Tips for Selecting Wedding Favors by Bellacroft

Wedding favors are actually a huge part of the wedding celebration. Any bridal photos of your wedding tablescapes will show wedding favors. Many brides even want to include a picture of the gifts in your wedding photo album to remember the day’s decorations.

When selecting your wedding favors, it’s good to consider the following:

Wedding Theme

Many brides are dead set on their wedding accessories and favors following their designated wedding theme. This means the favors, the décor and the bridal fashion. It’s great to sit down and figure out your wedding theme before you do anything.

If you and your soon to be spouse enjoy music, create a CD filled with your favorite songs. Many brides and grooms select love songs, but the sky is the limit when it comes to music. Save a copy of your CD in your wedding album - it's another lovely reminder of the day.

Edible Favors

What is something that almost EVERYBODY loves? Candy! Sweet treats are great for wedding favors and can definitely work their way into any theme or color scheme. Fill a small jar with candies in your theme color - M&M's and jelly beans are perfect. These days, those candies can even be personalized, although most brides and grooms personalize the jar or favor container.

Other edible ideas? Select your favorite coffee, teas, small chocolate truffles or even spices and attach a small card to each package, thanking each guest.

Favors to Last

If you’re having a ton of very close family members attend your wedding, chances are they will want a great keepsake just as you will. Therefore, pick timeless favors that double as nice gifts.

Small personalized photo frames personalized with the date are a wonderful keepsake. A miniature pot potted plant and flower or plant seeds will provide a favor that is both symbolic and beautiful. Many companies actually sell beautiful packets of flower seeds – something that’s interactive and fun! Great for children.

More traditional keepsake favors include personalized candles inside engraved holders, etc.

Wedding Favors

Bellacroft Explains the Garter Toss

The bouquet toss is a famous wedding ritual: the single ladies gather, the bride turns her back to the anxious crowd, and throws her bridal bouquet over her shoulder. The garter toss tradition is somewhat similar, only it involves the groom removing a fancy garter from the bride's leg before throwing it towards a waiting group of men. If you’d like to include a bouquet toss or garter toss into your wedding, read below for some fun tips and advice.

Most guests will concur: the bouquet toss is much anticipated and a fun part of the wedding. Any bride would want to incorporate this into her wedding! The theory behind this tradition is that the woman who catches the bride’s bouquet will be the next one to get married. Because of this, only single women should line up to catch the bouquet – no married or engaged couples allowed!

If the bride wishes to preserve and keep her bouquet, which is quite common these days, then she should have a second bouquet created specifically for the toss. Your florist will make an arrangement which is similar to the flowers that you carry down the aisle, but it will be smaller and lacking in expensive embellishments. Most brides who opt to order a tossing bouquet and keep their ceremony flowers are very glad that they did so.

Oftentimes a bouquet toss can turn into a bit of an ordeal, which isn’t pleasant for anybody. While a small scuffle can be fun for the audience, it can also be dangerous and turn into a dramatic event. If you know that your guests are likely to be intoxicated and rowdy by the end of your reception, it might be a good idea to have your toss a little earlier in the evening while everybody is still calm.

Now for the men: the garter toss. Many couples consider the garter toss to be the other half of the bouquet toss, and so really want to include it. To keep it clean, the bride should wear the garter just above her knee. The groom should also be brief while he is seeking the garter and not make a huge production of the ordeal. Especially if there are children around!

Luckily most garter sets come with two pair of garters – one for the bride to keep and one for the tossing. Since such a special garter is going to be a keepsake item, the bride can keep that one and have a less fancy one for tossing.

Bridal Garters

Planning a Valentine's Day Wedding with Bellacroft

2011 Valentine’s Day Weddings are just around the corner! Start preparing now with Bellacroft’s extensive line of Romantic Heart favors and accessories. Valentine’s Day is the day of love around the world. Celebrate by sharing your vows with your special someone to add extra sentiment on the already sentimental day! Scatter rose petals around the tables, fill the room with hearts and make pink and red your bridal theme!

Beverly Clark's Blooming Love Flutes are elegant and romantic, perfect for your romantic vows!

Beverly Clark Blooming Love Flutes

History of the Bridal Six Pence

There are some very common bridal traditions that almost very modern bride incorporates into her wedding: Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. There is another, however, the seems to sneak under the radar: the sixpence tradition!

Something Old
The meaning behind something old is a simple one but does carry with it a piece of profound wisdom and advice. Something old is to remind the marrying couple where they hail from and the family history they represent.

Something New
Something new symbolizes new life and the hope of health, wealth, and prosperity that new couple will strive for as they enter into their new lives together. Carrying something new into the very ceremony that binds them will (hopefully) ensure that the marriage will succeed and the couple will have a wonderful and happy life together.

Something Borrowed
Borrowing something from a friend or family member shows that no matter what lies ahead for the newlyweds, they can always count on help from their families and close friends in times of trouble.

Something Blue
Blue symbolizes purity, which is why brides will find some way to incorporate blue into their wedding ensemble.

The last of these is the silver sixpence worn in the bride's shoe. This tradition was supposed to bring good luck and fortune to the bride and groom. Many women still put a shiny penny in their wedding shoe to favor the winds of fortune and bring them luck in all matters financial in their wedding. Other superstitious brides believe that it has to be a silver coin in order to bring good luck.

Signature Grand Bridal Traditions

Bridal Traditions by Bellacroft: The Bridal Release

If you are having a butterfly themed wedding, then you may have already picked out your decor, color scheme and favors. But what about a “wow” factor? If you really want to blow your guests away and have a wedding to remember, consider a butterfly release.

Releasing butterflies is becoming increasingly popular in the send off process as it is symbolic and beautiful. Some newlyweds prefer to have the bridal party send out a cluster of butterflies, but it is also customary to have each wedding guest release a single butterfly. One of the greatest advantages of a butterfly release is that any guest, regardless of age, may participate if they opt to. Various companies provide the butterflies in individual boxes or other personalized butterfly wedding favors for guests to take home. Guests will love to see the beautiful butterflies floating from bouquet to bouquet or landing on a guest’s shoulder. These tender moments with the butterflies make wedding photos come alive and leave lasting impressions on everyone in attendance.

Butterfly Release