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?