Our Wedding Favors: Reids Chocolates, Candy Kabobs and Seasonal Soaps

I've been to enough weddings to have (gratefully) received the gambit of wedding favors...glasses, picture frames, candles, seeds, wine bottle openers, bath salts, lip chap, homemade cookies and chutneys.  In case you didn't know, I am getting married in a few days after being crazy in love with my hubby-to-be for the last decade. Our wedding is going to be intimate, during the day and very non-traditional in many ways.

I was on the fence about giving anything away to our guests unless it really meant something to me/us. We're already doing things a tad bit unconventionally so I felt like we could get away with nothing but the traditional bride-to-be in me didn't feel right about our guests walking away empty handed.

My first idea was scratch and win tickets because the tags could have said "we feel lucky you celebrated our special day with us!" but there are too many children on our guest list. #underagegambling #notcool

My second idea was to give everyone something that was local, editable, reasonably priced and had sentimental meaning to us. The fact that I could eat a million of them was irrelevant.  It didn't take long for us to come up with an assortment of our favourite chocolates from an amazing shop called Reids Chocolate, Candy & Nut located in my hometown of Cambridge, Ontario.

I have immensely enjoyed eating their chocolates, mixed nuts and other delectable treats since I was a young girl.  Everyone in Cambridge has either bought or received treats from there in the last 60 years. It is truly our hometown hero. Bob and I always make a point of popping into the store when we are in town visiting my family.  The smell alone is worth the visit. Truly, you've never smelled heaven until you've walked into Reids.

It was difficult to chose just a few to include but after the mandatory taste test, we knew what we wanted to share with our guests. Inside our clear plastic packages (available to purchase at Reids) we included one of each of the following: tortoise, truffle, sea salty, English toffee with nuts and a rosebud.

In images, taken directly from the Reids website, I present to you what our guests will sit down to once they arrive at their table.

Tortoises are the Louis Vuitton chocolate version of a Turtle.  The combination of dark chocolate, crisp pecans and homemade caramel is truly perfection.  I could eat these every day, all day.

A rich dark chocolate whipped centre, anyone?  Truffles were made to be eaten.  Look at that melt-in-your-mouth goodness.

Sea Salties are vanilla caramels sprinkled with sea salt.  A bit chewy, a bit salty, a whole lotta yummy.

Second from the top left is my second all time favourite from Reids, English toffee with nuts. Imagine a Skor bar only much tastier and that's what it is. In my opinion, it deserves its own picture, but I'm happy to show you this one mixed in with some other gems that didn't make the cut.

Last but not least is the small but delicious rosebud.  Rosebuds remind me of my late Nanny that lived just a few doors from me growing up. She loved roses and chocolates so it seemed fitting that a rosebud was included in the mix. I know she'll be smiling down on me on our wedding day...sniff, sniff!

Now, you didn't think that I would give those fancy pants chocolates to the kids too, did you?  For some reason, our son prefers candy to chocolates so we decided that each of the kids will get his favourite Candy Kabob filled with sweet and sour gummies.  It comes all wrapped up in cellophane and always looks tantalizing.  Our little guy goes nuts for these kabobs!

And finally, for the few guests that have nut allergies, I made up packages with hand soap.  It's too bad that they can't eat the chocolates but I know they will love their Bath & Body Works soaps just as much.

What did you hand out at your wedding?  Any complaints, compliments or regrets?

SWAP MEET - A PRODUCT SWAP BLOG HOP AND GIVEAWAY

Welcome to what promises to be an awesome Swap Meet Product Swap/Blog Hop and Giveaway hosted by the darling Hanging Around In Primary and Momma With A Teaching Mission.  I'm so happy you are here :-)  
I had the privilege to be matched up with Brooke Brown from Teaching Outside The Box.  I knew we'd hit it off since both of our first names start with the letter B aaaaaand my last name is switching to a B too at the end of this month #bridetobe #cantwaitfornovember28

I was a tad bit overwhelmed with how many amazing products Brooke has in her TPT store.  She was kind to direct me to some of her awesome looking STEM products.  Have you seen this one for the holidays?  The three challenges in this product are so adorable and motivating.

The only problem is...I don't teach Science.  Booooooo :-(

Instead, I decided to try out her Spooktacular Halloween Literacy Centers for 2nd and 3rd Grade.  Lemme tell you...my students loved it!

The product includes 6 centers.  The first one we tried out was "Top Tricks and Treats" as a whole group activity.

The students brainstormed all of their favourite Halloween candies. As you can see from my chalkboard, it was a long list.  I had never heard of Airheads before...does that mean I am one? LOL

Number 1 is candy corn?  Noooooo thank you.  Funny how you either love it or hate it.

My students were so motivated to write their lists.  I also gave them a plain piece of paper to draw some of their treats in their Halloween bags.  We glued both together and created a bulletin board display.

The second activity we did with great success was "Letter to a Creepy Critter."

I introduced the activity by reading Lucille Colandro's "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat!" as there are lots of creepy critters in the book.

Of course, some of my students pulled a Sarah Palin and went rogue. They asked if they could write to a favourite movie character instead of  a creepy critter.  Here's a cute letter to Joy from Inside Out.

And here's another one to the Wizard that got swallowed by the old lady.

I was really impressed with how motivated my students were to write on both occasions.  Well done, Brooke for making my job easier!

Feeling left out because you don't already own this unit? You are in luck!  Enter below to enter our Swap Meet Giveaway for your chance to win all 15 swapped products.

You'll have to know this in order to enter...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Witches Brew Recipe

I served this Witches Brew punch at school on Friday and my students went nuts for it.  At the last moment, I decided to add a bit of whip cream.  I highly recommend the extra decadence and visual appeal it brought to the drink!

WITCHES BREW PUNCH
(serves 22 students)
2 L of apple juice
1 package of lime Jello powder
1 L of ginger ale
whip cream

Mix the apple juice and Jello powder together.  Slowly add the ginger ale.  Squirt a bit of whip cream into the bottom of a cup.  Add the punch over top and allow drink to rest for a minute.  Enjoy!