New England and NYC/Westchester County Guest Experience, Cookies Direct, is in the spotlight this week on my Kate Parker Wedding.  This guest experience will satisfy everyone’s sweet tooth!  Cookies Direct also creates gift baskets for your guests and designs the baskets to fit in perfectly with your wedding.  To learn a little more about this vendor, check out some of the information from Debbie Godowsky, the owner of Cookies Direct, below and view some pictures of their treats! ~AY

Number of Years in Business Back in 1991, with two middle-school aged children, I had dreamed of starting some type of business of my own.  As a substitute teacher in the local school system, I knew my income would hardly make a dent in paying for college down the road. So one day at school, I challenged a group of high school seniors to come up with some type of creative, flexible home business. Their vote, not surprisingly, was for cookie care packages.

Three months later, Cookies Direct, primarily a cookie-of-the-month club for college students, was off and running. As in any business, things got off to a slow start, with me doing all of the cookie production, packaging, and shipping, as well as the sales and marketing of my product. But it didn’t take long for the word to spread literally throughout the world, as many of my first customers were American families living overseas with children attending school back here in the States.

Today with the help of seven primarily “stay at home” moms, we pump out as 300 dozen cookies in a given morning. My husband enjoys pitching in on the weekends where he can. But I still like to be the one who works directly with the customers. My customers like knowing they are dealing with just one person when they want to discuss their order.

And it is especially exciting working with brides and their moms. Everyone’s so happy! My daughter and I planned her wedding five years ago from start to finish, so I very much understand the importance of having things done right. Every thing done right!  And our welcome cookie boxes for out of town guests are no exception.

Pricing Information:

Welcome Boxes: $18 each with personalized bags of coffee and your choice of cookie flavors.  The ribbon will be coordinated to your wedding colors.  We also personalize the gift cards attached to guest boxes, whether they be for friends or relatives.  We found that our unique boxes are really appreciated by the person receiving them. What could be better after a long trip to the wedding than sitting down with some homemade cookies? And there will be enough to nibble on in the morning with coffee, or take for the plane ride home.

Favors: Start at 2.25 for two cookies to a bag and are made to order for each couple.

Best of all, we have no minimums. Order one welcome box if you like, or 100.

What makes me stand out?

• The packaging. Rather than using a standard gift bag, we tuck our cookies and coffee in a glossy white lidded box, complemented with your wedding colors for the ribbon.
• Pricing. No hidden costs or extra fees. They are all a flat $18 each, regardless of the cookie flavors, gift card message, colors, or number of boxes in your order.  As for favors, they’re made to order.
• Our gifts make sense. We agree it’s fun to include that locally brewed beer or bottle of wine, but it doesn’t make too much sense for those guests traveling by plane. We had to leave behind a bottle of very nice wine in the hotel for housekeeping last year when we attended a wedding in Minnesota. I bet that happens very often. Water and crackers in a gift bag are nice, but I guarantee that no one will say, “Oh yum!” they way they will when they open our boxes and see our cookies.
• We work very closely with the bride to create exactly what she wants.  I like to think that we’re not an “online company” but a company with an “online presence”. Quality caring customer service is our number one priority. It really isn’t that difficult if you just put yourself in the customer’s shoes and treat them the way you would expect to be treated.

What’s the favorite part of my work? Little wedding boxes are fun and are always something new and different, whether it’s using different ribbon or shred, or making different types of cookies, like my coconut almond chocolate chip cookies, or even my oatmeal chocolate chip! And of course it goes without saying that I just love talking with the brides themselves.

What do I like to do in my spare time? I really don’t have much spare time.  Somewhere along the way over the past 18 years, I went from working at home to living at work. The internet never closes!  When I do have a little bit of time, I love to cook, do yoga, quilt, bike, knit, and spoil my 2 month old grandson.

What charity am I supporting and why? The JDRF, because my mom died in March of 2009 of diabetes-related health issues. My company also created a program to support our deployed soldiers called Club Nine. For $9, we will add an extra dozen cookies to a package headed out to a soldier. (We send 25-40 boxes a week!) They really appreciate this thoughtfulness from an anonymous donor.

Cookies Direct

Website: www.cookiesdirect.net
Email: info@mainecookies.com
Phone: 1-800-300-0904 or 207-846-1255
my Kate Parker Wedding State & Budget: $25 – 50k for MA, ME, NH, CT, RI, VT, NYC-Westchester County

New England and NYC/Westchester County guest experience, Cookies Direct, is a member of my Kate Parker Wedding your online wedding resource guide geared towards directing couples to quality vendors based on their price range and state.