Sunday, July 6, 2008

Satisfying our Sweet Tooth - Favors

When I first started planning, I hadn't decided on whether or not to do favors. There didn't seem to be a consensus on whether or not they were worth it - some people think they're a necessity, and some people see them as a complete waste of time and money. After all, who needs yet another picture frame?

After viewing a few planning bios and reading several posts on the topic, I finally decided that favors would be a nice touch, but that they had to be edible - this immediately knocked jordan almonds out of the running. ;)I eventually settled on the idea of truffles for favors - an especially budget-friendly move as my mother used to be a professional chocolatier and offered to make them for us. Recently, however, she has expressed concern that she won't have the time/skill to make great truffles, so I've started researching companies to order from.

I was intrigued by Marble Hill Chocolatier's in Cincinnati because I thought using a local company would be a nice touch, and they had very chic looking chocolates:

Unfortunately, however, I recently learned that they have closed their doors (boo!), so the search continued.

I've had Godiva truffles before, and they were okay, but I've heard a lot of people consider them pretty waxy, and I kind of felt the same, so I kept looking.

And then a fellow knottie recommended Vosges in Chicago.

Oh. My. God. These truffles look AMAZING! Here are just a few:
They even have cool names for each one - clockwise from the top left: Fire (mexican ancho & chipotle chillies, ceylon cinnamon, and dark chocolate), Ambrosia (macadamia nuts + Cointreau + white chocolate), Viola (milk chocolate + candied violet flower), and Black Pearl (ginger + wasabi + dark chocolate + black sesame seeds). YUM!!!

I would LOVE to be able to put one "normal," boring plain chocolate truffle (for our guests with less adventurous palates) together w/ one exotic truffle in a box for each guest. In the alternative, I'd love to order a couple hundred to have displayed for guests during the cocktail hour a la knottie KaraMGM.

Either way, I need to move things around in the budget so we can afford these.

And now I'm off to order an "exotic" gift box so I can sample them all. :) Just don't tell my personal trainer! ;)

Edit: Ooh ooh ooh. I almost forgot to mention - they use organic and fair trade cocao in a lot of their products. I think the human rights activist in me just swooned a little bit. ;)

1 comments:

J. said...

Check out Truffles for a Cause too! I'm not sure about their ingredients being fair trade or not, but you can donate to nearly any cause. FI is in the Army, so we're doing Warrior Relief Fund or the American Widow Project. :)