Monogram Wedding Cookies

It seems like only a few months ago, just 4 and a half really, that I was headed to the first wedding of my adult life. Until Boyfriend’s brother got married in June, the last wedding I had been to was my cousin’s close to 2 decades ago. Not even a teenager at the time, I had no idea how much went into a wedding. I thought you just bought a dress, showed up at a church with some flowers, and said “I do”. I had no clue about things like wedding planners and florists, fittings and cake tastings, rehearsal dinners and favors. But attending 3 weddings in the past 4 months has shown me there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than my younger self would have ever imagined. There’s probably a whole LOT more than my right-now self even knows about. But getting just the tiny glimpse of what goes into a wedding that I’ve had in the past few months, it makes me feel completely honored that someone would ask me to be a part of it.

When my best friend Kelli’s cousin, Ashley, got married, she asked if I would make cookies for their favors. Of course I said yes, and was totally excited to come up with some really awesome designs. Ashley and her husband Tim had met at a Halloween party, and wanted to incorporate the theme into their wedding, which they held on Halloween weekend of this year. We decided on pumpkins and an additional monogram “M” cookie for their last name, made with sugar cookies, cinnamon butter cream frosting, and topped with fondant. 

I haven’t worked with fondant too many times, so I’m still learning, especially about how much fondant really goes into things. I thought 2 and a half pounds was a huge amount. Definitely enough to cover a little over 200 cookies... Wrong. That was enough to cover a little over half. I had to make an emergency fondant run to finish the rest! And coloring that much fondant? I didn’t think I was going to be able to use my hands the next day. Talk about working through some pain. How in the world do those of you who use fondant regularly do it? Is there some trick to coloring 2 pounds of fondant that I don’t know about? Please share!

Despite a crazy work schedule that had me working on days I normally don’t, at times I’m normally home, waking up at the crack of dawn and not sleeping until well after midnight for almost a week straight, I surprisingly got everything done on time! Well almost on time. Never underestimate how long it takes to tie ribbons. Because it’ll take at least a half an hour longer than you think it will, making you a half an hour late for delivery… But in the end, after 7 hours of baking, 4 pounds of fondant, 3 pounds of butter, and 200 cookies, I had some absolutely beautiful wedding favors to deliver. Unfortunately, in my rush to get out the door, I didn’t have time to take pictures of them all packaged up, but believe me when I say they looked great!