I noticed there are many great DIY tutorials on how to make soap wedding favors. But when I do the math from a budget and time perspective, they often involve buying bulk materials that can add up to over $70, JUST for the materials.
Not to mention the considerable amount of time required to make large batches of soap AND the wrapping or decoration that you may want to add to personalize your favors.
While it’s true that this method ensures you’ll have enough soap for all your guests, and possibly even for the rest of your married life, not everyone wants to invest that much time and money into making soap.
In this article, I’ll share an idea for making soap wedding favors that are low cost, high quality, and easy to put together, ensuring you can have personalized and special goodies for your guests without breaking the bank or spending weeks making batches of soap
The idea is simple:
1. Buy Pre Made Handcrafted Soap Loaves For ~$18
There are a number of good providers of ready to package soap bars and loaves like Bulk Apothecary or The Soap Guy. They are high quality and have a huge variety of scents and colors for all preferences that can fit any wedding theme and stay inexpensive.
Bulk Apothecary for example, offers soap loaves that measure 3.5″ x 2.25″ each (Standard soap size). They even precut each loaf into ten 1” thick bars. To keep your costs down, you can totally cut each bar into 4 pieces that will measure 1.75” x 1.25” each; perfect size for a soap favor! Let’s say you have about 80 guests, buy two loaves and save lots of time.
Among the scents and colors that these types of providers offer are traditional scents with great reviews such as: oat milk & honey, lemongrass, sandalwood, tea tree with sweet peppermint, among many more.
In terms of colors check out the super unique charcoal aloe, berry sage, or the beautiful moonlight roses for a coral reef tone. The jasmine lime or the apple rose mint tones are also perfect for weddings with this color palette.
Be aware that depending on where you live, and how many loaves you buy, the cost of shipping may start at ~13 usd for 2 loaves. If you do the math, though, this still puts you under 1 USD per favor for a wedding of 80 guests. Even accounting for decorations which I will tell you about below.
The Soap Guy has really good prices but I have never personally bought from them.
To be fair, with the “done in a day” title of this article, you will have to wait a few days while your order arrives but once you have it the rest will be super quick.
For the examples pictured below, I used three different scents of soap: Eucalyptus Mint, Mango & Clementine and Citrus Vanilla.
2. Cut Soap Loaves Into Smaller Pieces ~20 minutes
Each bar usually measures 3.5″ x 2.25″. If you are working on keeping your costs down, I’d recommend cutting each bar into 4 smaller pieces. To ensure clean and even cuts, it’s essential to use a sharp knife. I used a regular box cutter and it worked just fine. As a base, use a carton board for stability, or a regular kitchen cutting board, or better yet, a self healing cutting mat if you have one.
3. Get Decoration Supplies From Your Favorite Craft Store ~ $17
Keep your costs down by decorating your mini soaps with something cute but really inexpensive.
You can skip the mini bags and simply tie a cute rope around the soap. I personally prefer the bags to avoid getting soap residue in your hands. Michael’s has a pack of 40 pieces for $3.49. Then simply use the ribbon to tie the bags at the top.
If you need some decoration ideas check out Best Personalized Soap Favors for Every Wedding Style
For this one I used:
- Cellophane bags (40 each pack) x2 = $7
- Metallic Jute Rope = $5
- Crinkle Shred Craft (Select 4 OZ Bag) = $5
4. Add Tags: Stickers or Personalize Your Own ~ $3 or ~$5
For this example, I purchased and personalized a template from Etsy. I know you can do this on Canva, but these templates come with cutting guides to make perfect cuts. Just personalize your template, download it and print it at home or in your closest Staples center. For this example, I went to Staples and asked the clerk to print on 110 lb ivory paper to make it a bit more steady.
If you do decide to use this template, make sure your font is no smaller than 10 points. I made the mistake of setting mine at 5, and as you can see, the font it’s microscopic.
If you want to simplify things even more, just buy a roll of Thank You stickers (Select the pack that comes with 80.
5. OR handwrite your preferred message ~60 minutes
If you prefer to handwrite a special something, here are some ideas for sayings.
You can even make a little gathering with your bridesmaids and do this while having some wine.
I did this once for a friend’s wedding and it was a lot of fun. We did screw up a bunch; between the wine and trying to have a conversation while doing it we ended up writing things like “Thank you for coping”… but in the end it was A LOT of fun.
6. Cost Breakdown
In case you were wondering, the total for this project is as follows for ~80 mini soap wedding favors for someone living in an area on the higher end of shipping costs. Better yet if you can find a brick and mortar vendor that sells the loafs, right?:
- 2 premade soap loaves -20 soap bars total that you will cut into 80 = $36 + $14 for shipping costs = $50
- 1 roll of decorative jute metal rope – you will have more than enough = $5
- 1 Etsy Personalizable Labels Template = $3
- 6 pages to print Staples = $3
- Crinkle Shred Craft = $5
- Cellophane bags = $4
TOTAL = 70 USD for 80 mini soaps + one run to the craft store and sitting down to cut soap and personalize tags for an afternoon. Extra fun if you make a day out of it with your best friends.
So there you have it! If you have no time to loose and are really looking forward to have super cute soap wedding favors in no time and under $1, know it is possible.
7. Soap Wrapping for Wedding Favors
If you are open to go over the 1 dollar mark you may also consider the following options to decorate your soaps.
Disclosure: The following links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through those links, but rest assured, I only recommend products I would personally purchase and use myself.
- Put them in Tiny Cans
- Wrap them in tissue paper.
- Use Organza Bags Instead of Cellophane
- Clip your tags with mini wood clips
- Order Your Own Personalized Thank You Stickers
