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Wishes’ wedding gift guide by: BRIGITTE MAH Weddings offer the perfect chance for couples to blend time-honoured tradition with their distinct personalities, and one of the best ways to add a personal touch to the big day is through customized gifts, either for your wedding party or guests. We’ve curated some custom options that feature local makers from across the Sea to Sky.
Custom Gin: Montis Distilling Whistler • Montisdistilling.com
Custom Fresh or Dried Lavender: From The Garden Shed
For the gin lovers, gin curious, or small bottle collectors, Montis Distilling offers a custom gin program that allows couples to create their own one-of-a-kind gin to either include in welcome bags or place on the table as a favour gift for their guests. “It’s just yours,” said sales and marketing manager Charlotte Miglin. “It’s a lot of fun and you can do anything.” Citrus, floral notes, fresh fruit and vegetables are popular flavours for a summer wedding, while vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and orange are popular in the winter. Once a couple’s preference is decided, Miglin sends the ingredient request to the distillers who create your very own gin recipe. Couples get another opportunity to flex their creativity with the bottle labels, where they can use a song or poem or picture to tell the story of their gin. Montis offers this program in two bottle sizes: a 750ml size and a mini 50ml for favours. Prices are $65 per 750ml and $10 for the 50ml with a minimum 12-bottle order. Turnaround time is roughly four weeks.
Nothing quite says romance like lavender; after all, the sweet smelling herb has been an iconic tradition in French weddings for generations, as either a symbol of luck, devotion or bedroom fertility. And because of its calming properties, purple lavender sprigs have begun appearing in bridal bouquets, bridal crowns, and anywhere it can to help a bride collect her nerves on her wedding day. Catherine Karpman, owner of From The Garden Shed, has been growing a variety of lavender in Pemberton for several years, and she offers several custom options for couples. One of the most popular is a lavender toss, where guests are given a cone of French lavender buds to toss in place of rice or confetti at the ceremony. “It smells absolutely lovely, even if it gets in the hair,” said Karpman. Karpman also offers bud vases of fresh or dried lavender for the reception tables, or small posies to place at table settings as a gift for guests or sachets for guests’ rooms. Prices range from $0.50 for a sprig to $5 for a tossing cone to $75 for a large fuseaux de lavande. Turnaround time is roughly two weeks with custom calligraphy available at an additional fee.
26 WISHES WEDDING MAGAZINE 2022
Pemberton • Fromthegardenshed.ca
Custom Chocolate: Xoco Chocolate Squamish • Xoco.ca
For a truly unique treat, Xoco Chocolate offers hand-crafted artisanal truffles that come in gift boxes of two or four pieces, and with an array of fillings and colours to choose from. Second-generation Squamish chocolatier Kevin Young can match the colour of the hand-painted cocoa butter on top of the truffles to the wedding palette, and fillings range from London Fog to Rosemary Sea Salt to Salted Caramel to Espresso and even Whiskey and Pretzel. Xoco Chocolate uses only French chocolate and everything is made by hand, right down to their very own caramel recipe. Young sources local seasonal flavours such as lavender and rhubarb in the summer. Order well in advance as the hand-crafting process takes time. Alternatively, Xoco Chocolate has ready-to-go boxes that start at $5.75 for two pieces.
