Cookie Jar Chronicles

Posts Tagged ‘brides’

Floral Arrangement vs. HSB Favor Centerpiece: A Cost Comparison

You’ll hear us talk a lot about our centerpieces. When Sue George came up with the concept a couple of years ago, she had no idea that it would catch on so quickly. The eye-catching stacks of boxes seem to really make people’s eyes light up. When they come to realize that they get to take home one of the colorful boxes, and that it’s filled with delicious baked treats, some folks have been known to clap and giggle with glee.

One thing you haven’t heard us talk about much is exactly how much more affordable our centerpieces are than standard floral arrangements. When you add together the cost of favors for each guest and floral arrangements for every table, the combined cost can soar to heights you never would have dreamed of when you put together your wedding budget. It can be a real heart breaker. By combining the cost of both of these necessities into one line item on your budget, you can save hundreds of dollars with this one choice, and make sticking to your budget one step easier.

According to theknot.com, favors can cost as little as $1 per guest and can climb up to $20 per guest, and wedding flowers can eat up 8-10% of your total wedding budget. While it would be difficult to give an exact cost comparison, since the range of types and costs of both favors and centerpieces varies so widely, we can, at least, share an example using some commonly available cost points we researched at top wedding sites online:

EXAMPLE #1: You have 100 guests, who will be seated in groups of 10 at round tables. You are getting married in the Boston area in September, and you are thinking about using a low arrangement of seasonal flowers in the center of each of the tables, like calla lilies, roses and hydrangea–perhaps something like this simple, clean style from FTD, which costs about $140:

For your favors, you were thinking of doing a sweet treat, like candy or cookies, packaged in a little box and placed at each person’s place setting. You want the favor to be in your wedding’s colors, and the treat inside to be tasty. You decide on sugar cookies from a local bakery. You’ll place two of them in a simple white box and tie it with some colored silk ribbon. It’s kind of generic, but it still looks quite pretty. When you add up the price of 200 cookies, the white boxes and the colored ribbon, the favors end up costing a total of $4 a piece. You didn’t keep track of how much time you spent searching for each of the individual elements of the favor, but at least you were able to be resourceful and keep the cost down. You’re proud of your selections, and know they’ll look great on the tables.

Total price tag for this scenario: $1800

EXAMPLE #2: You realize that your budget for flowers and favors is going to have to be slashed, but you’re not willing to compromise style or quality. You decide to use your favors AS your centerpiece–you clever little bride! If this works out, you might just start a trend in Boston…

So, knowing that you still want to do the cookies in cute boxes with ribbons, you turn to Sue George at Harvard Sweet Boutique (how green of you to stay local!) Sue does some research and finds some adorable gold boxes for you that will work perfectly with your theme of gold and roses. The silk ribbon and tulle she ties around them is so elegant, it makes you want to weep with joy. The six handmade cookies you select to put inside are so mouthwatering, you’re not sure you want to even serve cake!

Sue suggests placing the boxes in three stacked circles in the center of the table, with the bows all facing out. Five on the bottom, then a group of four, then one on top, like a cherry. She says it will create just enough height for some color, texture and pop, without keeping your guests from seeing one another across the table.

Total price tag for this scenario: $800

Wow. You saved $1000! You’re feeling so good about it, that you’re thinking of buying 100 red roses, and laying one at each person’s place setting, to REALLY jazz it up. Why not? You’ll still be spending hundreds less than in the original scenario, and you know it will be one of the most memorable table settings your guests will have ever seen.

HSB Loves Weddingwire.com

Over here in the Harvard Sweet kitchen, we spend a lot of time thinking about weddings. It’s not because of that question that we get asked so often–”Do you do wedding cakes?”–we don’t. But we DO do favor centerpieces, and we’re always looking to spread the word about our affordable, dual-purpose, chic alternative to pricey floral arrangements, and that’s the main reason we joined WeddingWire.com.

Weddingwire.com, an online wedding planning site, is fast becoming the go-to resource for savvy brides, and we want to use our little ol’ blog to clue you in to all it’s got to offer (including a discount from us! More on that later….) If you’re planning a wedding, or know someone who is, we think you’ll agree that WeddingWire.com is worth a look. The site offers three hugely helpful tools that not only help take the stress out of wedding planning, they can even help make it enjoyable:

1) PLANNING: browse the profiles of over 100,000 vendors from throughout the country, compare reviews from their clients, visit their web sites, and even request more information from the photographers, caterers or venues that interest you. You can save all the profiles right there in a personal, online binder, to refer back to later.

2) SHARING: join in on conversations about decor, dresses, honeymoon destinations, etiquette and more on the WeddingWire.com forums. Or, create a wedding blog on Facebook using the  WeddingWire Facebook application. It gives you access to all of the tools on WeddingWire.com, right from your Facebook page!

3) ORGANIZING: organize the details of your big day, including building a website, and managing your budget, guest list and seating chart.

Could it be possible that wedding planning is finally becoming…dare we say it…fun?

Visit our page on WeddingWire.com to access our special discount for WeddingWire subscribers. And, if you have ordered centerpieces or enjoyed favors from Harvard Sweet Boutique in the past, please be sure to leave us a review while you’re on our WeddingWire page!

Brides on a Budget: Save $$ on Your Centerpieces

Ezine, home of thousands of articles written by experts from around the world, recently published a piece by Sue George, about affordable wedding centerpieces. In the article, Sue shares tips for how brides on a budget can afford indulgences without breaking the bank.