Springtime is the time for weddings and this being the last month of Spring, I do realise that I’m a little late to offer up any suggestions for wedding favours or bombonierre for a special touch for a bride so please excuse my tardiness-let’s call it fashionably late if you will.
This is Bride’s Honey or Miel de la Mariée, prepared in Moroccan custom for engagements and weddings where guests are offered honey before the wedding. Honey plays a significant part in many cultures during weddings, its innate sweetness and seductiveness is not lost on many. It is a common sign of fruitfulness and fertility and along with Moroccan culture, Jewish, Croation, Balkan, Indian and German cultures also use honey in their rituals.The history is long with ancient Babylonian families including a standard 32-pound gift of honey in bridal dowries.
If you didn’t know about the origins of the word Honeymoon, one of the most often repeated stories is one where mead, which is a mixture of honey and water, was drunk before the Champagne toast. Also after the wedding a married couple were said to drink a cup of mead every night for one month. As time was recorded by the cycles of the moon, this period became known as the “honeymoon”. Whether this is truly the origin of the word is unclear but it’s great folklore nevertheless.
Taking this further, you could offer this in little pots to give as bombonierre (although honey is not offered during the ceremony in Moroccan custom as it is reserved for the cult of the dead and is associated with death in Egyptian and Russian culture). But the idea of a flavoured honey is no doubt a sweet, yet practical notion. Guests can use the honey with their tea and think of the bride and groom. This spiced honey imparts a Chai like spice to the tea. I love it so much that I’ve made it over and over again (it’s fantastic on toast with peanut butter, over natural yogurt and in cakes). I confess I’ve even microwaved it successfully on very low heat (30% of the power) for 2-3 minutes when I was feeling particularly lazy.
Almonds are the usual accompaniment with the Bride’s Honey and in the styling I’ve taken a few cross cultural liberties and used some Greek sugared almonds which are traditionally given as bombonierre. The heart shaped tea strainer shown was actually the wedding favour that we gave our wedding guests (and yes I spent hours tying the personalised ribbon just so so that our names and the dates would show correctly). I wanted people to think back to our wedding with some fond memories at a time where they would be cherishing a cup of sweet tea.
Brides’s Honey (Miel de la Mariée)
- 1 kg honey
- 1 teaspoon ground dried rosebuds
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- pinch of saffron
1. Stir all of the ingredients in a pan and infuse without allowing it to come to the boil (use a double boiler if you have one).
2. Leave to cool and serve with almonds and/or some sesame seeds.
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18 Comments | Add your own
really interesting info. Here in Malta they also give sugar almonds in wedding as gifts.
This is really beautiful, Lorraine. I love the extra-personal touch of using your own wedding favours in the photographs, too.
I’ve seen plenty of honeys with rose petals in them, but never have I seen spices added. I can easily imagine how gloriously fragrant this would be. Yum!
(Oh, and you may be late for Spring weddings in your hemisphere, but this is a great idea for next year’s Spring and Summer weddings up north
)
This post was just beautiful, the pics were gorgeous (as usual).
beautiful photos! the idea of personalised honey is just too sweet, i love it.
that looks so lovely…where ever did you find heart shaped tea strainers???
I love this post–so educational and beautifully styled!
Looks so luxurious. I can see it being such a great gift. What do you normally end up doing with the majority of it? Just on toast, as mentioned in your post? I love that spoon (?) on the right hand side of the picture too, by the way.
Those are so pretty and cute. Of course, with my weird sense of humor, I would have turned them into hunny pots straight out of Winnie the Pooh…
Hi snooky doodle-Ah yes in a certain number from what I’ve read!
Hi Angela-Thanks so much. I loved those wedding favours, we almost missed out on having some of our own as there was so much going on. It’s really lovely with the spices-I adore it!
Haha yes I forgot about that for a moment!
Hi Miss Honey-Thankyou so much, I’m crazy about weddings and anything to do with them
Hi lindsey clare-I have a thing for practical bombonierre – I love it if I can eat it or use it
Hi Reemski-Thanks, I got them from a US wedding favour website although I had such a difficult time getting them delivered I won’t mention the name in case anyone orders from them and they have the same drama!
Hi FujiMama-Thankyou so much! I was worried that I was getting a bit too textbookey for a moment there
Hi Y-I use the majority of the honey in tea (it makes regular black tea taste like chai) and also spread with peanut butter on toast.
Oh yes the spoon! I forgot to mention that-eek! It was a gift from a lovely friend for my birthday this year-it’s a honey spoon and you just rest it on the rim of the jar of honey and it drips off!
Hi Blond Duck-Hehe yes if a bride happened to like Winnie the Pooh it’s definitely an idea
Better late than never, as I would have hated to miss this post. I love the idea of homemade honey as a gift, the images are just lovely. I have something special to look forward to trying when spring comes around next year. Thanks!
not only did i not know the source of the term honeymoon, i never even wondered about it! that’s really odd, considering the things i actually do wonder about, like why women are supposed to shave their legs.
How beautiful! This is not something I have seen before, and I am sure that it would make a very memorable gift to guests.
Hi Kim-Welcome back!
I don’t know anyone that doesn’t have a jar of honey in their cupboard, so it may as well be a lovely spiced one!
Hi grace-I didn’t know either, I thought it was more to do with a sweet time so honey symbolised that. As for why women are supposed to shave their legs well, that’s much more complicated than honey
Hi Cakelaw-Thankyou so much! It’s practical but yummy, what more could you ask
I really love the idea of your wedding favour! Where do you get heart shaped tea strainers? Are they easy to find?
The photo’s and presentation of this bride’s honey is just so lovely, well done!
I’m not into honey that much, but your description of this spiced version has me convinced I need to have some on hand!
Where does one find dried rosebuds (aside from drying them yourself)? Would rosewater be any kind of fitting substitute?
I like honey on peanut butter too. This comes just in time for homemade Christmas gifts Lorraine and not too expensive either.
Hi Maria-I saw one ages ago and always filed that away for a future wedding. I just did a google search and there were quite a few suppliers (mostly in the US).
Thankyou so much! If you like chai then you’ll really like this in tea.
I found the dried rosebuds in a chinese grocery store, cheap as chips at $2 a bag and gorgeously vivid and fragrant!
Yes very true, it would be great for Christmas
Spiced honey sounds really good.
Hi Kevin-It’s very delicious indeed
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