Custom Cookbook AKA The Best Gift Ever -

You guys know I LOVE to cook. Cooking brings me back to time with my family when I was younger with my cousins and I all crammed into our Grandmother’s kitchen asking what we could help with and learning all we could from her. It’s so nostalgic to me and in my family, it has always been a way to communicate love, help someone get over a bad day, or celebrate a great one. In college when visiting my family, I asked to copy a ton of their favorite recipes and then hole punched them and put them into a binder. I loved having all my recipes from so many places in one place.

My fiancé and I recently just received a custom cookbook from Honey and Hive that made all of my cookbook dreams come true. That is why today I am sharing all about it and explaining why this is one of the most special and memorable gifts we have ever received. Let me break down exactly what it is and how it works for you.

Honey and Hive is a new, custom cookbook company. They are the only ones out there doing something like this right now and the whole process takes about five weeks.

First things first, whoever is in charge decides who will contribute to the cookbook and about how many pages they’d like the cookbook to be. They recommend between 30 and 35 pages in the cookbook, with a few pages left for pictures. The most common feedback they get is that people wish they had more people contribute because they love it so much (myself included) so be sure to keep this in mind when choosing your crew. Next, the e-mail addresses, first and last names of the contributors are provided to Honey and Hive and they reach out to them via e-mail for their photos and recipes. They promise not to spam the contributors and only send out an initial email, a reminder, and one last call e-mail. Contributors are given a unique link for their submission to keep it all organized and easy. Once the recipes are submitted, whoever is in charge picks the design, including choosing the colors (like the bride’s wedding colors). Finally, the book is finalized, and printed. You can have the item wrapped before it is shipped out straight to the recipient or it can be sent directly to you to wrap how you’d like.

I was so excited when I got this gift and saw the gorgeous wrapping. When I opened it, I seriously got teary eyed. The photos and notes from each of the contributors inside make it so special. This is truly a gift that someone will have forever. I think this would seriously be THE most amazing Mother’s day gift or Father’s Day for a Dad who loves to cook. It would be so fun to include a ton of recipes that remind you of your childhood memories with your family that center around food, because lets be honest, the best ones always do! The best part of this is that you can include memories, stories, etc. in your contribution along with recipes and photos, so this really makes it so personal and special.

The pricing starts around $150 and varies depending on how much you customize it or pages you want to add to it. While it can be considered a higher priced gift for some, I think it’d be such a great gift to go in on with siblings or bridesmaids! Something like this will be cherished forever and isn’t just a ‘thing.’ It’s much more thoughtful and personal.

As I mentioned before, Honey and Hive is a new company and there really is nothing else out there like it. While its a new product, the entire process is seamless, so professional, and really easy! I really could not recommend it enough. My fiancé and I will cherish this cookbook forever and have been slowly working our way through all the recipes in it! Our goal is to complete one of the recipes each week and we can’t wait to cook them all and use this book for years to come.

If you have any questions about Honey and Hive or the process, be sure to reach out! I’m such a serious fan of this whole process and especially the product and the owner, who I will mention is a complete sweetheart and truly has a passion for what she is doing.