My Wedding Planning: DIY Spiced Nuts as Favors

There are just a few more pieces of our wedding that I'd like to write about as part of my Wedding Planning series. I've been wanting to write about our wedding favors for a while now, but I decided to wait until we were closer to the warm, cozy, gift-giving season, which these spiced nuts fit into perfectly. In other words, these favors are lovely for weddings but I think they make unique gifts for just about any other occasion, too.

The winter before our wedding, I found this sugar-and-spice candied nuts recipe and made a few batches to jar as gifts. The next year, when our winter wedding was upon us, I decided to do exactly the same thing for all of our lovely guests. But first I began collecting jars.

Lucky for me, my mom was a big canner and used to make lots of jams and jellies and so she had dozens of vintage glass jars tucked away in our basement. She was downsizing and decided she wasn't going to be doing much canning in the future, so I happily gathered and cleaned them all to use for my favors. 

To make them extra cute, I knew they would need tags. I hopped onto the Paper Source site (where I'd gotten so many other wedding supplies) and they had these exact "H" cards, in dusty rose, and on sale! It was meant to be. I used leftover gold ribbon from our wedding invitations to tie them up in a bow.

Two weeks before the wedding, I made the spiced nuts in my parents' kitchen. I had bought 20 pounds of raw almonds, walnuts, and pecans at a good price (I think at Sam's Club) and I had gotten out my mom's biggest mixing bowls and cookie sheets and pans. I made batch after batch after batch! It was a lot of fun, and while it took hours, it was really very easy. It did require attention and constant stirring, but it was such a joyful task. It made my wedding feel oh-so-real!

I loved the way our florist chose to arrange the jars at the reception, among dozens of candles and lemon leaves and vintage family wedding photos that I had been collecting for months. It was so special and it took my breath away (the photos don't do quite it justice). 

(This last photo is not related to favors but I thought I would include it because it was another thoughtfully arranged part of the reception. On it are more vintage family wedding photos, as well as blank cards that we asked our guests to write notes on, which we will read on our one-year anniversary. We can't wait to see what our friends and family said and to relive this magical evening.)

All photos by Robin Fox Photography