On March 22nd, fellow Marylander and fashion queen Maggie Weber (RefashionedHippie) posted a video review of a few chocolate bars we sent her via snail mail. As of now, the video has almost 200K views on Facebook, almost 250K views on Youtube, and probably just as many views on Instagram. So that’s approximately over 650K views total.
Since then, we’ve received almost 600 orders placed on our online store, openbookchocolates.com/shop, as well as a significant number of wholesale orders for new and returning independent bookstores and gift shops. To put this into perspective, we had just under 200 orders on our online store for the entirety of 2025 (January through December). Last year, we had under 10 online store orders from late March to early May (the same time period as this year’s 600 orders). 600 orders is over three times the size of an average Open Book Chocolates Kickstarter campaign, and we continue to get more orders every day.
We’ve already sent out around 200 of the 600 orders. We have even more orders prepared to be sent out; we just have to add in ice packs for the warm weather. We’re meticulous about packing these orders, making sure the correct number of bars and flavors are included, and protecting everything from melting. We will be working all this week (today through Thursday) on preparing and sending out orders. Friday, we will need to prepare for Saturday’s pre-Mother’s Day pop-up at My Big Finds. After that, we don’t have another in-person event until Saturday, May 30th. So we’ll be able to go into full gear on getting all of these orders out!
Every day, I receive multiple emails asking about an update on orders. I wish I could individually and personally message each and every one of you myself. But if I did that, I would have zero time to work on packing orders. (I’ve set up an automatic reply instead.) That’s why I wanted to take a moment to give a detailed update via Substack.
Again, we are just two people (Geri & Irene). When the video went viral, it was right before my wedding. As you may know, a wedding is a stressful and busy time for any bride. Post-wedding, in between packing orders, we’ve attended three events as vendors, which we booked months in advance, each with expensive vendor fees and each needing prep time. These three events were six days total (some days being as long as 11 hours for us) plus travel. This includes BookCon at the Javits Center in New York City, which had about 25,000 attendees and required us to take the train up to and back from NYC (with driving to and from the train station, that’s at least 5 hours each way).
We have visited River-Sea Chocolates twice in the past two weeks to pick up more chocolate bars to help us fulfill orders. Typically, we visit River-Sea just once a month. This is about an hour drive for us both ways. We will need to visit River-Sea at least once or twice more during the next few weeks to keep up with demand.
We are working very hard to fulfill everyone’s orders as quickly as possible. This has been extremely challenging for us both mentally and physically. We are looking at our options to help us with the increased work load in the near future, but haven’t had the time or brain power to figure that all out yet.
For anyone upset about the delays, I am truly sorry and hope you’ll understand how overwhelming and stressful this has all been. We take a lot of pride in our business, and we don’t enjoy disappointing our customers. For those of you who have sent us encouraging words, and/or have just been patient and understanding, I truly appreciate your support!
As you begin to receive your orders over the next few weeks, we hope you’ll enjoy our unique, literary-inspired chocolate bar flavors.
Thank you so much for all your support, understanding, and patience!
On March 22nd, fellow Marylander and fashion queen Maggie Weber (RefashionedHippie) posted a video review of a few chocolate bars we sent her via snail mail. As of now, the video has almost 200K views on Facebook, 245K views on Youtube, and probably just as many views on Instagram. So that’s approximately over 600K views total.
Since then, we’ve had over 500 orders placed on our online store, openbookchocolates.com/shop, as well as a significant number of wholesale orders for new and returning independent bookstores and gift shops. This is over twice the size of an average Open Book Chocolates Kickstarter campaign, and we continue to get more orders every day.
While we are very excited and grateful for all these orders, they’ve come at an extremely busy time for us! Phil and I just got married two weeks ago. Furthermore, we are preparing for BookCon at the Javits Center in New York City this weekend. We will be out of town from Friday, April 17th through Monday, April 20th. Then, we have in-person events every weekend for the next three weekends after BookCon.
We are doing our very best to fulfill all these orders as soon as possible. We are just two people (Geri and Irene) fulfilling all these orders. Additionally, my brand-new husband, Phil, and my mother-in-law, Gwen, as well as my close friend (and maid of honor), Kerri, and her fiancé, Jason, have all been chipping in to help. So far, we’ve sent out over 80 orders, and have prepared about 300 orders that will be sent out soon.
Our friends at River-Sea Chocolates have informed us they have made the rest of our entire 2026 order. This is approximately 8,000 to 9,000 chocolate bars. In other words, post-BookCon, we’ll be able to fulfill even more orders. Currently, I’ve set our online store to “Preorder” for all our current (non-seasonal) flavors, and will keep it that way until we’re able to take a detailed inventory. Most likely, we will need to make even more chocolate bars than we originally anticipated for 2026.
We fulfill orders in chronological order (oldest to newest), but try to give priority to any gift orders (birthdays, Mother’s Day, etc.). Since the weather is warming up, we are putting complimentary ice packs and insulated bubble wrap in every order.
Thank you so much for all your support, and for your understanding and patience!
We are working hard to fulfill your orders. We have an influx of orders due to a viral video of our chocolate bars posted by Maggie Weber (RefashionedHippie). We have just restocked our online store, but our flavors might sell out again. We will do our best to keep up with orders, but please be patient. We are in the midst of preparing for my wedding as well as for BookCon in NYC. Thank you so much for your support and understanding. To receive updates, please subscribe to our Substack: openbookchocolates.substack.com.
