Bonbonniere
A Bonbonniere is what we call a wedding favor today. These
were small boxes, like a trinket box, commonly made of crystal
or fine porcelain and sometimes silver or gold for the upper
class weddings. These trinket boxes would contain items chosen
by the bride and groom that would normally symbolize royalty
or riches.
Common items enclosed in the bonbonniere were things
like granulted sugar from sugar canes, or even sugar cubes.
How does sugar define royalty or riches?
In the past, during
the times bonbonniere were offered as a wedding favor,
sugar was something only seen at the tables of the rich.
It was
a rare and expensive item in ancient times, not a common
good like we know today. Many even believed sugar was a cure
for
medical problems, making it even more valuable, so offering
sugar as a wedding favor was actually quite common. Later,
as the value of sugar dropped to affordable levels the
bonbonniere changed from sugar to almonds.
Almonds were still
holding
value
as a favor to offer the rich. Almonds were a symbol
of wealth and good forutne to the new bride and groom, and
were
offered
as wedding favors for hundreds of years.
Somewhere
along the line sugar was again added as a wedding favor.
This time the
sugar was coated on the actual almonds themselves,
and
they called these sugar coated almond favors 'confetti'.
A little
different than the confetti we know today, but you
can easily see where we started using the name confetti for
fine
shredded
paper, which is similar to the sugar falling off
the almonds.
Almonds are commonly coated with a white candy
like
shell
at weddings today, which signifies the old time wedding
favor of an almond covered in sugar. Most may believe
the white almond
is white to signifiy a wedding color, but it's
actually the ancient use of sugar coated almond favors that
makes
them
white today.
Summary of Bonbonniere
As you can see, bonbonniere have evolved into the modern day wedding
favors we now use at our own weddings. It is amazing how
time changes a favor from simple sugar to the little favors
we know and love in the present. Now that you understand
how it all started you can choose your own unique
wedding favors.
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