Incorporate your family, friends and favourite fruits into your wedding with DIY jam favours.

By Stephanie Gareri

Prior to their wedding, Gilles and Michel spent a weekend in New Brunswick with Gilles’ mother to make jam from freshly-picked blueberries. The following weekend, they labeled, packaged and perfectly tied each delicious treat with Michel’s mom.

The couple documented the process and displayed their DIY adventure alongside the favours at the wedding so their guests could appreciate their labour of love and the connection between their two families. The couple discovered as early as their day-after brunch that their Jam a Maman favours were a huge success!

To make your own jam favours:

1. Find a well reviewed jam recipe online or ask a family member for a cherished recipe

2. Pick your fruit – choose something seasonal for the freshest taste and quality

3. Gather your family and friends to make your jam

4. Scoop into jars

5. Label the jars with your names, your wedding date or a sweet message

6. Package in boxes, bags or don’t package at all – jam jars add instant appeal to your decor!

7. Share with your guests

8. Enjoy!

Not cake people?

Consider sweetening up your guests with a selection of pies along with a complementary choice of cheeses or an ice cream bar. We’ve been keeping track of this growing trend over the summer and love that you can incorporate local produce, seasonal flavours (and splashes of colour) and a whole lotta whimsy into a pie-centred dessert table.

This time of year is especially fitting for pies at a wedding, with local apples ripening on branches and pumpkin patches appearing as if overnight, the tradition of great pie is definitely linked to harvest time. Its humble, ‘comfort-food’ roots are very much in keeping with the cozy feeling that early nights, turning leaves and first frosts inspire. Equally endearing is the deliciously imperfect homemade-feel of pie, its association with a family recipe handed down generation to generation, and the slice that oozes filling and mixes with a spoonful of cream for the perfect combination of flavours in your mouth.

Pie is about home, it’s about family and it’s about gathering people together for a shared moment of happiness. When you serve pie at a wedding, just imagine what associations your guests will make when they see their favourite on a glass pedestal stand or a dessert plate next to their steaming cup of tea.

Recipe ‘card’ courtesy of PaperlessPost.

Recipe courtesy of Country Living magazine and cookbook author and illustrator Susan Branch.

A few short weeks ago, Shannon Guihan and Chris Twerdun, two Torontonians, tied the knot at Ravine Vineyard, an historic piece of agricultural land, and the original site of one of the oldest commercial vineyards in Canada, which dates back to 1869. When we contacted Shannon last week, she emailed: “The choice of an outdoor wedding at a winery was natural for us …  our criteria were great food and great wine, after that we just wanted to show up! The over-sized harvest table[s] that … Ravine had custom made sealed it for us, they were the piece of country that we wanted.  After that we just let it happen to us, with the help of an incredibly talented group of friends we took care of the invitations, the music, the food was all local and in season, it was the little wedding that just grew up around us in time for harvest!”

{Note: The Wedding Co. stands corrected that Ravine Vineyard itself isn’t one of the oldest commercial vineyards in Canada, which we implied when this post was first published; the current vineyard stands on the site of one of the first, which was established in 1869 – the land has been used for various other agricultural pursuits in the interim. Additionally, Olson Foods at Ravine was not responsible for the custom harvest tables; Ravine Vineyard’s owners, Norma Jane and Blair Harber had the tables and the sails made for their son’s wedding a year ago, his was the first at Ravine.}

Continue Reading This Post

Our Etsy finds for this week are exclusively Canadian and together they hint at the changing season, wild weather and crisp air. If you’re planning autumnal nuptials or a harvest feast, consider bringing reminders of the outside indoors by incorporating reminders of this beautiful and blustery season such as bare branches, red leaves and colourful feathers. These are just a few of the ideas we found when we trolled our favourite craft-sellers’ website:

Left column: Hand wired Citrine tree in silver, $29.50 (madebysam),Pheasant Feathers Headband, $15US (Nomsa), Bare Tree Branch Necklace and Mystic Citrine, $45.50US (madebysam)

Middle column: PeeWee Pumpkin Soaps, $4.50 for 10 (Bovine Bubbles and Hogwash Ltd), Boutonnière – Birds Of A Feather, $6.50US (Rationales Shop),  Crystal Champagne Faceted Glass Earrings in Antiqued Copper – Denmark Earrings in Crystal Champagne, $16US (Dalim), Acorn Drops…Golden Glass and Copper Earrings, $16US (nancywallisdesigns)

Right column:  Woodsy romance (headband), $17 US (sweeteverythings), Black rutilated quartz solitaire Earrings, $23.50US (madebysam), Rock Crystal and Matte Gold Branch Earrings, $44.50US (madebysam)

When it comes to seasonal preferences, I’ve met two types of people: those who love the spring for the fresh green foliage and blooming flowers and those who are partial to the fall for its rich, earthy colours and brisk air. This week, The Wedding Co. celebrates fall and the yearly harvest.

If you are planning a fall wedding for 2010, head down to your local farmers’ market and be inspired by the colours, shapes and incredible selection of fruits and vegetables available for a seasonally inspired menu, decoration, or design element in your wedding.

As we head towards Thanksgiving find a moment to sit back, maybe light a fire and enjoy harvest week as the leaves turn and a faint smell of a winter fills the air.