A local find...

A lot of brides will ask me for ideas on locally made products to give to their guests as gifts. Well, I think I just found my new favorite. Check out Isola Bella.



Gina Feddersen is a local artist, producing locally made items for the home as well as beautiful stationary. My favorite item for weddings would be the natural cotton canvas wine tote...with the seahorse print of course...



Instead of wine, I'd drop a bottle of Cruzan Rum inside!

Her stationary would be great in the welcome bags or used as thank you notes...



Don't forget to check out her blog!

Adorable favor idea...

I am a favor nerd, I will totally admit it. Cake and favors are the two things I totally look forward to when I attend a wedding. Which is probably not what a lot of brides want to hear since the big trends lately have drifted to dessert tables instead of cakes and charity donations instead of trinkets. But I'm a traditionalist - I love the little tulle bags of Jordan Almonds and the big slice of cake with thick sugary butter cream frosting! And if I can, I always steal a second piece...at weddings I'm attending mind you, not the ones I'm coordinating. =)

A post or two ago I posted about my friend Maddie's wedding here. As I was taking her and her groom (ooops! I mean, husband now!) back to the airport, I subtlety asked if they would be doing favors at their reception back in Indiana and had a plethora of ideas to share. Maddie actually already had in mind what she would like to do for favors, since she had attended a wedding last summer and loved their favor idea. This isn't exactly what she described, but the best I could find online...



A coworker had silver drink stirrers, or swizzle sticks as favors. These pictured above are acrylic and can be personalized with your name & wedding dates were found at www.hqweddingfavors.com. Maddie says she uses hers all the time - which is exactly what you are looking for in a favor - something that won't be tossed out at the end of the night or forgotten on the table! I like the silver idea best but couldn't find any online in the short search that I did. I suggested adding a little something to make it more "Virgin Island-y" since this is where they were married. Why not attach the swizzler to a miniature bottle of local Cruzan Rum?



How cute could that be? A little bottle of rum and a silver swizzler at each place setting? Definitely appropriate for a drinking crowd, which I'm sure Maddie's reception will fall into! And if you really feel confident about your crowd's drinking abilities, just skip the swizzler and put a little shot glass at each setting with the bottle of rum inside!

Bridesmaid Gifts

For my own wedding I had beach bags personalized with my maids initials and filled with with all kinds of goodies like lip balm, suntan lotion, a bottle of local rum, flip flops, a magazine for the beach, snacks, etc, etc. While I still think it was a fabulous gift, here's another idea that I just love (and is probably easier for them to lug home from a destination wedding).



Everyone is going to have a bikini or bathing suit at a destination wedding and no one wants to bring home a wet swimsuit that can stink up their luggage. And these can be personalized with each girls name or initials! I just love personalized gifts.

How cute would this be if you filled it with some chap stick or maybe some fun wedding jewelry for your maids to wear? And did you like my idea of a bottle of local rum? You can easily get some airline sized bottles of rum. Cruzan Rum makes awesome flavors as well like coconut, banana, vanilla, mango, etc.

I found these great bags at www.prettypersonalgifts.com (other colors to chose from as well) but a lot of websites have them. www.uncommongoods.com has one of my favorites. And you can always count on eBay!