Do you enjoy DIY crafts and would like to earn some money from your hobby? Maybe you have an entrepreneurial spirit and have always wanted to start your own business.
Crafting and online sales create the perfect combo to launch a micro-business – a one-person business you can start from home in your spare time.
Whether your crafting aesthetic leans to elegance or rustic, you might want to consider selling personalized wedding favors. All you need is a little bit of creativity and some crafting supplies – plus a bit of time to list and promote your wedding favors online. You can make the bride’s wedding day special with the perfect wedding favor or favor bags that guests will love.
Why online selling for your wedding favor idea
In 2018, close to 2 million people made money selling on Etsy, the ecommerce site specializing in crafts and other hand-made items. You can also sell on Amazon, eBay, and Facebook marketplace or local Facebook groups. If you’re really ambitious you can launch a website, but there’s no reason with so many resources available that make it easy to sell crafts online.
The great thing about making party favors is you can set your own hours and create a business that works for you. Women’s small businesses, especially, may require that flexibility if you have young children at home.
If you decide to branch out, you can sell your wedding favors at craft fairs or through local shops. Our guide will show you how to get started, including ideas and suggestions to create the perfect wedding favor business.
Read on to find out how to:
· Decide on the best DIY wedding favors to sell
· Organize your workspace
· Sell your DIY wedding favors online to make someone’s big day special
What is a wedding favor?
Let’s get down to the basics: What is a wedding favor?
A wedding favor is a small memento or token of appreciation the bride and groom offer to their guests. Often, the party favor will match the wedding theme and, ideally, reflect the personalities of the special couple.
The perfect wedding favor might come in a favor box or favor bags. The bride may select an edible favor, something fun and practical like lip balm, or even mason jar wine glasses for a rustic, casual wedding. Often, a personalized wedding favor bears the names of the bride and groom and the date of their wedding day, so guests can remember the occasion for years to come.
Why hand-made wedding favors are hot
Today’s bride and groom want to create a memorable event for their special day, but often find themselves with budget constraints. Millennial weddings, in particular, often go over budget, with couples expecting to spend $16,000 and walking away closer to $29,000 in the hole.
The bride can reduce wedding costs through affordable, hand-made wedding favors. But that doesn’t mean DIY wedding favors look cheap. You can create a personalized wedding favor to fit any wedding budget and, if you’re careful about material costs and work efficiently, you can turn a nice profit selling unique wedding favors to busy brides.
In addition to cost savings, many people seek out hand-made wedding favors because they want something unique that reflects their wedding theme. Wedding favor etiquette doesn’t dictate that the couple spend any specific amount on their personalized gift to their guests. Any token of appreciation can commemorate the big day.
Homemade Wedding Favors Add a Personal Vibe to Any Wedding Day
Today’s brides love homemade wedding favors not just because they are affordable. Hand-made wedding favors reflect the bride’s personal style and show that thought and care went into the wedding gift for guests.
But not every bride has the time — or creativity — to put together a personalized wedding favor. Some people are just not the crafty type. That’s why selling wedding favors on Etsy has become such a big moneymaker for small business owners.
Unique wedding favor trends
In decades passed, wedding couples would share candy-coated almonds in bags tied with a personalized ribbon. But wedding favor trends today lean toward practical and unique gift ideas including:
· Stemless wine glasses
· Mason jar favors
· Candle favors
· Personalized soaps or lip balm
· Edible favor ideas, like chocolate or cookies
· Personalized bottle openers
· Wine stoppers
· Custom seed packets
Thoughtful couples want to give their wedding guests something they will actually use or that they can eat or drink and enjoy. Giving a mini bottle of wine or craft beer has gained popularity in recent years.
And the sleeper hit for a wedding favor this summer?
A personalized bottle of hand sanitizer. You can make the hand sanitizer yourself or buy it in a gallon container, pour into an individual bottle, and then make a label for a practical wedding gift for guests.
5 creative ideas for DIY wedding favors
When you’re ready to start your wedding favor business, you’ll need to decide what personalized wedding favors to sell.
These simple ideas can be bestsellers on Etsy and other sites. But don’t be afraid to tap into your creativity to make unique wedding favor ideas, either. You could launch the next hot wedding favor trend.
Personalized stemless wine glasses
Whether you love painting or enjoy using your Cricut cutting machine, you can put your talents to work making and selling personalized wine glasses as an elegant wedding favor idea. Purchase plain wine glasses inexpensively, in bulk, online.
Stemless wine glasses are the hottest trend because they are less likely to break and work well for red or white wines.
You can paint or use your Cricut to add the names of the bride and groom on the glasses, along with the wedding date. Or take custom orders to hand-paint designs that match the wedding theme.
Wrap the wine glasses in tissue paper and place in a favor box for a classy wedding gift guests will love.
Personalized candle favors
Candles are a great way to add light and scent to a space and can make a great wedding favor.
You can purchase a candle-making kit and infuse the DIY candles with essential oils to add a pleasing scent. Consider selling candles in mason jars, personalized with the couple’s name and wedding date. Again, these can be customized to match the wedding theme. Get creative with how the containers you use to create the candles, from teacups to mason jars for a unique wedding favor your customers will love.
Simple tealights wrapped in washi tape and then packaged in bundles of three in favor bags also make great wedding favors you can sell.
Personalized soap or lip balm
When it comes to practical and decorative wedding favors, soaps and lip balms are both easy to create and can be personalized in multiple ways, from soaps bearing the initial of the couple’s new last name to wrappers displaying the wedding date to commemorate the special day.
Edible wedding favor ideas
From handmade chocolate to homemade cookies in favor bags, today’s edible favors go far beyond candy-coated almonds! When shipping food, make sure it’s packed properly to avoid crumbled cookies or broken glass containers on the special day.
A favor box can keep your goodies safe while offering a decorative container for the bride to present the personalized gift on their wedding day.
Hand sanitizer
A small bottle of hand sanitizer makes a clever personalized wedding favor that’s sure to be used and appreciated by guests – on the special day or afterwards. Even though this favor is simple to put together, many brides don’t have the time, desire, or creativity to do it themselves.
Use anything from raffia to ribbon, decorative labels or small gift cards, to set your hand sanitizer gift apart and increase sales.
Setting up your workspace
The ideas above represent just a few of the wedding favors you can sell in a successful Etsy store. Your choice of items will drive how you set up your workspace.
Ideally, you’ll be able to set apart a room — or at least a small area — in your home to launch your crafting business. While many successful women’s businesses start from a kitchen table, having to pack up all your supplies at mealtime gets tedious. Plus, the kitchen tends to be a high-traffic part of the home, which can lead to distractions while you’re trying to work.
Depending on the crafts you’re making, you can get away with a small table or desk, a chair, and a cart or a few boxes to store your supplies.
In addition to your crafting supplies, you’ll want to stock your workspace with:
- Packing materials and shipping supplies
- A computer with wifi to list merchandise and track orders
- A printer to print shipping labels and customer receipts
- A space with good natural lighting and a solid backdrop to photograph your items (or a lightbox)
It really is that easy to get started. You don’t even need a fancy digital camera to take pictures of your personalized wedding favors; your phone camera should work as long as you set up the lighting properly.
You can find lightboxes for sale online for less than $20. This can be a good investment as it will make it easier to take high-quality photos.
Remember to track all your business purchases, as you’ll want to speak to a tax professional about what you can (and can’t) deduct from your bottom line as your business starts to bring in money.
Marketing your personalized wedding favors
Once you’ve set up your space and created a few sample wedding favors, it’s time to start promoting your business online. But how should you market your personalized wedding favors online? As a new business owner, you have several options.
· Listings on Etsy
· Social media posts
· Your own website
· Guest posts on other people’s websites
You absolutely don’t need a website when you start a business, but some people find a dedicated site is the best way to establish an online presence. If you decide to launch a site, you can do it through free platforms like WordPress, SquareSpace, or Wix.
The easiest way to start marketing your personalized wedding favor business is to list products on Etsy, write compelling product descriptions, and then advertise your Etsy store through social media, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and even TikTok.
Many people think of TikTok as a platform for tweens and teens, but you’ll find lots of wedding content on the social media platform if you search the hashtags #brides, #bridal, and #wedding. Make sure to use these hashtags and others when you promote your wedding favors on Insta, Twitter, and TikTok.
You can also build relationships in Facebook groups set up for people who are planning weddings. Become an active participant and you’ll soon see that your business can grow through word-of-mouth recommendations. Partner with other wedding professionals, including
DJs and photographers, to promote each other’s businesses.
Building an online craft business takes time and there are many different strategies you can use that can lead to success. As time goes on and your business grows, you’ll spend less time marketing and more time creating personalized wedding favors that your buyers will love.
–By Dawn Allcot
I have been wanting to start an Etsy shop online for a while now, but I have not been able to land on a niche that I’m happy with. I love your ideas for a wedding favor business, thanks for the inspiration!