / edo ram and punch holes through them. On the actual computer chips write the bride and grooms names on them...
Or
You can do what many do and just write cd's with the music from the wedding on it. I'm doing this for my wedding and I'm not violating any copyright laws because each cd I buy is giving the artists money anyway. Nice rationalisation huh? =D
Archie Mcphee has some great stuff all geeks should love, from the original rubber chicken to Senior Mysterioso to test tubes and urine sample cups (great for jello shots!) to just the plain strange and weird.
It's geeky in a non-technical way, in a social-engineering sort of way. But, unless everyone at your wedding abhors pop culture entirely, it is certainly a lot of fun. My wife and I (I am a geek, she is a non-geek) had pink flamingos (her idea) and 2' penguins (guess who's idea?). For party favors, we had all kinds of bendies, nuns, and other fabulous things.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
share the wealth, give all the nerds a crack at your wife's sweet, sweet candy... mmm, candy... haha
Does anybody know the Heimlich manouvre? ;-)
(btw, that all compiled down into the wrong byte code when it ran, she did have a boyfriend, but I still got a rain check. :-)
How do you expect a girl accepting such an offer?? With the opening braces THERE??? With a space between char and *?? C'mon...
My website
Okay kids, who wants more RAM? *YAAAAAAAAAY* Guess you had to be there...
Visit us at http://www.iblist.com!
'Sorry you're losing you're virginity' cards.
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
Teddy Borg in a tux.
Remeber the Teddy Borg, a 4 port cat-5 hub built into a Teddy Bear? Dress them up in ssoem formal wear (tuxedo) and there you go.
For veriations how bout:
Blue Tooth Teddy Borg in a tux...
802.11xx Teddy Borg in a tux...
USB-2 Teddy Borg in a tux...