Favour February: Weird n' Witchy Gothic/Pagan soap

Welcome to Favour February, where I shall herewith post many ideas for wedding favours for the dark at heart.

While most of my readers come from the US and the UK, where favours are standard wedding faire, I thought I'd enlighten some of you who live in other parts of the world as to what exactly a wedding favour is. This is probably not necessary as any wedding magazine contains ample information about these delightful things. Exhibit A:

This delightfully bland chinese takeout box would be filled with jordan almonds, candies or chocolates carved with the bride and groom's initials or some other such thing. The favors are then placed at each guests setting, often with a nametag attached at a jaunty angle. Alternatively, they're arranged on a platter in the centre of the table as a centrepiece. The guests can either eat their candies while they wait for the bride and groom to finish mucking about with the photographer, or they can take the box home as a way to forever remember the happy wedding day - or at least as long as the chocolates last.

So where did this alien tradition come from? Well, we have the Europeans to thank. When a European aristocrat threw any kind of party, whether it be a wedding, birthday party or fraternity kegger, they'd send each guest home with a bomboneire - small boxes made from porcelain, metal, crystal or precious stones filled with delicious candy. It's easy to see how this tradion evolved into the wedding industry ploy for moneys that we see today.

Oops. Did that sound snarky? Forgive me.

While I think wedding favours (especially the ones you'll see this month) look FABULOUS, they're a totally unnecessary wedding purchuse. AND they can be expensive. Say you're inviting a hundred guests - at $1 a favour, that's $100 - and that $1 won't buy you the cute little boxes, let alone the chocolates or jordan almonds to fill them. More than likely, you're looking at $3-$5 per person - around $300-500 on favours alone. Who needs that in this shady economic climate?

But my skully brides are a special breed - they have all sorts of wonderful, quirky ideas for personal favours that guests love and that don't cost the earth. And I know many of you feel pressured by parents, relatives or society in general (not that you should necessarily listen to them) to include favours. Thus, the idea of Favour February was born.

I've had tons of emails from businesses, artists and DIY brides sharing their ideas and enthusiasm for cute little skully favours. I love you all - thank you for your enthusiasm. I've still got some gaps in the programme, so if you're in the business of favours or you're a Skully bride with some rad ideas, shoot me any email at steff_green AT hotmail DOT com and I shall hook you up with a guest feature.

And don't forget, for more favour ideas for Halloween weddings, pick up your copy of the Halloween Wedding Planner!

Without further yammering, I present your first favour idea of the month - Gothic, Wiccan and Pagan soaps from Weird n' Witchy

A Suffolk-based soap company, Weird n' Witchy create handcrafted soaps from natural ingredients. blood-red roses, celtic knots, bats, skulls, pentegrams, coffins, baby dragons...you name it, they've created it. They also carry a selection of bath bombs and other bathroom delights - and they specialise in wedding favour packages. They can even customise their soaps to your wedding colours. How rad is that?

Queen of Sheba, £3.80, from Weird n' Witchy

Now these beauties don't come cheap - around £2-4 poind per soap, so they're better if you're buying favours for a small wedding. They do, however, carry several soaps for under £1 - some as low as 40p!

Coffin soap, £2.25 from Weird n' Witchy

Check out Weird n' Witchy's website. They accept all major credit cards and paypal, and ship internationally. And return tomorrow for another wonderful favour idea.