Vegan Party Favors

Posting this one from my parents' house, which they just moved into nearby us -- we just ate a great meal of quinoa, kale, Tofurkey sausage, and white beans with squash... yum. But that's not what I'm here to talk about! What do two vegans give away as party favors at their reception? Umm... vegan chocolate, duh. This is a non-recipe but very party-related post (we'll get some recipes to you soon!) -- these were a big crafts project for me and my assistant Dan. Here's the final result:

We wanted something a little personal that would have something for everyone -- so it was tea and chocolates in a cute little jar. I liked the jars because people can use them later for spices or buttons or whatever -- a repurpose-able gift!

Contents:

• Jar from myweddingfavors.com (no customization)
• Hand-filled tea bags with choice of 3 teas from Teaism:
• Gen Mai Cha (green tea)
• Darjeeling (black tea)
• Anxi (oolong tea)
• Vegan Choices caramel chocolate (mostly rice-based)
• Strips that I cut from a plaid men's shirt, bought from Buffalo Exchange, for some color...
• Tea tag with our names, wildflowers I doodled in Photoshop, descriptions of the tea & how to brew, plus one of three Japanese poems (they went with the tea)

The nice thing about the Choices chocolate is that they were already individually wrapped. If you want to make something like this & can't get a hold of Choices, then some vegan truffles from a place like Premium Chocolatiers wrapped in saran wrap would work, or filled with little nibs or nuts from Charm School Chocolates. 

We chose a nice mix of teas from Teaism -- all three are realllly good & come highly recommended. The bags were heat & seal bags purchased from Etsy, but we tied them up with twine instead of heating & sealing. 

Filling the tea bags and working on the tags were the hardest parts. I chose three short Japanese poems that I love (they're very simple & beautiful poems, by two of Japan's greatest poets, Mitsuo Aida and Akiko Yosano.) Here's one of the Aida poems:

"You see beauty in everything because your heart is beautiful" (That's my own translation, which is probably a little off, please correct me if needed!) This was the first Mitsuo Aida poem I read, on a post card from my friend Natsuki.

I'm not sure how well-received these were, since we gave them to people as they were leaving, but I was really happy with how the tags turned out, and at the very least, I think people will put those little jars to good use!

Anyway - if you are thinking of favors and have 60 or fewer guests (60 felt like a lot, and I like doing crafts), consider favors with a bit of DIY-ness to them. Once you have the materials down, it is kind of a stress-relief activity to assemble it all, which is a necessity during wedding planning... and I absolutely recommend some combination of tea and chocolate -- if someone doesn't like one, chances are they'll like the other :)