Be Our Guests! The Ceremony

by admin on December 1, 2009, under Wedding Fayre, Wedding Ideas & Advice

Though the ceremony is, of course, about our marriage, I still want people to feel comfortable and cared-for during the (what is sure to be a rather long) mass.

First, they will be greeted by two baskets.

For their tears: Vintage handkerchiefs – from eBay (washed, of course). I got them super cheap at 50 cents each. They look cute arranged like this (the picture is from the seller), but I wrapped them up and tied each of them with a ribbon. There will also be a little sign encouraging them to take (and keep!) them.

For the heat: Fan programs – if there is any heat, that is (I tend to be hot at all times as my friends and family know. I am 97% sold on these. Only recently have I started to doubt these, as I feel they might be a little too trendy. More on that later, though.

For their tummies: Post ceremony snacks! Originally inspired by these posts, I loved the idea of providing guests with a little snack after the mass – especially considering we are having an early afternoon wedding and about a two hour delay before the start of the cocktail hour. The snacks seen below are cookies with a little note of thanks and directions to the reception site.

(source)

Our post ceremony snack will be pretzels, an idea that sprung from a suggestion from Cheeseburger Mom. She had a great idea to use the quote “The Burgers tied the knot!” with the pretzels in the OOT boxes. I decided to steal her idea and incorporate it at this point. Originally, I thought I would make all of the pretzels, and for some reason I thought they should be cinnamon pretzels. I used the recipe below to make some pretty delicious cinnamon pretzels (just like ones we had in middle school!).

Cinnamon Pretzels

(adapted from this recipe)

Yields 3 dozen 6-inch sticks or 1 dozen 6-inch pretzels

1 tbsp Yeast
1/2 cup Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Salt
2 tbsp softened butter
1 cup warm water
5 tsp baking soda mixed in 4 cups water in a non-aluminum saucepan

Grease cookie sheet & preheat oven to 475 F
Put yeast, sugar, cinnamon, salt, butter, and ONE CUP of the flour into a medium mixing bowl and pour in the water.
Stir until all smooth, and yeast starts to bubble. At this point add the rest of the flour, stir until it is mixed in.
When mixture is too stiff to stir with a spoon, begin kneading. Knead dough until smooth and until it no longer sticks to the bowl and your hands
Allow dough to rise to about double its height.
Bring the baking soda-water mixture and bring to a boil on stove.
When dough is risen enough, punch down, knead for a minute or so, then divide and roll the 6-inch sticks with your hands, to about 1/2 inch in diameter, or 12-15-inch long rolls to make into the pretzel shape.
Allow sticks or pretzels to sit for about 1-2 minutes.
Place them into boiling water-baking soda mixture one or two at a time.
Let the pretzels boil for 1 minute 10 seconds, then flip them over and boil on the other side for 1 minute and 10 seconds.
Fish them out of the water, let them drip off and place them on the greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until sticks or pretzels are golden brown.

Phew! Sound complicated? It was. For 12 pretzels. While they were delicious, and cute (I got some of them to be heart-shaped), I realized that there was NO WAY I was making 200+ of them. Ever. Let alone close enough to the wedding for them to be fresh!

Enter the lovely people at Philly Pretzel Factory who have a new location right in State College! I called them on the last leg of this idea, ready to give up. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that not only will they make 225 pretzels for us, they will do it THE MORNING OF THE WEDDING, package them in whatever customized bags I want, AND DELIVER THEM TO THE CHURCH FOR US, all for around $100.00. WHAT?! I practically kissed the woman through the phone. Amazing. So, we will have pretzels, a pun on us “tying the knot,” and people will be fed (notice the feeding theme yet?).

These are the cute little baby pretzels everyone will be able to take after the ceremony. Each one is about the size of your palm, perfect to hold our guests over until the cocktail hour!