By Ellen Russell
For years, mints have reigned as a wedding favor favorite. Their simplicity, elegance and plain old attractiveness has made them a top choice for brides and grooms across the country.
These days, you can find mints designed for weddings and showers in all kinds of styles. For example, the popular and traditional "pillow mints" are easy to find in bulk bags of one pound or more. You'll also find wedding mints that are individually wrapped, or prepackaged in pretty, personal-serving size bags, often with an eye-catching favor tag. These types of wrapped mints are a smart choice if you plan on buying your favors early. They have a long shelf life, and you won't need to worry about them going stale.
Sure, it's easy to find the mints, you say, but what about the packaging? Not to worry — whether you're hot-glue gun wielding cowgirl or cower before the craft store, you've got plenty of options for packing up your mints in style.
Packing It In
One of the simplest ways to package loose or individually wrapped mints is to gather some pre-cut tulle circles. Plunk in the mints and tie up all up with a pretty ribbon to match your wedding colors. Simple, but classic.
Or if you want to get slightly fancier, try this on for size: buy some heart-shaped metal cookie cutters, and cut some card stock into slightly larger heart shapes (try one of your cutters as a template). Now, using your favorite adhesive — we like rubber cement because it reminds us of kindergarten — glue the back of each cutter to a heart-shaped piece of card stock. Fill your cute new container with mints, and polish it off by wrapping it all up in a round of tulle or a clear cellophane bag.
Look around for other interesting container ideas. Be creative — make it up as you go along. Just a few eye-catching ideas include small white glasses, beer steins, shot glasses, votive holders, adorable porcelain tea cups or bud vases. Plenty of online retailers will personalize these items. And if your wedding has a distinct theme, you can leverage it to the max. Try small pewter goblets for a Renaissance wedding, or dried miniature gourds for a rustic fall wedding.
With all the online favors available these days, you can find almost any mint or container on the planet in a minimum of time (and without shelling out any gas money). So your main dilemma is how on earth to choose from all those options.
But if you don't mind whipping out the plastic, you'll quickly find that simple, stylish and easy-to-assemble products are available by the truckload, including clear PVC boxes (trendy!), adorable triangle truffle boxes, organza drawstring bags in any color under the sun, glassine envelopes, fashion-forward metal mesh boxes, and many, many others.
After all, even the tamest goodies can make the heart beat a little faster when packaged in a box or bag that amounts to a visual event — especially when you add an elegant tag that thanks your guests for thinking of you.
It's "Tin" the Bag ...
No article on wedding mints is complete without a mention of those nostalgic, stylish mint tins. Wedding mint tins come in all shapes and designs, and nearly all come personalized — which removes that extra last-minute chore of tying on ribbons and favor tags. No matter your theme or colors, there's a mint tin out there designed for you. And they're especially convenient for guests, because they travel easily without making a mess, and they're tough — even if they get tucked in a back pocket and sat on after a few dances and drinks!
Five Sweet Wishes
But if you end up packaging your mints yourselves, remember the old tradition of giving sweets in multiples of three or five. Legend holds that five sweets (in the form of mints, Jordan almonds, chocolate kisses or candy hearts, for example) represent five wishes for the couple on their wedding day: health, wealth, happiness, fertility and long life. (For some people, the first three seem to suffice!)
And not only are minty wedding favors easy and traditional, they're also practical. Guests appreciate a little something to freshen the palate after that rich wedding meal, and most people seem to find a darling package of wedding mints preferable to, say, parsley. What's more, a personalized tin or pouch of mints makes a memento guests can take home with them, making the sweetness of your day last a little longer.
How far ahead of the wedding can I fill cardboard favor boxes with pillow mints wrapped in tulle?
How many butter mints can fit into an organza bag nicely?