Tradition

I was icing a batch of biscuit wedding favours last week and pondering the advent of this relatively new trend in Irish weddings. A large cluster of my friends got married, all around the same time, about ten years ago now. It was a frantic cycle of hen parties (restricted to one night thankfully, not the weekend odyssey it has become), clothes shopping, gift shopping and generally enjoying a good ol' knees-up while haemorrhaging money. For all the frills and fun of those weddings, however, there was not a wedding favour in sight (nor were they missed it has to be said). Fast-forward a decade or so and no right-thinking bride would be without them. As I iced the little bride and groom biscuit hearts, I became curious as to how it all began. I confess, I was a bit sniffy about the whole concept. Was this, as I had assumed, simply one more in a long line of trends that make their way from the US to our shores? 

 

A lull in the icing process provided enough time for a spot of research (isn't the internet marvellous?). Much to my surprise, it seems that wedding favours began on this side of the Atlantic, long before the arrival of the white, multi-tiered wedding cake in fact (which is a whole other blog-post). Apparently (the internet is marvellous but not always accurate, so don't quote me on this), a bonbonniere was given to each of the guests at aristocratic weddings in Europe. It was a small trinket box, often highly decorated and filled with sugar cubes or delicate confections. Sugar was a luxury in Europe prior to the 18th century, available to only the most wealthy, so this was bling at its best (think Kim Kardashian and whoever her current beau is). Of course, bling at a wedding is nothing new and neither, as it turns out, are wedding favours! I can now bake and ice my little wedding favours safe in the knowledge that they are no mere trend, but instead hold a well-earned place at the top table of wedding traditions.