Weddingbee

When we were first trying to come up with a good idea for favors, we wanted something that would make a unique keepsake nice enough that even someone like the Tchotchke Nazi wouldn’t want to throw it away. That…proved difficult. Every time we came up with a good idea, we’d be all gung ho for a while, and then realize well <insert large group of people> won’t like that one! Where the groups would be things like “our friends” or “all the male guests” or similarly gigantic chunks that we couldn’t justify saying “well we can’t make everybody happy!” to.

I liked the idea of the edible favor, but, well…I guess I’m one of those people who wants something to show for it. It made me sad thinking everyone would just consume and then throw out something that we put so much time and effort into, and that even if they wanted to keep it, it would be all dirty with foodbits and not washable.

Then, the other issue was that all of the edible favor ideas I liked, Mr. Bluebell thought his family just wouldn’t even bother taking one because they wouldn’t want/like it. But he couldn’t really offer suggestions for something they might like.

Enter…Elsie’s Daughter & Pearl River.

I had thought about maple syrup favors earlier, but Mr. Bluebell claimed no one in his family likes syrup (I still have no idea of the accuracy of that claim!), plus all the bottles I’d seen before were both way too expensive and cheesy shaped (a heart, two hearts next to each other, etc.). When I found Elsie’s Daughter’s adorable nip bottles, which were both the cheapest AND cutest I’d seen, I started lobbying hard core for them, despite my growing concerns that Mr. Bluebell might be right…or that we might have other friends or (gasp) even some of my family that wouldn’t want maple syrup.

Right in the middle of decision-making-time we stopped by Pearl River for some reason or another (maybe to buy our aisle runners? or lanterns? or any of 6,000,000 other useful cute tasteful CHEAP things they sell there), and while Mr. Bluebell was searching for salted prunes (grossest thing ever, but that’s neither here nor there), I came across these adorable little mini tea tins. Mr. Bluebell had previously referenced tea as a possibility (since he was sure his family would take & later use it), but I’d received tea as a wedding favor before and never really felt it for some reason.

Thus began the dilemma - maple syrup or tea? Tea or maple syrup? The thought passed my mind that it was sad that the choice seemed to be between “my” side (the Adirondacks being a major syrup producer) and “his” side (um, tea, China, Chinese people drink tea). If only there were some way to incorporate both of these sides in the wedding….

And…TA DA! Introducing our multi-part favors! We got a lot less of each than there were guests because we figured a lot of people might only take one or the other, and we still had quite a few left of each. But the basic idea was that you can have a little bit of Miss Bluebell….and/or a little bit of Mr. Bluebell! So yeah, maybe that negated the whole “I don’t want cheesy bottles” aspect, but eh!

We tied our namemaker ribbon on each bottle & tea tin (”with love, bluebell & bluebell 6.23.3007″) and put them in a gigantic round flat basket I found in the house, with this note.

Also, for the tchotchke collectors like me, I like that you have both a reusable container (the bottles are glass and tea tins are…tin) AND a personalized ribbon! So you can keep any or all of those after you have used up the syrup & tea, if you are so inclined. But they’re also “disposable” enough that if I find that my second cousin doesn’t still have my favor on the mantle six years from now…I certainly won’t be upset.

PS: Calling it “Adirondack” maple syrup instead of Vermont, isn’t a lie! It’s just a…stretching of the truth a little bit. And that tea really IS from China, I swear!!

OH but I do have one warning to anyone considering the maple syrup route! For some unknown reason my 10 year old cousin took it upon himself to start taking shots of maple syrup. He had 5 or 6 bottles before this was detected. So…be a little careful. That kid was OFF THE WALL!!!

<all photos by Jane Heller>

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