Gourmet Wedding Favors

This year has seen a big trend towards small intimate weddings with a feel of glamour and luxury. So gourmet wedding favors are a good idea if this is the style of wedding you are having.

Having a small intimate wedding will generally give you more money to play with within your wedding budget so you can splurge a little on the finer details such as your favors. Giving luxurious favors which are based on food or drink always goes down well with guests who appreciate not receiving yet another miniature photograph frame or packet of flower seeds they are never going to plant! Here are a few ideas for gourmet wedding favors:

Coffee: this is an obvious one, but perhaps one of the cheapest favor ideas. You can purchase sachets of gourmet coffee from favor stores and have the packaging personalized or custom designed if you wish. Another alternative is to take a trip to your local supermarket or deli store and purchase a couple of bags of good quality filter coffee. At home you can portion it out into small bags or even aluminum tins which can be bought in bulk over the internet.

Tea: similar really to coffee, but don't choose teabags! Look for loose leaf tea and perhaps consider flavored teas or exotic varieties such as jasmine tea, Earl Grey or Ginseng. Tea is a good option for a themed wedding or for coordinating to the season of your wedding day.

Chocolate: who doesn't like chocolate and a friend of mine said the other day 'everything can be solved with chocolate'! From luxury truffles to individual shaped chocolates you have a huge available. I would recommend going to a specialist chocolate shop and taking a taste test - a chore I know, but it is something you should to find the right one!

Wine: One of the more expensive favor ideas, but if you are having a particularly small wedding it is one which you might find within budget. You don't have to purchase vintage wine or even full size bottles, small half bottles of a good label are perfectly adequate. Perhaps coordinate the wine to your menu or season, for instance white wine for a summer wedding and red wine for a fall or winter wedding.

Champagne: the ultimate in gourmet favors and like wine you do not have to give full bottle or vintage labels. Half bottles or even smaller bottles are perfect, just make sure you have a taste test first!

Preserves & Conserves: this may sound unusual, but check out your local deli for a whole host of gourmet confections for adding to food. Things like orange and port marmalade, spiced apple chutney or even luxurious mincemeat for Christmas, can all make it as gourmet wedding favors. You could even consider making your own or look out for mini jars and give your guests a selection of four flavors each.

Mae Andrea is a professional writer who collects wedding favors and wedding related articles. She is working with a wedding social networking company that caters to all the wedding needs of brides in almost every major center in America.

Wedding Reception Food Ideas: Stretch Your Budget With A Gourmet Salsa and Chip Station

Wedding reception foods do not have to be expensive. A gourmet salsa and chip station is a fun way to stretch your wedding reception food dollars.

If you are looking for some help with stretching your food dollars for your wedding reception, you might want to consider offering a gourmet salsa and chip station at your wedding reception. Not only is this idea very inexpensive, it is super easy.

Perhaps you are thinking, "Chips and salsa at my wedding... are you kidding?"

No, I am not kidding at all!

The truth is chips and salsa can be dressed up to appear quite appropriate for wedding reception fare. By designing an attractive multi-tiered station - you will have the makings of a crowd pleasing snack without using more than maybe $25.00 or so of your reception budget.

A gourmet salsa and chip station is as simple as:

1. Determining the look of the station. You will want the station to compliment the look you are trying to achieve. Keep that in mind as you consider the design of the station.

2. Collecting interesting tablecloths, beautiful rustic baskets and bowls, interesting props, and some lifts to raise food to varying levels. Your lifts can either be covered by fabric or if they are attractive and match the mood, they can be used as part of the overall design.

3. Playing with the different pieces. Have fun! You can set the pieces up on your dining room table or kitchen table months in advance as you work on coming up with a look you like. Then just snap a picture, take some notes, and store the details away in a file folder.

4. Packing a box with everything you need for recreating the station at the wedding reception venue. If you don't need to use the decorative items and dishes you have collected until the wedding, then go ahead and save yourself some time later and put everything for your gourmet salsa and chips station in a box that will be delivered to the reception site at the appropriate time. If it is several months in advance, hold off on buying your salsa and chips. You will want to buy those closer to the wedding month.

5. Buying the chips and salsa in bulk at a wholesale warehouse like Sams or Costco will help you save additional money.

6. Adding to the visual appeal of the salsa is so easy. Shredded cheddar cheese, chopped green onions, confetti chopped fresh veggies and iced baby shrimp are a few gourmet touches you can add to the top of the salsa. Send along a cooler to the wedding reception with ziplock bags of each garnish that you are offering. You can limit the garnish to an inexpensive sprinkle or if you prefer, you can offer your guests bowls of options for hands-on sprinkling. If you want your guests to sprinkle their own toppings, keep in my mind that you will need to buy considerably more quantity of each item.

This station is based on a very simple concept of designing, collecting, packaging, transporting and ultimately pouring, sprinkling and serving. How easy is that?

A wedding reception station does not get much easier or less expensive than this. When a food station such as this is so rich with personality and panache, no one will even realize that this station cost you somewhere around $25.00 or so, depending on the quantity of chips, salsa, and toppings you purchased.

© 2006 Kathi Dameron, Kathi Dameron and Associates

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Abundant Blessings!

Kathi Dameron

Wedding Reception Teleseminars For Brides

Learn How To Self-Cater or Semi-Cater Your Own Wedding Reception

http://www.kathidameron.com 850-422-3599

Kathi Dameron teaches brides-to-be how to create beautiful and affordable wedding receptions, rehearsal dinners, bridesmaid luncheons and other festive soirees that pop with personality and panache.

Today, Kathi shares her wedding reception expertise that she gained during her tenure as the owner, chef, and event designer of Canopy Rose Catering, a high end catering and special event company that was located in Tallahassee, Florida. Brides and other interested individuals who want to learn the secrets to creating a dream wedding on any budget can attend Kathi's Wedding Reception Teleseminars.

Brides can learn more about attending these teleseminars from the comfort of their own home by visiting http://www.kathidameron.com or contacting Kathi Dameron at 850-422-3599