Add A Candy Buffet To Your Wedding Reception
How to create a wedding candy buffet
Candy Buffets are the newest trend that I have seen at weddings. They are cute, colorful and so popular with all the guests. AND they serve as a creative wedding favor idea! In talking with some recent brides, I gleaned great advice and ideas for adding a candy dessert bar to any wedding.
Here was the beautiful candy buffet at a recent wedding
Let’s start with the candy. Do you want to theme your candy bar to your wedding colors or perhaps to the season at hand. Seasonally themed candy selections could be red, green and candy canes for a holiday season wedding, Halloween candy for an October wedding, conversation hearts for a v-day season wedding, easter candy for that time of year.. you get the idea. So decide what you want your candy buffet to be!
“How much candy do I need” .. in checking with my recent brides, it appears the run of thumb is ½ pound of candy per guest. So, 100 guests equals 50 pounds of candy. They both suggested that you choose no more than 8 -10 types of candy and divide equally between the total amount you need. In our example of 100 guests, with 10 types of candy, you need 5 pounds per item.
Now the fun part – Choose your Candy – Both my brides used Candy Crate which is a great resource for bulk candy. They have a menu of candies by color, as well as old fashioned candies like atomic fireballs, gummy bears, jelly beans and old time flavored candy sticks… so shop away. Here’s another cute candy buffet idea that you can personalize! You should order your candy at least 6 weeks in advance of the wedding date. In addition to candy, one of our brides had homemade cookies, brownies and fudge as a part of her candy buffet. Her Mom had baked them all! A word of caution about chocolate..avoid it all costs if your reception is outdoors or in a venue without air conditioning.
How to Display the Candy? You can buy the big glass or acrylic candy jars like these. You can also use an assortment of baskets, lined with fabric or color themed cloth napkins. They don’t have to match, so borrow an assortment from all your friends. Make sure that you label their name on the bottoms,so they can returned after the wedding. Feel free to adorn your containers with ribbons and tulle and you can attach a tag or label with candy name on it. One of my brides suggested that in retrospect, she would have talked to her engaged friends and shared the costs of the containers and scoops. The candy buffet would go from wedding to wedding!
You will also need Candy Scoops.. keep those to the smaller size or you will certainly run out of candy. These candy scoops from Beau Coup are the perfect size and received excellent reviews from brides who used them for their own candy bars.
Finally, you need bags or boxes for the guests to fill with the candy. I have seen both paper bags and small take-out cartons used. The cartons were cute but they needed another table to set those up for the guests to take. The paper and cellophane bags were perfect and they had two different baskets on each end of the buffet filled with them. These colorful favor bags from American Bridal are a good choice.. the perfect size. You don’t want containers that are too large or again, you will run out of candy too quickly. You can make labels for the bags, use store bought stickers or even get heart stamps and stamp your bags!
One final piece of advice.. make sure your venue will set this up for you (without an additional cost). Go over exactly how you want it displayed.. size of table, table linen color, place in the room, will their staff replenish the containers, when and to whom you will drop off the supplies. If they do not want to do it.. ask a couple of your close friends if they will go to the venue that morning and set it up for you! Here’s a pretty way to use tulle to decorate your candy buffet. Wouldn't this candy buffet idea be so cute for a Baby or Bridal Shower?.
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