The Best Made-in-Palm Springs Wedding Favors


Send them home with some Coachella Valley goodness — from tasty sweets to spa-inspired treats

Lisa Marie Hart Weddings

Most popular for wedding favors are Brandini Toffee's 1/8-pound and 1/4-pound bags of the signature gourmet almond toffee that made them famous.
Photo by Neil Husvar

 

If you’ve been looking for a locally made, custom touch for your wedding favors, you might just have found your match.

Check out these favors that have their roots in the area and add personalized charm. While everyone gets a kick out of take-home photo strips from an on-site photo booth and there are plenty of “stay cool” favor ideas, from sunglasses and flip flops to fans and aloe balm, take a peek at these goodies that walk the walk—made right here in Greater Palm Springs.

 

Brandini Toffee

photo courtesy of brandini toffee

A one-quarter pound bag of almond toffee with a customized hangtag is one of Brandini Toffee’s most popular wedding favors, straight from the Rancho Mirage toffee factory.

 

Rich, dreamy Brandini Toffee makes a lasting impression on guests. Who wouldn’t be eager to savor this habit-forming candy born in Rancho Mirage? Most popular for wedding favors are their 1/8-pound and 1/4-pound bags of the signature gourmet almond toffee that made them famous. With two weeks’ notice, bags can be customized with your choice of ribbon and a 2-inch by 2-inch hangtag ($3 to $7 depending on customization). Other favor options are toffee boxes and tins with a vellum insert bearing your message and customized toffee tins. The toffee is sold nationally, but two local toffee shops make tasting before you buy a real treat.

Rancho Mirage Brandini Toffee Shop & Factory, 42560 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage

Palm Springs Brandini Toffee Shop, 132 S. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs; 760-200-1598, www.brandinitoffee.com

 

Holy Honey

photo courtesy of holy honey

Holy Honey loves to personalize their Coachella Valley-grown mini honey favors with tags, lace, bags or any other elements that will help capture your theme.

 

You might not equate the desert region with the best thing to spread on toast, but Debbie Schwen’s Holy Honey wedding favors will change all that in a sweet heartbeat. Each starts off with delicious Coachella Valley honey poured into hexagon honey filled jars. Finished with personalized tags and an optional mini wooden honey dippers, the little honey jars come in three sizes and can be customized to your event theme, style or color. Create a tag line or choose one of theirs, such as "Meant To Bee" or "Love is Sweet.” The company is as sweet as their products — with no minimums and the ability to take on rush orders — and also offers “Bride To Bee” favors for bridal showers. Stop by their Thursday night booth at Palm Springs Villagefest with your honey to see and sample their assortment together.

Holy Honey, (562) 450-8139, www.holyhoney.com

 

Tonic Skin & Spirit

photo courtesy of tonic skin & SPIRIT

Mini versions of Tonic Skin & Spirit’s best sellers (including room & body spray, sea salt soaks, massage & body oils) use essential oil blends and cocktail scents to woo guests in welcome bags.

 

Lift their spirits with plant-based ingredients and 100 percent natural fragrances thanks to this line of bath, body, and spa products in celebratory cocktail scents that include Mojito, Margarita, and Rum Tiki. Brides have found owner Cynsie Vogt to be a fabulous resource for unexpected, locally made favors to drop into welcome totes for the guests and bridal party thank-you bags. Her refreshingly natural room and body sprays, massage and body oils, and sea salt soaks use eight different therapeutic blends of essential oils to transform any mood. Leading up to the big day and during the event, she recommends her “Soothes & Serenades” blend infused with bergamot and basil to help everyone keep calm — or feel rejuvenated if they’ve overindulged. Vogt’s favors come in 2-ounce mini versions of her top-sellers.

Tonic Skin & Spirit, (760) 898-8373, www.tonicskinspirit.com

 

Coachella Valley Dates

photo courtesy of Shields date FARM

Sweet, chewy, all-natural California dates have a long history in the Coachella Valley and make affordable DIY favor bags.

 

Okay, there’s a bit of a DIY element involved in this one. But if you’re up for it, our California dates are a favor that really represents the area. Since the medjool date palm variety was first imported to the states from Morocco in 1927, and planted right here in Indio, dates have come to symbolize a flavor of the region. (Yes, that’s why we host the annual National Date Festival.)

Pick up your dates from Hadley’s Fruit Orchards in Cabazon on your way into town, or venture out to Shields Date Farm in Indio where you are also welcome to roam their expansive garden that winds through a 17-acre date farm. Then, simply buy in bulk, divide them into clear cello bags, tie with ribbon, and add a sticker on the front that reads, “From this date forward…”. You could actually send them out in advance with a label that reads “Save the Dates (or actually, go ahead and eat them…)” to announce the date of your big event. What a way to entice them to make their Coachella Valley wedding-vacation plans nice and early!

Shields Date Farm, 80225 Highway 111, Indio, 760-347-0996; www.shieldsdategarden.com

Hadley Fruit Orchards, 48980 Seminole Drive, Cabazon, 951-849-5255; www.hadleyfruitorchards.com

 

Lisa Marie Hart has been writing about weddings since serving as an editor at Bridal Guide magazine in New York City in 1999. Since 2006, she has been editor of the annual Palm Springs Life Weddings & Honeymoon Planner. Away from the laptop, she creates tiered cupcake stands for weddings and celebrations at www.highteaforalice.com

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