the wedding post: part two. the favor disaster gone right

So, as many of you already know, most of my wedding decorations, jewelry, veil, etc., were purchased from Etsy (if you've never heard of it... check it out! And, have you been living under a rock?). I also decided to buy my wedding favors from a horrible, horrible person who plays dirty tricks on brides an Etsy vendor who shall remain unnamed. They were perfect: birdseed ornaments in the shape of a "G." They looked just like this:

I thought, hey, I'm planning a wedding in eight weeks, I KNOW I don't have time to make these myself, so why not just buy them and have them shipped? So I did. I even read the reviews that previous purchasers had written, just to be sure. 96% positive with over 300 reviews. I felt good about the purchase. So I knew all that was left to do was to wait.

So I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

But I never heard a word from the vendor, even though I sent multiple emails. I ordered the favors in August. By the end of September I was getting nervous. I kept checking her store page, just to make sure I didn't miss any communication to customers. Nothing. What I did find, however, made me even more nervous. Customers were posting negative feedback about this seller, saying that they purchased the favors months in advance and she never delivered them. Some of them were writing reviews just days before their wedding, absolutely frantic about getting favors in time. I freaked. Mitch can attest to the fact that I looked something like this:

Okay, in the grand scheme of things, are wedding favors that big of a deal? No. But you go crazy when you become a bride. Not all of us reach Bridezilla status, but there's definitely a level of psychosis there. And, on top of the wedding psychosis, I was already of unsound mind a little stressed due to student teaching. So, three weeks before the wedding, I called my dad (who else?) and explained the situation. Luckily he was up for the challenge of testing birdseed ornament recipes, and with the help of the rest of the family, they got to work. What. a. relief.

After testing a few recipes, we found one that we thought worked the best (more on that in a second). We decided to simplify the "G" monogram to just a heart with a thank you tag. Here's the finished product:

We used a mixture of peanut butter and honey to bind the birdseed, then baked the favors at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Did they smell wonderful? Yes.

Did they look beautiful? Yes.

Did they fall apart if you dared to breathe on them? Yes.

This is NOT the best recipe out there, I can tell you that much. On top of the breakage issue, the oil from the peanut butter left little grease stains on most of the tags. Still, I was happy about how they turned out and I'm grateful for a wonderful family who helped me complete this project :] Here's how they looked on the tables at the reception:

I did a little looking and found a couple different (and hopefully better) recipes here and here.

So, moral of the story: don't sweat the small stuff, and always file a non-delivery dispute with PayPal within 45 days of purchase.

*I did get a very long, very strange email from the seller about a month after our wedding. She tried (and failed) to explain why she had advertised her services without delivering. Something about how Etsy restructured their search feature and moved her to the bottom of the list, and now she doesn't get enough business (which is interesting, because there were 25 brides leaving negative feedback because she didn't deliver...sounds like business to me).

She assured her customers that they would get a full refund. I'm not holding my breath, and am taking it up with the credit card company. Needless to say, Etsy closed her store.

**I also need to tell you that in 2 years (and more transactions than I'm willing to admit), this is the ONLY issue I've ever had with a seller on Etsy