Custom Chinese Wedding Menus & Gummy Favors

Last month, I created wedding favors and custom menus for Yvonne and Ben's intimate 20 person wedding reception. They wanted the favors to be something tasty and thought that they would share their favorite candy. Peach rings are the bride's favorite candy, and gummy frogs are the groom's favorite candy. They asked that I personalize each favor so the ladies at the reception received peach rings, and all of the guys received gummy frogs. Each guest got either 46 peach rings or 49 gummy frogs in a gold favor box, tied with a double faced red satin ribbon bow and a tag personalized with their first name.

In addition to the favors, I created menu cards for each guest that included the dishes in English and Chinese, as well as a description of the significance of some of the courses in the traditional Chinese banquet.

There were 15 dishes in total, and they included the following:
Stuffed Mushrooms & Bamboo Tofu Crepes
Crispy Fish with Scallions
Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs
Five Spiced Beef
Seafood Soup
Sichuan Chicken
Sauteed Lobster
Crispy Fish with Pine Nuts
Seared Filet Mignon
Tea-Smoked Duck
Braised Pork with Chestnuts
Salt and Pepper Scallops
Sauteed Okra
Sweet Sesame Dumplings
Fruit Platter

This menu definitely sounds delicious! The menus were printed on a pearlescent white metallic cardstock, with a crimson red metallic cardstock backing. I added the bride & groom's name on the top, along with their wedding reception date and a small red blossom branch.

If you're interested in boxed favors or custom menus, contact me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com for more information.

~Emilie

Our Chocolate Making Class at ChocoLee!

Last weekend, Fiona and I ventured over to Boston's South End to attend a chocolate making class at ChocoLee! The class of 11 was taught by the owner, Lee Napoli, who after many years of working in top restaurants around Boston, achieved her dream of opening up her own chocolate shop in 2007. One of the first things we did for the class was taste some chocolate covered candies from the shop...

They look pretty delicious, right? Well, THOSE are actually some of the chocolates that we made during class!! I know for sure that you'll want to read the whole post now =) We did eat some from her shop at the beginning though, and they looked very similar to the final class product.

The class was taught how to make simple ganache recipes, how to use transfer paper to embed little patterns like hearts onto the tops of the chocolates, how to temper chocolate correctly, how to chop chocolate in a safe way, how to dip and decorate truffles, and how to create chocolate bark with toasted almonds. The class was separated into different stations where you could jump from chopping chocolate, to melting chocolate, to decorating chocolate so you could get some experience with everything.

the start of dipped truffles!
Fiona and I really wanted to see if we could try to work on a particular set of chocolates from start to finish, and I think we succeeded! We started out taking turns chopping huge chunks of milk chocolate, and then tempered the chocolate over the stove. On the other side of the room, some girls were decorating the candy molds with edible dust, so we used one with pink dust (of course!) and then filled the mold with our tempered milk chocolate.

Lee showed us this fantastic technique to do this which involved slamming the mold against the table mulitple times, and flipping the mold upside down and swirling the mold around so chocolate is flying through the air and landing *hopefully* onto a baking sheet. Then, after scraping off the excess chocolate, those went into the refrigerator to set.

Then, there were a few different fillings that we could use, but we picked our favorite: salted caramel! Fiona filled the chocolate shells using a pastry bag, and then I covered the mold with another layer of milk chocolate. After scraping off the excess chocolate, these went into the freezer for 20 minutes. After that, a few big bangs on the table, and the chocolates popped out! They were round and shiny, with bits of pink dust on top, and they were delicious!!

Fiona ready with the thermometer
I just swirled chocolate all over the place, and the shells are ready to go in the refrigerator!
filled with gooey salted caramel
our little pink dusted chocolate candies!
Don't they look like professionally created candies? They were so cute, and tasted amazing. At the end of class, everyone shared their creations and took home a box of over 20 chocolates each, and some pieces of toasted almond + dark chocolate bark.

Overall, the class was a lot of fun, and the three hours flew by! I highly recommend taking the class, and it would be fun for couples as well =) You can get more information about classes here. This brings homemade wedding favors to a whole new level if you really wanted to impress your guests!

~Emilie

Paisley Place Cards + Marriage Quotes

I can't believe it's been a few weeks since my last post! It's been crazy busy with non-stop weddings for Pink Orchid recently, and on top of it all, I had to squeeze in a trip out of the country because I was a bridesmaid in my friend Amy's wedding just this past Saturday! The wedding was held at the Four Seasons Resort in Whistler, Canada, and my goodness, that hotel is gorgeous. The spa, the rooms, the service, the food.. everything was phenomenal, and I really enjoyed my four days there, along with a few days in Vancouver beforehand.

Here are some photos of Vancouver, and the top of Whistler Mountain, where there was still lots of snow!

I designed a few pieces of wedding stationery for Amy, including her programs, place cards, and table numbers, and other than that, I tried to stick to the bridesmaid role as best I could. But, who am I kidding, right? The coordinator side of me kicked in throughout the rehearsal and wedding, but in a much smaller scale because of the help of the hotel staff and four other amazing bridesmaids. Thankfully, I was still able to enjoy the wedding!

Her stationery included a paisley design, and the colors matched all of the bridesmaids dresses perfectly. The place cards were attached on little Crate&Barrel memo clips, which guests were able to take home as a favor. Guest names were printed on the front, and a marriage quote was on the back. There were ten total quotes so every guest at each table had a different one. They weren't your typical lovey-dovey marriage quotes. Let me know if you have a favorite!

“What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.” – Leo Tolstoy

“Many marriages would be better if the husband and wife clearly understood that they're on the same side.” – Anonymous

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage." – Lao Tzu

"An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have: the older she gets, the more interested he is in her." – Agatha Christie

"People stay in love because they’re intrigued, or because of chemistry, kindnesses, and even luck. But part of it has got to be forgiveness and gratefulness!" – Anonymous

“The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they're right if you love to eat with them all of the time.” – Julia Child

“Marriage is a three ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring, and suffering.” – Woody Allen

"You don't marry someone you can live with - you marry the person who you cannot live without." – Anonymous

“Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.” – Albert Einstein

Amy and Eugene, it was so fun to celebrate the weekend with you, and I wish you both the very best!!

~Emilie

Escort Card Booklet Favors with Quotes

When is the last time you opened up a little book and read quotes from George and Martha Washington? Well, the guests at Allison and Aaron's wedding a couple of weeks ago took home a little square booklet of quotes as their favor, and they also doubled as escort cards for the wedding.

The inside pages included six quotes from George and Martha Washington, and the last page had the bride and groom's favorite love quote by Lisa Hoffman: "Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important."

The pages had their monogram across the top, and were tied together to the metallic lavender cardstock cover with silver double faced satin ribbon. The cover was personalized with the name of each guest, along with their assigned table, which were all named after presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, Madison, and Hancock.

I never knew George Washington was so sweet! This was a fun project to create, and was a hit at their wedding!

~Emilie

Place Card Luggage Tag Favors at L'Espalier

I had the pleasure of creating some stationery items for Pin and Vincent's wedding last year. I made programs for their ceremony at The Harvard Memorial Church, and heart-shaped luggage tag place cards that doubled as favors for their reception at L'Espalier. They wanted to personalize the luggage tag with their own message and with the names of their guests. A pair of champagne glasses was their main design element, along with the words "Love Lots, Laugh Often, Eat Well". The tags were packaged with scarlet satin ribbon tied in a simple knot.

Their wedding is featured today on Beantown Bride, which is a fabulous resource for Boston area brides. Of the photos posted, one is of the personalized luggage tags in the middle of each place setting. I love how the red ribbon color in the tags matches the flowers perfectly. The centerpieces were created by one of my favorite florists, The Tangled Web. To view more details from Pin and Vincent's wedding, check out the article here!

photo from Beantown Bride

If you are interested in these personalized luggage tags as a favor or place card for your wedding, please contact me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com!

~Emilie

Chocolate Mice from L.A. Burdick

This past week, a design client of mine gave me some of the most delicious chocolates I've ever tasted, as a thank you gift. This sweet bride (who is getting married this weekend!) handed me a gift bag containing six chocolate mice from L.A. Burdick! I've heard about these infamous chocolate mice from various people, and even from Fiona, but never had the chance to actually see or taste them until yesterday.

They are so incredibly cute, in dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. Not only are they cute, but they smell so good, and if you think they're just regular chocolate mice, think again!! The ears were almonds, and the different fillings in each of the chocolate shells were light, flavorful, and insanely good. I shared these with my husband, and he said "wow!" even though he's not even that into chocolate or candy!

These handmade chocolates are the perfect treat, and would make for an adorable wedding favor, bridal party gift, or just something different to give to someone special.

When I first opened up the package, I thought those little silk strings were just for decoration. But, they are actually silk tails that are attached to each of the mice! Hopefully, this has inspired you to check out L.A. Burdick for your next special gift, or afternoon treat.

~Emilie

A color-coordinated and delicious candy buffet!

Like Emilie, I decided to have edible favors for our reception since those are what I personally love receiving at weddings. My ideas ranged from homemade cookies, to chocolate mice, to cupcakes. During my research, I kept coming upon beautiful pictures of candies in different glass jars. The candy buffet was a trend I definitely wanted to jump on – my now-husband and I love candy!

There was almost too much candy to choose from, but since I wanted the spread to match our wedding colors, the field of choices narrowed down a bit. I wanted white, pink, and burgundy (ok, red will do too) candies. After some price comparison, I ordered bulk candy from online supplier metrocandy and estimated 1/3 pound per person. The choices included: white Jordan almonds, sour watermelon belts, raspberry fruit slices, pink rock candy, red and pink jelly beans, malt balls (with a white candy coating), and sour cherries. I bought vases of all different sizes from the local arts and crafts store, Michaels. My friend who works in the restaurant business bought small silver candy scoops from a wholesale supplier for me.

Here's one scoop in action:

How were the guests going to take the candy home? I toyed with the idea of Chinese takeout boxes, but they weren't quite the look as I was looking for. One day, I was browsing a food packaging website, nashvillewraps, and found small frosted tin tie bags. They were the perfect size and less bulky than the takeout boxes. I quickly ordered these, plus customized labels from myweddinglabels to put on the bags. Emilie also whipped up some labels to put on the candy jars to complete the look.

See how cute the bags are:

We found out after the reception that a lot of our guests have not seen a candy buffet before and were very happy to see the display at the reception. It was fun to see which candy was the most popular (watermelon belts were gone by the time I got a chance to check the spread out!). The hotel packed up the leftover candies for us at the end of the night. My husband took everything to work with him when we came back from our honeymoon two weeks later, along with the extra customized candy bags. This mini-candy buffet was a huge hit at his workplace and it was a great way to make sure nothing got wasted!

Here are pictures of the candy buffet at our wedding reception:

All pictures courtesy of Sun Photographics.

If you want help with creating your own candy buffet, please contact us at info@pinkorchidweddings.com! We would love to help you out!

~Fiona

A simple wedding favor - french truffles!

Wedding favors are always something where you will see a wide variety of items. Some couples will give you seeds to plant, or a cute candle, or a heart shaped cookie cutter, or homemade rosemary infused oil, or personalized coasters, or a mini frame, or will donate to a charity on your behalf, or decide not to give out favors at all. The candy buffet has become very popular nowadays as well, where people can bag their own favorites and take home a little treat.

For my own wedding, I probably thought of everything imaginable, and in the end, decided to do truffles! Usually, edible wedding favors are always a hit with guests!

I knew that truffles were actually quite simple to make, but back when I was planning my own wedding, I had never made truffles before, and didn't want to have to make and store 600 truffles in the few days before the wedding for the first time! So, I ended up buying french truffles in bulk! I wanted each favor to look like a little present at each guest's placesetting, so I packaged four truffles in brown candy cups, in a chocolate box, all wrapped together in fuschia satin ribbon. I also added a little brown tag with "love is sweet! thank you for coming!" handwritten in white ink. There were also hand punched bite marks at the end of each tag.


The last photo is the final result: the favor at my wedding, taken by BKB Photography. I was really happy with how everything coordinated, with the napkins, the menus, and the chocolate colored linens. The truffles may not have looked very fancy, but they tasted great!

Recently, I made truffles for the first time, and they were delicious! I got the recipe from Miss Spring Roll on weddingbee.com, and they were very easy to make.

Chocolate Oreo Truffles

36 Oreo cookies (almost a whole box)

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese

1 large bag (24 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Sprinkles (optional)

Finely crush Oreo cookies (I place them in a large Ziploc bag and crush using a rolling pin). In a large bowl, mix Oreo cookies and cream cheese until well blended (I use my hands for this). Shape mixture into 1 inch balls. According to package directions, melt semi-sweet chocolate chips. Dip balls into chocolate (I use a fork for this) and place onto wax paper. If desired, top with sprinkles for color. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. Place truffles into small muffin cups; serve on a platter or in individual truffle boxes. Store in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.

** TIP! before dipping into chocolate, I put the shaped balls into the refrigerator for a couple of hours to make the dipping process easier!

Doesn't that end result look like a store bought truffle? If I were to do it all over again, I might be tempted to have boxed homemade truffles as favors!

If you need help with brainstorming ideas for favors to fit your wedding style, or want help with picking out the perfect packaging, email me at info@pinkorchidweddings.com.

~Emilie