Say it With Cookies

I just purchased these awesome cookie cutters at Williams Sonoma in June. I saw them on the site awhile back, but they sold out, but they recently became available again! It's kind of like embossing, but for cookies! If you've been following along, you may know how much I love embossing, examples here, here, here, and here!

The set includes three cutters, seven premade words (Welcome, Happy, Birthday, Holidays, Thank You, From, I Love You), three sets of alphabet letters (plus extras of vowels and other commonly used letters).

I have big plans for this set and it has something to do with our guests, but since some of our guests read the blog, you'll have to wait until after the wedding to see what we are doing with these!

Have you found any cool new gadgets you plan to use during your wedding planning?

OOT Ideas

Mr. S and I are so appreciative knowing that our friends and family will be travelling to see us say "I do". Choosing the location was an easy choice for sentimental reasons, but I do feel bad that everyone will have to travel. We really didn't have a choice on travel, because either of our home towns would still cause a large number of our guests to travel.

We've tried to come up with ways to make their stay comfortable. None of these ideas are really earth shattering, but I still think these little details make a difference.

1. Send Save the Dates. - Our wedding isn't during the summer or on a holiday weekend, but due to the travel involved, we felt it was important to give our guests advance notice. We sent hotel block information as well as a link to our wedding website. Our room blocks end 2 months prior to the wedding, which is when our invitations will go out. The save the dates were a great way to give advance notification.

2. Create a website with useful information. We've included directions, local restaurants and attractions and will use it if any updates need to be sent.
3. Give clear directions- I'm horrible with directions, so clear directions are always super helpful when it comes to weddings or any day in life. We have links with mapquest directions on our website for each location.
4. Set up Room Blocks - try to find great deals. We spent huors trying to find hotels with quality, affrodability and convenience.

5. Welcome Note- we plan to leave our oot guests a welcome note to let them know how appreciative we are that they have made the trip to our wedding.
6. Printed area information in a folder or oot bag for the non-tech savvy or those who may not visit your website- this includes maps, area attractions and restaurant information.
7. OOT bag/welcome treat. - we plan to fll up bags with snacks for guests who may be hungry after a long drive.

Source

8. Morning after Brunch- Some of our guests will have a long car ride home the day after our wedding, so we thought it would be nice to feed them before they get on the road. And it's another excuse to hang out with all our firends and family!

Are you having a lot of oot guests? Are you planning to do anything to make their stay more comfortable? Anything I should add to our list?

Incredible Edibles

The OOT Bags have been a big item on our to-do list that has been getting pushed off in the planning. I have big ideas for these little bags. After reading Mrs. Lemon's post, I knew I wanted to include lots of snacks for all of our oot guests. Every guest is from oot and many will be driving close to 5 hours or flying in to get to the wedding. I want to make sure they feel welcomed right from the moment they arrive at their hotel.

I've gone back and forth on what to include, I've debated on RI treats or NE treats or going with our navy and white color scheme, but then we kept finding fun nautical/shore treats and decided to go with a nautical theme. Now we just need to narrow down, exactly what will go into these bags. We know the basics, such as a welcome letter, wedding information, area information, water bottles, maybe postcards, but we've found an overflow of ideas on the snack front.

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An obvious choice for us is Starfish Cookies! Newport Mom has already offered to make them using her famous sugar cookie recipe. Dylan's Candy Bar has original Sweedish fish and mixed Sweedish fish, a classic and fun twist. I wonder if Costco's sells these? We know for sure we will be getting Goldfish, as they can be bought in bulk at large discount stores, such as Costco and I love the way Mrs. JellyBean packaged them for her guests.
I'm not really a fan of Salt Water Taffy, but I love these favors from The Original Fudge Kitchen via Martha Stewart. The Jersey Shore is Mr. N's home, where Salt Water Taffy is a staple, so these would be a fun nod to where he grew up.
And Lobsters are a well known favorite in Boston, so these lollipops from Ju-C Suckers via Martha Stewart, would be a fun nod to my hometown, while sticking to the nautical theme.
And from my Shuckie post, I think you can tell I love these cookies.
Newport Chocolates has amazing nautical chocolates in so many fun shapes that would be perfect. They are so adorable, but I've always wanted to try chocolate making, so I think this would be a fun DIY project!

Now we just need to narrow it down. Which treats would you enjoy most? Do you know of any other fun nautical themed treats?

Shuckies!

Today I got a really exciting e-mail in my inbox. After attending the New England Food Show, BIL Newport sent me an e-mail saying:

"I was at the new england food show yesterday and saw something you guys might like for the wedding. It's a fortune cookie but it's a scallop shell. Very cool. They can be customized too. Chocolate dipped, custom color sugar, messages, etc. It's called shuckie. www.shuckie.com"

He even got us samples!

The cookies are pretty cool, after further investigation, aka, checking out their website, I learned that they have fun fortunes inside and on the back of each "quotie", they have a fact about fish. One of Mr. Newport's favorite hobbies is fishing! I love that they are nautical, unique, semi-local (out of Maine) and fun! I couldn't find pricing on the website, but I will be contacting the company to learn more. I'm really excited about BIL Newport's find for us.

Have any of your friends or family members found great wedding items or given you ideas?

How Sweet it is...

Some of my earliest childhood memories include cookies. Every Christmas all the girls in the family (and Mr. Newport and BILN- they are great dough rollers) bake at least 15 dozen of about 10 types of cookies-no lie! My mom is known for her cookies. She makes every type imaginable, some of my favorites being classic chocolate chip, pumpkin with a maple glaze, chocolate with caramel and almonds, snowballs, and her famous sugar cookies.

Searching the web I have found so many great places with the cutest sugar cookies, the only real test is whether or not they tatse better than my moms. Ever since I found decorated sugar cookies on the web, I've been in love with the idea of a cookie favor at the wedding. I've been to a decent amount of weddings and my favorite favors always seem to be edible or picture frames.... or honestly, they tend to get thrown out. I love cookies and other edible favors because they are never wasted...at least with me. I've found so many sites with cute cookies, I thought I'd share some favorites.

Eleni's in New York is one of my hands down favorites. Every season there are new options that are cuter than before. I am especially in love with the Wedding collection below. It would be perfect for a "Breakfast at Tiffanys" themed shower. I also think it would be cute to send to a friend who just got engaged.

Casue Sweets seems to be the couture designer of cookies. How amazing are these shells? Perfect for a seaside wedding.
Casue Sweets has the most intricate designs, they'll even custom make cookies designed to match your wedding gown! How unbelievable are these: I love these starfish and shell sugar cookies from Ali's Sweet Treats. They fit perfect with our nautical theme. I think they would be a cute addition to our Out of Town Welcome bags. A Dozen Eggs, located in New England has so many cute options. My personal favorite is Penant Fever. My sister's fiance proposed to her at Fenway Park where they had their first date. So we threw them a Red Sox themed Engagement party and of course we bought a few of the Penant Fever Cookie Collections and they were a HUGE hit at the party!



At my god-daughter's baby shower, we used K-Delights. The cookies were delicious. I think the diamond ring sugar cookies would have been perfect for our engagement party. After a lot of price research on sugar cookies on the web, I think K-Delights was the cheapest option I found. Most cookies range around $5.00 up to much more, but they had options under $3.00.
I love these cookies from Meli and Angi. I like that they are personalized. I think they would be a cute favor tied up in a package with a ribbon.
One of my favorite cookies I've seen on the web is this clever "Crabcake" from Maine Cake and Cookies. It's perfect for a clambake wedding.


I found these monogrammed beauties at Rolling Pin Productions. They are perfect for a garden party or English tea themed shower.

Are you trying to incorporate a favorite family memory into your wedding?