To double as our favors and placecards, we decided to do.... strawberry jam! It was exhausting considering we have 250 guests, which meant we had around 140 jars of jam to can, but they turned out super cute and yummy, so it made it all worth it!
I also made the tags myself. I designed the tags on MS Word and bought thick cover stock from Papersource and printed them at home. The tags were tied on with twine from Michaels and the fabric for the tops I purchased from Jo-Ann Fabrics.
For the placecard portion on the top of the jars, I used circle stickers purchased from Papersource. On the stickers I printed the guests names, table number, and a symbol of eithera cow, chicken, or carrot to signify each guest's meal preference.
i honestly cannot remember the exact price of the jars, but i bought cases of them from meijer. I do remember it being cheaper by the case in comparison to purchasing the jars individually.
I just used the strawberry jam recipe from the Pomona's Pectin box. My husband is a chef and he has used different types of pectin and found that Pomona's always worked the best, so I followed his advice and went with that. You can find Pomona's at Whole Foods.
Make sure you work in small batches. If you try to make a monstrous amount at once, you risk it not getting to a nice thick jam.
Make sure you sterilize your jars, lids, and rings well!!!!
Another tip, use frozen strawberries. The color comes out better compared to fresh strawberries. But the flavor is still amazing and beats any mass produced jam you find in the grocery store.
I unfortunately lost my USB drive with all my wedding stuff on it a few days before my wedding. so dumb! So I don't have the template. Sorry! I just made it on MS Word, pretty simple. And I played around with different types of fonts until I found the ones I liked best. There are some really great free font sites as well that you should check out if you're interested in making your own tags.
@taraandchuck2012: i realized quickly that I wouldn't have the patience to make one for each wedding guest. When I started out, getting burns on my arms from steam/hot jam and back aches from making all of these got to be a bit much, so I made them for each couple and if a guest didn't have a date, one just for themselves. So in turn, we only had to make about 140 jars of strawberry jam. Definitely a better idea to do one per couple!
I really love strawberry jam and starting jamming last spring. This is a great project for me and my fiance to do together. How many ounces are those jars?
To double as our favors and placecards, we decided to do.... strawberry jam! It was exhausting considering we have 250 guests, which meant we had around 140 jars of jam to can, but they turned out super cute and yummy, so it made it all worth it!
I also made the tags myself. I designed the tags on MS Word and bought thick cover stock from Papersource and printed them at home. The tags were tied on with twine from Michaels and the fabric for the tops I purchased from Jo-Ann Fabrics.
For the placecard portion on the top of the jars, I used circle stickers purchased from Papersource. On the stickers I printed the guests names, table number, and a symbol of eithera cow, chicken, or carrot to signify each guest's meal preference.
Photos by Joseph Kang Photography
posted by ms.coffeebean 4 months agoHi! I was wondering where you bought the jars and how much were they? Thanks!
posted by mnhenderson07 4 months agoi honestly cannot remember the exact price of the jars, but i bought cases of them from meijer. I do remember it being cheaper by the case in comparison to purchasing the jars individually.
posted by ms.coffeebean 4 months agogreat job!!! Love these! sent you a pm about the little tag :)
posted by Ms. Stallion 4 months agoLove this idea! Do you still have the template and/or recipe? :)
posted by trizol 4 months ago@trizol
I just used the strawberry jam recipe from the Pomona's Pectin box. My husband is a chef and he has used different types of pectin and found that Pomona's always worked the best, so I followed his advice and went with that. You can find Pomona's at Whole Foods.
Make sure you work in small batches. If you try to make a monstrous amount at once, you risk it not getting to a nice thick jam.
Make sure you sterilize your jars, lids, and rings well!!!!
Another tip, use frozen strawberries. The color comes out better compared to fresh strawberries. But the flavor is still amazing and beats any mass produced jam you find in the grocery store.
I unfortunately lost my USB drive with all my wedding stuff on it a few days before my wedding. so dumb! So I don't have the template. Sorry! I just made it on MS Word, pretty simple. And I played around with different types of fonts until I found the ones I liked best. There are some really great free font sites as well that you should check out if you're interested in making your own tags.
Happy jamming! =)
posted by ms.coffeebean 4 months agoAm I missing something...if you had 250 guests, why did you only need to make 140?
posted by taraandchuck2012 4 months ago@taraandchuck2012: i realized quickly that I wouldn't have the patience to make one for each wedding guest. When I started out, getting burns on my arms from steam/hot jam and back aches from making all of these got to be a bit much, so I made them for each couple and if a guest didn't have a date, one just for themselves. So in turn, we only had to make about 140 jars of strawberry jam. Definitely a better idea to do one per couple!
posted by ms.coffeebean 4 months agoI really love strawberry jam and starting jamming last spring. This is a great project for me and my fiance to do together. How many ounces are those jars?
posted by skhuu 4 months ago@skhuu: i used 4 ounce jars for our wedding
posted by ms.coffeebean 4 months agoSo cute! I wanted to do the same thing, but am wondering how you sterilized the jars and sealed them to ensure that the jam stayed fresh? Thanks!
posted by BrideEK 3 months ago