Cherry Wedding Theme Ideas
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Spring Weddings, wedding favors in mason jars… so much fun. I give ideas here for a cherry themed wedding but similar things can be done with other fruits, or salsa, or pickles… sky is the limit. :).
Mason Jar wedding favors can be fun! Get creative.
I’ll give some ideas for jar size, keeping things cute and keeping the costs down.
Cherries can be expensive and costs could add up quickly but there are things you can do to mitigate that.
Our Canning Chat is a series of short videos where I answer canning questions. You’ll find the video or video notes below for those who just want to read and scan for the information they need.
A Question From a Reader
“Hey Sharon, I have a question. I am going to get married to a man by the last name of Cherry at our wedding.
I want to give out canned cherries, and I wanted to know your opinion because the price needs to be reasonable, but also I want the jars to look pretty and where you can tell that it’s cherries.
Would you do the four, the eight, or the 16-ounce jars? I am also in love with the 16-ounce wide-mouth contemporary jars, because of the unique, round look. But I’m afraid it’s going to get really expensive fast with all the cherries that it will take to fill them.
Anyways, thanks for your opinion. It is greatly appreciated. Have a very blessed day.
I think a cherry wedding theme sounds like a lot of fun! She’s looking for ideas to keep the cost reasonable yet still have pretty favors for her guests.
Remember just substitute in your fruit of choice. Peaches, apricots, apples or more.
Canning Jar Choices
Choose Smaller Canning Jars
I think you need to go with the smaller size jars. A lot of this is going to depend on the size of your wedding party and how many cherry wedding-themed favors you will actually need.
Canning up 18 jars of cherries vs 50 or more jars of cherries is a much different scenario.
But I have a couple of options here. I thought I would show you.
Top Recommendation For Mason Jar Wedding Favors
These small 4 oz jelly jars from amazon would be my top recommendation for a cherry wedding themed favor. These are the very smallest jars. I believe they are four ounces. They’re cute. They’re small. They are a nice little gift.
I usually use these for jam or jelly (or relish, or pickled peppers) but nothing says you can’t use whole cherries. Recipe for Canning Cherries is here. You’ll want to process them as if they are half pint jars.
Using these tiny jars is going to be a lot less expensive, everybody’s going to get a nice little gift, and you’re going to use much less product. So I highly recommend going with these. 4 oz jelly jars from amazon
Embossed Jam or Jelly Jars
These embossed jam jars would be a close tie to the 4 oz size above. If you don’t need a lot of them, the cuteness might be worth a little extra in cost.
They are 8 oz. So they are still smaller than pints but bigger than the 4 oz above. I absolutely love these little embossed jars.
The emboss is fruity and really, really cute. You could put a cute little topper on it. I use them mostly for jam or jelly, but you could just can some cherries in them too.
but are the same jars as demonstrated in the video.
Simple clean Anchor Hocking Jars.
These are mason jars that came from Fillmore Container. They’re more of a square look. Very clean and simple, nice smooth sides.
You could add stickers, maybe tie on a note with some ribbon or raffia.
Canning Cherries vs Cherry Jam or Topping
You talked about canning cherries for your cherry wedding theme; I really think you should consider cherry jam (recipe here) Jam is something most people love. It won’t be as costly. It is a little more work to make jam than canning cherries so there is some trade off.
A third option (that didn’t make the video above) is cherry pie filling (recipe here) Pie filling and ice cream topping are pretty much the same thing. Just call it ice cream topping!
Money and Time Saving Tip: Fun Too!
Go to a ‘You Pick’ Orchard
One tip to mitigate the cost would be to go and pick your own cherries. I don’t know where you live, but around here, we have u-pick orchards. You pick your own cherries, you take it in, they will weigh it and charge you, depending on how much you pick. That would probably be the least expensive route to go.
At a very minimum go to an orchard to purchase cherries by the box. Buying by the pound at the local grocery store or even a farmers market will be more expensive.
Have a Jam Making Party
Invite your wedding party over and have a jam making party. (or canning cherries party) If your wedding party are not close by, maybe you have family nearby who would enjoy this.
It would be a lot of fun. Many hands make light work. Pitting a lot of cherries would go by much quicker with more pitters.
By the way, this is the only cherry pitter I’ve found that we like. But depending on how many jars you actually need you might want to look into something that will pit more than one cherry at a time. I have not used this cherry pitter but it has good reviews on Amazon.
Steam Canning as a Processing Option
If you are doing a lot of loads of little jars. Check out Steam Canning. This would save you time and water! It is a substitute for water bath canning and suitable for either canning cherries or cherry jam. (you will still be processing but this is an easier method)
Other Foods That Would Make Fun Mason Jar Wedding Favors
Just about any Jam or Jelly would work fantastic.
What about pickled items like spicy pickled peppers?
