I had the pleasure of doing a portrait session for Lisa today and she surprised me with a little box o’ heaven from her hubby Mike. Two huge chocolate chip cookies from the bakery he and his mom own. Check out Nancy B’s Bakery for your wedding cookies, shower favors, or whenever you’re craving the very best chocolate chip cookie on the planet!
Nancy B's signature chocolate chip cookie
We always end up talking to people, not matter where we are. So while standing in line at the William Penn Starbucks waiting for coffee and tea on Sunday morning, we struck up a conversation with the guy behind us. Turns out he had been married the night before and was down getting coffee for his new bride. I asked him what they did for their guest favors. He said that they purchased muffins from their favorite bakery and gave one out to each guest. What a nice idea! Especially for those who were staying overnight in the same hotel. The guests were assured a little breakfast send off from the bride and groom.
If you have a favorite bakery here in the city, you can personalize your wedding even further by ordering a batch of muffins for your guests. Wrap them up in cellophane bags and tie off with a printed wedding ribbon with your names and you’ve got a great gift people will love. One word of advice, avoid muffins with nuts so that those with allergies can also enjoy your generosity.
A second favor idea came up on Friday night as Paul was photographing the Greater Pittsburgh Hotel Association’s Spring Fling at the Cranberry Marriott. Picture It On Chocolate is a company that will take a logo, monogram, or photo and print it in color directly on a piece of chocolate! The photo ends up being printed on an edible medium and is attached directly to the chocolate. Their website has plenty of items from chocolate lollipops to truffles to large chocolate photo frames. Another great use for those engagement photos and perfect for the chocoholic in all of us!
I just met with a bride who told me about this great site for customizing little Heinz bottles! Check out www.myHeinz.com for all kinds of ketchup and mustard bottles with your message attached. What a great idea!
Check out Economy Candy’s online site for some great prices! Jordan almonds in all kinds of colors. And my personal favorite candy: Italian Puntini!!!!
Our customers always ask us: What makes for a good wedding favor? Our answer: Anything you can eat or burn.
I was strolling through Costco the other day and had my wedding goggles on for some strange reason. I guess when you work with weddings a lot, you have Weddings on the Brain even if you’re married. Anyways, I stumbled across some truffles that they had marked at $3.97 and decided to pick up a box.
When I got home and opened them up, I thought that they would make a cute, elegant, and inexpensive favor. My Martha Stewart chromosome kicked in and I started to imagine these little truffles sitting on a small cutout of paper with a scripty quote on it. The bargain hunter in me was kicking up her heels and shouting, “Ooooo, a wedding favor for only 12 cents!”
Yeah, I’ve got a big component of bargain hunter in me!
When Paul and I were married, he was the one who found our wedding favor idea. Little candles in individual silver tins. Cost per tin? 25 cents. That left plenty of room in the budget to dress them up with embellishments and ribbons and still keep us within our budget.
I guess the moral of this story is to think outside the box when creating your wedding. You can find gourmet and unusual items in the most unlikely places and at unheard of prices.
