Bridal Shower Question

[honeychile]

Do the edible favors. If you can't do the cookies without breaking the bank (I've seen cookies go for over $5 each!), go to a craft store which sells candy supplies. Pick out a mold and some chocolate. Seriously, you can make some very pretty or at least apropos candies in half an hour, for less than 50 cents each (counting the wrap), and they're practically foolproof. The one secret is to have several bowls to microwave the chocolate - if even the tiniest bit of water is in the bowl, it will ruin the batch.

One pretty one I was given was a rosebud lollipop. It was minty chocolate, but pink, and the stick was green. There was a clear wrap over the rosebud, and the green twist ties had a leaf on each one. That's when I asked about the costs, and I now make a lot of my own chocolates for events.

[LucyKKG]

Originally Posted by honeychile

Do the edible favors. If you can't do the cookies without breaking the bank (I've seen cookies go for over $5 each!), go to a craft store which sells candy supplies. Pick out a mold and some chocolate. Seriously, you can make some very pretty or at least apropos candies in half an hour, for less than 50 cents each (counting the wrap), and they're practically foolproof. The one secret is to have several bowls to microwave the chocolate - if even the tiniest bit of water is in the bowl, it will ruin the batch.

One pretty one I was given was a rosebud lollipop. It was minty chocolate, but pink, and the stick was green. There was a clear wrap over the rosebud, and the green twist ties had a leaf on each one. That's when I asked about the costs, and I now make a lot of my own chocolates for events.

Seriously, is it hard to make those? I saw really cool molds for seashells and other underwater stuff that would totally go with our recruitment theme. I just don't want to kill myself making that many chocolates if it's super hard.

[honeychile]

We did this as an Alumnae Association project every year (making candy). You buy the chocolate disks in the flavors & colors you want, microwave them, pour the chocolate into the mold, let it cool, and pop them out. VERY easy! Figure on about 2-3 minutes to melt the chocolate (it's actually a shorter time, but you do keep checking it), another 5 minutes to fill the mold, but depending on the mold, you could wait up to a half hour for them to cool.

As I said, the one problem is if you decide to wash the bowl and there's still some water in it - messes up the chocolate. But now, there's even little cardboard boxes in which you can melt the chocolate, so you don't have that problem. Lately, I've been melting the chocolate in the decorator bottles, but that's because I've been using it to decorate cookies. That takes a bit more effort, but it's worth it.

I still don't know where they found the green lollipop sticks, though. I imagine that there's a type of tint or spray that doesn't mess up your hands but is still edible, though.

[bluefish81]

I agree with others that edible food is a good option. I don't generally go to a bridal shower expecting to get something. A few years back when one of my friends was a MOH, she gave us a couple of those travel size lotions from Bath and Body works. We just traded to get the scents we wanted from each other. And then she made cookies for the bags.
Most of the time when I get stuff, I end up chucking it.

[AGDee]

I will agree that the chocolates are really easy to do. We make them for Christmas and Easter for my kids to give to friends as little gifts. You can also do a larger quantity at once if you melt them in a fondue pot and use little ladles to pour them. I either do that, or use the decorator bottles, but the bottles are hard to clean afterward and the dog likes to hunt them down and chew on them since they smell like chocolate. Now that the kids are older, they paint in details with different color chocolate melts so they are getting more sophisticated with it.