I’d be lying if I told you that it was the sweet scent of roses wafting in a fresh, June breeze, promising summer soon to arrive, that put me into this schmaltzy frame of mind, but in truth, it was a late-evening raid on my favourite candy dish by a bunch of really silly people—me included—that did it.

On my coffee table, I always keep a bowl filled with sugar-coated almonds, also called confetti or Italian wedding candies. To be perfectly honest, I’ve always called them “bonbonnieri”, in some futile attempt to seem worldly and continental! I was surprised that no one else was familiar with these candies; the only explanation being that they must never have attended a traditional Italian wedding.

Despite my own WASPy upbringing in Windsor, Ontario, I had the good fortune to have had many Italian girlfriends. It was at their weddings that I became acquainted with confetti candy and the practice of giving bomboniere.

Could I ever forget my dear friend Toni’s wedding, complete with an Italian pop band straight from Italy, as well as strolling musicians playing requests during the six-course dinner. Or her cake that was magically incorporated into a working water fountain. And who were all those relatives, noted constantly passing white envelopes to the bride’s father.

At another wedding, the father and uncles had made all the wine; stomped those grapes with their very own feet. After what seemed like hours of eating—a meal that included home-made ravioli— we still had a midnight buffet of pizza made by more of the bride’s family.

While most of us are used to leaving a wedding with the customary package of matches and a stick of cake wrapped in a doily, supposedly to take home, slip under the pillow, and to dream the impossible dream of marrying Robert Redford, it is likely that you will leave an Italian wedding with a special gift, presented to you from the bride, called a bomboniere.

The bomboniere (bomboniera is the singular and bonbonniere is the French spelling; there is no such word as “bonbonnieri”!) consists of a decorative, often ornate candy container made of paper, porcelain, or crystal, with a tulle sack containing five confetti candies attached to it with ribbons and lace.

The tradition came from the French courts centuries ago. The word “bonbonniere” is taken from the French bonbon, or candy, and means a candy dish. Almonds have been a symbol of prosperity since Roman times. It was a custom to present of a candy dish filled with the sugar-covered almonds to visiting dignitaries as a symbol of thanks and token of remembrance.

The traditional number of candies in a wedding bomboniere is five, signifying health, wealth, happiness, fertility and long life. There are various colours for the candy coating, but white is the traditional colour for weddings and bridal showers; baby blue and pink for baby showers, christenings, and baptisms; silver for a 25^th anniversary. There are even red ones for graduation and green for a traditional engagement bomboniere.

You can imagine that in the land of “My wedding cost a lot more than yours” there could be some pretty outrageous interpretations of the bomboniere. The candies can also be formed into elaborate flower designs, with lace, ribbons, and silk flowers.

Jordan has his own memories of bomboniere, and not from our wedding. Despite the last name, he grew up far from being traditional Italian. In the early ‘70s, he went on a trip to Europe, and stayed awhile with some distant Sorrenti cousins in Gioia Tauro, Calabria. Turns out, they ran a home business putting together bomboniere. They didn’t actually make the individual components, but would put them together in their commercial kitchen (Apparently, they lived in a converted cafeteria, but Jordan’s memory might be a little foggy about this.) and in the evenings, when it had cooled down, they would sit around a large work table, setting up an assembly line for production of hundreds of these special gifts.

I seem to remember that my girlfriend Toni’s mother, along with numerous aunts, cousins, and assorted other female family members, who I could never keep straight, would put these favours together themselves, sitting around a large table in the basement kitchen. I recognized it then as a very symbolic part of the pre-wedding preparations that also included making much of the food and the wine to be served at the wedding dinner.

 I can’t remember which wedding it was—so much for it being a token of remembrance—but at one, possibly Toni’s, I received a miniature Italian vase with porcelain flowers on the side. Attached to this was the tulle sack, in blue, I think. At another, a blue crystal dish with the candies inside. I can’t even remember what happened to these lovely trinkets; this may necessitate a foray into the deep recesses of our crawl space.

I like to keep a bowl of these candies around. They have a very serene, beach-pebble quality that I normally enjoy just looking at, but here I was, eating my “décor.” Hey, they tasted really good! Fortunately, I have a source or two up my sleeve to replace them, which I did immediately the following week. You can never have enough good luck symbols around, although I certainly hope that the only fertility going on around here will be in my garden!