Creating the Right Bonbonnieres for Your Wedding

Choosing the right bonbonniere for your wedding will provide your guests with a great keepsake from your big day, and show your appreciation to them for joining you in your celebration. While the traditional bonbonnieres of sweet treats in bags, small boxes or tins still remain popular, couples are starting to choose from a larger range of small gifts for their guests. Regardless of what you choose, the bonbonniere should really mean something and make sense at your wedding, so here are a few steps for making yours perfect and unforgettable.

Start Planning

If you want to make your own bonbonnieres, then start planning early by flipping through your favourite wedding magazines, browsing websites and popping into specialty shops to get a few ideas. If you have a store in mind for decoration hire, check their bonbonniere examples to get an idea of how you can stay true to your chosen theme. Make a list of all the different ideas you like and then begin whittling it down, one by one, until there is one bonbonniere left standing. Just to get you started, here are a few popular ideas:

● Tiny framed photos of you and your partner
● Small bottles of wine with personalised labels
● Gourmet chocolates wrapped in cellophane with a ribbon
● Small candles and candlestick holders wrapped in wedding-themed colours
● Unique bottle stoppers
● Personalised decks of cards

Personalise It

To make your bonbonnieres stand out, personalise them. Generally this means including your names and the wedding date, but more couples are opting to design their own personal monogram or ‘family seal’. Once you decide what your brand will be, find creative ways to get it on your bonbonniere. A few examples include cookies frosted with your brand, stickers to put on candles or small jars of homemade jam, and handwritten calligraphy on the back of photos.

Packaging

Even the most perfect, well-thought-out bonbonniere can fall short if it’s not wrapped properly. The packaging you choose can, and should, make as much of a statement as what’s inside, whether you are using a simple brown box, clear cellophane bags, tiny tin pails or slim silver canisters. You will want your bonbonniere packaging to coordinate nicely without perfectly matching the rest of the party equipment and decorations, such as the linens and flowers. Texture is important, too, so use materials creatively – such as pretty handmade paper and colourful raffia for soaps and candles, or colourful ribbons wrapped around tins and jars.

Presentation

Once you have found the perfect bonbonniere and have packaged and personalised each one with pretty papers and ribbons, you need to make sure every guest receives one in a classy manner. Here are a few ways that you can present them:

● Group the favours together and allow guests to help themselves by using milk crates, baskets or decorated boxes.
● Ask the servers to pass them out on their fancy silver trays.
● Have your bonbonnieres perform double duty as table numbers, name cards or as part of the place setting.
● Personally hand out each one as an opportunity for you to socialise with everyone before the night is through.