SWEET TREATS

All couples want their guests to leave their wedding reception with sweet memories of the day’s events. What better way to do that than by filling your wedding favors with sugar, spice and everything nice?

At San Diego’s Bon Bon Bakery & Chocolates, sweet treats are the name of the game. Located inside Bernardo Winery, the bakery specializes in cakes, cookies and chocolate morsels that leave guests with a taste of the wedding long after the evening comes to a close.

"People remember food," says Bon Bon Bakery’s Joanne Hansen. "Bubbles or matches are not that memorable; people enjoy the celebration of food."

Hansen explains that her cookies are the most popular choice for wedding favors because they can be designed to meet the requests of any couple. Traditional designs include heart-shaped cookies with a monogram and confectionery icing or wedding cake-shaped cookies with a filigree design, but no design is off-limits.

"If you have something special in mind and you have the cookie cutter for it, I’ll make the cookies for you," Hansen says. "Or if it’s something I think I’ll use again, I’ll go out and get it."

The same personalization goes for chocolates, which can be monogrammed, individually wrapped or boxed (Hansen will wrap the treats for you, or you can visit the shop with a few bridesmaids, bags and ribbon and have a pre-wedding wrap party). Hansen recalls a seaside-themed wedding for which the bride and groom wanted lobster-shaped chocolates. Hansen found a lobster-shaped mold and happily complied.

"If I can find what you want, I’ll make it," she says, adding that this is perhaps her favorite thing about her business.

"There’s no limit to the creativity," she says. "I really like thinking outside of the box, and weddings are really becoming that way."

Bon Bon Bakery & Chocolates is located at 13330 Paseo del Verano, Rancho Bernardo | 858-592-0570 www.victorianchocolate.com

    
 
 
   
   

WEDDING TRENDS

When the Big Day is over, it’s time for an even longer celebration: the honeymoon. It’s a time when the bride and groom can finally focus on the two people most important to the marriage—each other. The best part is that there is no end to the number of beautiful honeymoon destinations across the world. Having trouble choosing? Pack your bags and check out this list of the top 10 honeymoon destinations for 2007, based on Modern Bride magazine’s recently released 11th annual "World’s Best Honeymoons" survey of 6,000 luxury travel agents:

1. Italy, which beat out Hawaii for the top spot for the first time in a decade 6. France
2. Hawaii 7. The Maldives
3. Tahiti 8. Anguilla
4. Costa Rica 9. Fiji
5. Mexico 10. Greece
    
     
   

FINISHING TOUCHES:
THE CIRCLE OF LOVE

From the proposal to the wedding day band exchange, rings are an essential element in the bonds of marriage. But did you ever stop to wonder why? Long before the princess-cut diamond and the platinum wedding band, cultures were exchanging circular trinkets to symbolize eternity. What’s the significance of the ring’s placement? According to Editor Carley Roney of theknot.com: "The Western tradition of the ‘ring finger’ began with the Romans, who believed that the fourth finger was connected directly to the heart by a vein called ‘the vein of love.’ For this reason, the fourth finger of the left hand has been adopted through the ages as the ideal place for the wedding ring."