Many brides and grooms take it upon themselves to distribute chocolate wedding favors to their guests as a token of appreciation. But why should the bride and groom be responsible for showering their guests with gifts? A wedding is meant to be a special day for the pleased couple getting married not a day to distribute gifts to friends and family. The guests that attend your wedding should be pleased for you, and not expect anything in return.

Wedding favors are gifts that the bride and groom choose on to distribute to their wedding guests as a token of gratitude for attending their vital day. The possibilities are endless as to what gifts you can give to your guests.

Chocolate has always been a steady favorite to all. When choosing the right wedding favor to distribute, the bride has this chance to allow her creativity to shine through. The bride normally sets her sights on something she enjoys and knows that her guests will delight in receiving as a memento of the special day.

The history of distributing wedding favors dates back to the sixteenth century. Many upper class Europeans would distribute  parting gifts to their guests to demonstrate their wealth and stature in society. The gifts these wealthy families provided were elaborate and thoughtful signs of appreciation to all their guests.

The wedding favor would come in an elaborate jewel studded box filled to capacity with tasty sweets. The French called this box a bonbonniere, the reason being, the box was normally filled with bonbons, a delectable chocolate treat. Sugar at the time was extremely expensive; so many guests who were given this gift took it as an honor to receive. Brides and grooms were seen to be graced with excellent fortune; therefore the issuing of gifts at their wedding was a way for them to share their excellent luck with others.

Chocolate wedding favors have grown to be the most widely used gift for a large percentage of weddings. The wedding favor has made things a lot less hectic on the bride and groom. With distributing chocolate as a favor you eliminate the stress of buying multiple gifts for different people.

Many companies  these days that manufacture chocolate such as Hershey’s, among many others,  will personalize the chocolate favors for a particular wedding. The bride and groom have a large variety to choose from, but can be assured that whatever cholcoate wedding favors they select will be thoroughly loved by their guests.

If you have plotted for a themed wedding them some wedding theme favors are in order. Literally speaking the Bridesmaids are in fact the “Brides” “Maids”.

They have stuck by you through all the plotting, anguish, frustration, happiness, ran all over town with you, attended your bridal shower, bought you a gift and even agreed to wear those lime green, puffy sleeved, hillbilly prom dresses that you picked out. I reckon you owe them something a small special, wouldn’t you agree?

With your special day just around the corner, it is time that you have a plot as to what kind of wedding theme favors you are going to get for your wedding party and guests. I am sure that you are up to your eyebrows in (oh and speaking of eyebrows, don’t forget to add a tweezing to your list, a Bride with bushy eyebrows just isn’t pretty) schedules, fittings, tasting and rehearsals but you need get something special for your Maids, I mean Bridesmaids.

First, you will need to know who you will be getting wedding favors for. For example, the norm would be your bridal party (Bridesmaids) the Groomsmen, Parents, Brothers and Sisters and of course something for your guests to take away with them to remember your gorgeous event.

Once you have your list then deciding what you will be getting for each is something that needs some careful selecting. First and foremost, you’re Bridesmaids. Bridesmaids usually consist of close friends, co-workers, cousins and sisters.

When choosing your Bridesmaids wedding theme favors, know whether you would like a favor that can be consumed or something for them to treasure. The choice is yours and there are many things to choose from in either category.

There are websites that can give you plenty of options to choose from. For example, if you plotted to have a beach themed wedding, you can get some star fish or beach shells wine bottle charms. There are also Gourmet chocolates in the shape of beach shells etc. with your names and wedding date engraved on the wrappers.

If your having a summer wedding you can get personalized Ice Cream cone Towels or even some customized Gourmet Coffee. Keep in mind again, that your gifts or favors, that you give your Bridesmaids should be special and you may even want to personalize each with a handwritten note or something that gives a unique message specifically to you and the individual Bridesmaid.

Most of these thoughts can be bought for under a few dollars which wont place a huge dent in your pocket book. Keep it simple yet meaningful. With millions of couples getting married every year finding those Unique or one-of-a-kind, wedding theme favors, should not be a hard task for you to accomplish quickly and easily.

Congratulations on your Special day make it a memorable one.

Using garden as the backdrop of a bridal shower is one of the most perfect thought, especially for nature-lover brides. Gardens provide a dramatic and gorgeous atmosphere to set up a bridal shower party. With the nature’s view, colors and scent, it will be a sure wow to the bride-to-be.

When plotting a garden-themed bridal shower, you should find a perfect garden setting. You may consider a friend’s backyard, rent a space in a park, a courtyard hotel or a botanical center. Look for a place that will be relatively quite and private.

Set the tone of the celebration by sending shower invitation that matches the color scheme of the gala. You can buy garden-themed invitations or those that have floral patterns. You can use several colors and sizes of paper to make a dramatic-look themed invitations.

Colorful blooming flowers and their green leaves are enough to make a gorgeous natural decorations. Place flowers everywhere. Make incredible chair and table arrangements. You can gather a few blooms and tie them together with lightweight paper-covered florist wire. End each bloom with a simple bow made of satin ribbon. Leave tails on the ribbon on the wire to attach to the back of the chair. On the tables, place embroidered linen napkins, vintage tin plates, silver chargers and flatware, and cut crystal with a botanical theme. End each table with a gorgeous flower arrangement to flaunt your garden theme and add pops of color.

Alternatively, you can make grand centerpieces to be placed on the tables throughout the garden. You can mix flowers like roses, mums, snapdragons, dahlias, peonies to set the tone for the flowery garden.
Have some fresh fruit and delightful garden party recipes on your serving table. You can make an simple-to-handle treat by skewing watermelon, strawberries and orange slices. Keep them chilled by filling the bowl with ice covered with fresh mint. Use fresh edible flowers and tasty herbs to make gardenish dishes for the party guests.

Just like any other kinds of bridal shower, garden shower also need some ice-breakers. Games like Whiff of Herbs, Hand Over Your Corsage and Tossing Bouquets are only few to choose from. All of these cute bridal shower games have to do with the garden. Use these games in keeping with your garden party theme, where happiness is certainly in bloom!

Make a memorable exit by distributing garden-themed shower favors. There are so many favors that suits this type of theme. You many consider Felt Butterfly Ring Candle Holder Bridal Favors. Illuminate the night at the garden with these whimsical butterfly candle accents. These adorable Felt Butterfly Ring Candle Holder Bridal Favors are the perfect way to add a butterfly theme to your bridal shower tables. This set of four butterflies themed bridal decorations are a darling way to add a touch of spring time to your bridal shower luncheon.

These are a few thoughts to make a memorable garden-themed bridal shower, search online for more enchanting thoughts. Unlike local party stores, online stores have nearly everything that a garden-themed shower need, from themed bridal shower invitations, bridal decorations, shower games, shower favors to other themed shower accessories.

Bridal showers as we know today are much different than they were back several years ago. For some trivia and history on when bridal showers started, they say that back in the 1500’s – 1600’s era is when bridal showers started in the country of Holland. It all started when a young Dutch girl from a prominent family fell madly in like with a young man who’s family was millers. Her heart was so set on marrying this young lad but unfortunately her father and family disapprove of marrying him because of his stature. Since the father would not approve, he or his family would not provide any dowry, dowry are gifts which would help establish their home as the couple starts their new lives together as husband and wife. So without the dowry, the father figured they wouldn’t be able to get married. When friends heard about her father not providing any dowry, the friends and community we sadden and they all got together bringing gifts showering the couple so they could establish a home allowing the couple to be together. The father was so overwhelmed from the outpouring of all the people, he and the family consented to the marriage and provided the gifts for their pleased home. From that day forward, it has become custom for the future brides friends and family to bring her gifts showering her before she starts her new journey. 

   Today’s bridal showers have developed into a party of celebrations as her last days before she starts her new journeys of life with the one she likes – her soulmate. Traditionally, guests would bring the bride to be; useful gifts and accessories that would help both the bride and groom with their new marriage and to establish a home, but, the times have changed with bridal showers typically evolving around the bride. Still, many bring bridal gifts, well wishes and their favorite dishes to pass around with bridal shower games plotted out for their event. Usually the maid of honor will host the shower, but you’ll find that even a close friend or a family member will host and plot the event. Many showers are plotted and decorated around the theme of the couples wedding and their wedding and bridal accessories. A fairytale theme, beach or Las Vegas style, a traditional style or just opt for a coffee or tea occasion or sometimes they’ll make a day at the spa just to pamper the future bride.

     Another change in the history of bridal showers are bridal shower favors. The bride will chose favors typically based on her wedding theme or favors with such phrases as “Lets Celebrate” “Like is Brewing” or even “Two Peas in a Pod” are well loved. The use for favors is to spread thanks to all of her guests for celebrating and for sharing the bridal shower and or their special wedding day. The bridal or wedding favors can also reflect the personality of the bride as well, adding personalization of the bride and groom’s name or just the brides name with the date of her bridal shower party.  Bath favors and candles are another well loved favor brides will elect to choose as a small token of appreciation for attending her event. Shower party favors have developed of the years with unique designs and styles that are not only adorable but also reflect the variety of themes events are plotted around.

Back in 2005, on one summer night, we were sitting outside making a choice of what business to start up online. We knew we needed a website but didn’t know a thing about internet or building a website. Not letting any of that be a road block in our business adventure, we chose to start making up gift baskets, since Kim is very talented in designs and crafts such as floral, decorations and crafts in that nature. So we chose Kims Gift Baskets and the url http://www.kimsgiftbaskets.com. We wrote our tale back 2 years ago in regards to the gift basket business.  Staring in mid 2006, we discussed of other possibilities and products we could introduce into our gift basket business. Don’t get me incorrect, we were really doing pretty excellent with gift baskets, the business bills were being paid, plus paying us. We had several thoughts which were in the gifting market such as gold dipped roses, cookie bouquets, baby shower accessories and favors, wedding accessories and favors and even fruit bouquets to name a few. We kept going back to the thought in the wedding and baby accessories as a excellent choice of product.  The baby and wedding thoughts really sparked for a couple of different reasons, one of the main reasons was, we have been involved with coordinating weddings and baby shower events in the local area even before the gift basket business started, we truly loved doing this together, a fantastic team I must say. Now the other one is a business strategy that anyone who is thinking about selling products should reckon about if they are going to do a business online, especially with the way the economy is, we wanted to have multiple streams of products. This will give you a chance to reach to a broader range of consumers and in return, more orders.

  As we said, we were entertaining the thought of more than just gift baskets and gifts, so we chose to start with baby shower favors and gifts. We found a company called Baby Aspen and signed up with them, soon after, we were introducing baby gifts and baby shower favors to the Kims Gift Baskets. This was an simple choice for us; our web site was already being searched in baby phrases so that seemed to blend right in. With the baby gifts and baby favors, they just added more depth in search terms and the website. We found a couple more companies which we also set up accounts with giving the consumers more styles and choices. Over the course of a month or so, we worked very hard on the website with adding in baby products, changing site design and working SEO.  

     Now if you remember, we entertained thoughts adding wedding accessories or something that was wedding related. We found out shortly after becoming a vendor for Baby Aspen, there was Kate Aspen which distributes wedding and bridal shower favors. Now it was a scramble, in less than a months span, we introduced the wedding and bridal party favors into our business along with baby shower favors and baby gifts. Of course, it’s not as simple as just place the products on your website and presto, you have customers. I wish it was that simple! Many hours spent were spent working on the content, SEO, linking and more content to get the search engines to start ranking us in keywords for wedding phrases.  We set up accounts with a few more dropship companies; Fashioncraft and Event Blossoms for the wedding and bridal favors, and couple of other companies who had favors but didn’t like their services, so soon after, we took everything off our website of theirs. When using drop shippers, whether for your wedding business, baby business, or any type of business you are going to sell products, there are pros and cons using their services, but if they’re a excellent company, you’ll have no worries. Fashioncraft who is mainly favors for a variety of occasions, is very reliable and consistent with getting the orders out to your customers. We have been doing business with them for over a year now and have never had any issues with their products or services.  

     As discussed, we still wanted to provide bridal and wedding accessories for all of the lucky brides who are plotting their wedding. Weddings, typically is a once in a lifetime event and everything has to be perfect, including the bride! We started our searches for distributors who dropped shipped wedding and bridal accessories and found Lillian Rose, Jamie Lynn, which came a few months later, and of course Beverly Clark. I don’t reckon there’s a bride, a future bride or a woman in general that hasn’t heard of her line of wedding collections and bridal accessories. There are other distributors which we also use, this gives us a large variety for the customers to chose from.

   We do but, carry stock of baby shower favors, baby gifts, bridal accessories and wedding favors to avoid some of the worries of when orders will be shipped to our customers. By doing so, we have more control on providing brilliant services to our customer and knowing that their order is shipped and delivered in a quick timely manner.

As we are now introducing wedding accessories, bridal favors, and bridal accessories, we know there’swas much work to be done. Not only putting them on the website and setting up pages, there’s SEO, Yikes……..again that dreadful word.

    But as we have learned, there’s more to just SEO, you must have traffic, without traffic you have no sales. With the internet vastly changing, social marketing, videos, links, advertising and several other avenues to get your product out there for potential customers and to gain more visibility. You must reach out and utilize these social networking gateways to help you get you name and product to the public.  Facebook, Twitter, Blogging of course are a few options , but remember,  you have to get involved.