DIY Wedding Favours – Soy Candles for under a dollar

Wedding favours.

In recent years it seems that the expectations for favours have swayed away from those little baggies of candies towards things that your guests will actually hold on to and, ideally, use. My friends have been creative in this respect for both shower and wedding favours.

Some of my personal favourites – from left to right: homemade pickles, bath salts, monogrammed shot glass, and monogrammed stemless wineglass

Of course, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to create fabulous favours! After an afternoon with a friend where we discussed every favour we’d ever received, I fell in love with the idea of candles. I consulted all of my crafting friends on candlemaking, and while none of them had ever done it before, we all felt confident that we could make it work somehow. I then brought the idea to Scott, who said:

“Awesome, I love candle making!”

After two plus years of dating he still surprises me.

As it would turn out, Scott had helped his mother and sisters make candles – fairly elaborate ones – and was well up to the challenge of making these work for our wedding favours.

We took to the internet and found an online supplier for soy wax (which burns a little cleaner than the regular paraffin variety and comes in easily manageable pieces). We decided to put together a small order to make just 50 candles and see if they were the right fit for our 100 person wedding. After our first 50, I am pleased to say that we will be ordering the remaining wax immediately and finishing our favours before the beautiful summer months.

Our supplier – Canwax - a soap and candlemaking retailer in Hunstville, Ontario, offered incredibly reasonable prices and a fast shipping time. We ordered 2′ diameter by 1.5′ deep tealight cups, soy wax, seafoam coloured dye blocks and wicks to complete the project pictured below.

Each candle cost us just under a dollar to make and will burn for 8-10 hours! Budget friendly and practical!

Please note: this is not intended as a tutorial for candlemaking – please refer to supplier instructions and warnings before trying your own.

We had a blast making these – they are quick, easy, and pretty. Our next step will be to decide how to package them as favours.

For more information on soy candle making, check out the tutorials below:

Claire K Creations provides an excellent guide to soy candle making in the microwave.

Stay tuned!

<3 L