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?"

How geeky?

[lowtekneq]

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?

My parents got married there..

[EvanTaylor]

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

Multi-meters?

[human bean]

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...

A Contrarian Suggestion

[R2.0]

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.

Other kinds of party favours...

[checkyoulater]

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?

Re:the wedding pics

[travail_jgd]

I'd advise against having a bootable distro. While it seems like a good idea now, in a few years the distro will be dated may not be able to support the latest hardware. (Of course, that assumes the CD-Rs actually last that long:) And who will do the troubleshooting if if fails to boot properly on Uncle Fred's PC?

Also, people will have their own software for viewing pictures and movies. Why force a slideshow on someone who'd rather view the pics in Photoshop, MS Photo Editor or Gimp?