When putting on a wedding, there are many different ways you could go with your decor and even your dress code.
Likewise, here in this part of the country, there are all sorts of scenic event venues you could choose for your wedding, each one offering its own vibe and flair.
But one area that’s not frequently thought about that much is actually the one that is most likely to have some sort of lasting impact on your guests if you’re creative and personal about it.
We’re talking about unique wedding favor ideas.
They’re so far down on most people’s wedding checklist that some couples forget them or leave them out altogether.
To be fair, that’s often for budgetary reasons, but as you’ll see, you can be fun and make a statement without breaking the bank.
1. Non-Toxic Soap & Skincare
If you and/or your guests are like most Americans, you use anywhere from 4 to 20 different chemical cocktails and products to clean yourself up every day.
Depending on how fashionable you are, you’ll also use yet more products on top of that to make yourself look presentable.
But this section isn’t about makeup and cosmetics because around half of your guests likely don’t use them.
Have you ever thought about what’s in all those products or attempted to read and understand the ingredients on the label?
Most people really haven’t, but that’s why this unique wedding favor idea is so great.
And if you’ve booked a local event venue for your wedding, then you, like most folks here, are probably an environmentally conscious and nature-loving individual.
So, why not lean into that?
Let’s say there’s a woman in town named Angela who makes soaps herself. You probably trust her more than a faceless multinational corporation with a long history of being perpetually entangled in class action lawsuits because they poisoned people.
Show Your Guests That You Care About Their Health
Especially nowadays, with the rising public awareness of harmful chemicals and concern for physical and environmental health, your guests will surely appreciate a healthy gift.
We all know about the dangers of oil spills, polluting rivers, and things like that, but many of us have either never really wondered about our shampoo or lip balm.
However, these everyday toiletry and cosmetic products can contain a ton of harmful chemicals that could disrupt your hormones or even cause disease.
The sad reality is that a great many such substances are commonly found in products here despite being totally banned in other places, like Europe, due to known health impacts.
Fortunately, though, most, if not all, of these usually toxic products can be replaced by non-toxic alternatives.
And to make it even better, since many of these alternatives are handmade or local, you’ll often be supporting a small local business by doing so.
If you’re smart, you might even be able to contact a local producer and negotiate a bulk order discount.
Believe it or not, this powder is shampoo. It’s non-toxic shampoo, free of the harmful chemicals you’ll be rubbing into your scalp if you use most (all?) commercial brands. You can find recipes for it online, and it’s simple enough that you could probably make it yourself.
2. Vertical Gardening Starter Kits
Fewer than 2% of the American labor force are farmers, and the average age of a farmer in this country is around 60.
Basically, that means we’re all toast in about 15 years unless A LOT of young people spontaneously develop a deep interest in agriculture and come into ownership of land they can grow stuff on.
The other possibility is that a much larger percentage of the American population starts growing at least some of their own food themselves.
Well, actually, that’s not entirely true.
The third possibility is that we either import virtually all of our food from overseas or leave all the food production in the hands of a single-digit number of megacorporations that definitely won’t poison us all on purpose to make an extra $12.
I mean, they’ve certainly never proven that they’re run by precisely the sorts of skinsuit-wearing reptilian ghouls who would do something like that.
So, where are we going with this?
Essentially just random pipes with holes drilled in them. Just ensure that the pipes themselves aren’t made or coated with anything toxic.
Be Part of The Solution
The fact that someone wants to come to this region is usually a reliable indicator that they care about nature, the environment, and their own personal connection to it.
Well, a massive part of that is deepening your knowledge of where and who your food comes from.
And who better for it to come from than you, or at least someone whose farm you could drive to within a few hours if you really wanted to?
But you might still not know whether the farmer’s market is just reselling grocery store produce or something unless you know a thing or two about produce yourself.
An Easy Introduction to The Food System
That’s why beginner’s gardening kits can be fantastic and unique wedding favor ideas.
It gives your guests a reason to learn a little more about their food and try growing a bit of it themselves.
If nothing else, they’ll know a little more than they did last time they went to the grocery store, and they’ll be wiser to things like inorganic pesticides, waxy coatings, coloring sprays, and whatnot.
And while you can give them any kind of gardening kit, a vertical one is something even the gardeners among them might not have seen or tried before.
Plus, you can either make them yourself or hire a handy person in town to make a bunch of them for you.
Always ask for that bulk order discount.
Once again, this is just regular ol’ pipes. Pretty simple.
Your Guests Are Your Ecosystem
These are the people you have spent your life with, and many, if not most, of them will continue to be a part of it in some way all the way to the end.
You don’t feed off their energy like plants do with the sun, but try living alone in a cave for a year, and then see if you don’t think in-person human contact is essential to our health and survival.
These people care enough about you to show up to your wedding.
So, show them you care about their presence in your life, too, and that you want them to be healthy so that presence can be around for as long as possible.
As soon as you’ve got your venue booked, be sure to review these unique wedding favor ideas because, unlike your decor, your guests will actually bring those favors back home with them.
