Create An Exciting Candy Buffet For Your Wedding

Setting Up A Candy Buffet

One of the exciting new trends for weddings these days are candy buffets. They have become a huge hit with wedding guests and are fairly easy to set up. Often, they have become the talk of the wedding. Candy buffets are often color schemed to the bride's chosen wedding colors. Sometimes two or three colors are used, colors are matched up consulting with a color wheel, which colors would you choose? Some brides really decorate the candy buffet up, matching candy with table linens and decoration. Some decorate the candy buffet to a wedding theme and some decorate the candy buffet choosing old time candies.

You might start out decorating your candy buffet by using the colored linens that you are using at your wedding reception tables. If you want a smaller candy buffet use a small round table. For a larger candy buffet use a large rectangle table. You can also decorate a table setup that emulates a candy shop.

If you are displaying the candy buffet using a round table, you want to design the table showing height in the middle, decorating the candy buffet to a style similar to the shape of a wedding cake. For a rectangle candy buffet, you have two options. If the table is setup against the wall, you want to set up the table with various heights and depths with more height against the wall. Consider using shelving, stacking big books, using big pots and pans upside down, or using game or postal boxes. All these materials hide under table linens. If the rectangle candy buffet is away from the wall, you can place a table runner on the length of the table. Create a high elevation platform in the middle, set up separate candy buffets on both the front and back of the rectangle table.

It is recommended to serve between 5 to 10 different sweets per 100 wedding guests. Order about 20 pounds of candy for each candy selections. Make sure the candies chosen are of different varieties of sweets, for the various sweet tooth tastes that people have. Guests with a sweet tooth often will choose between 1/4 and 1/2 a pound of candies.

You want your candy buffet to be displayed using various containers and a wide assortment of candies. To create an eye appealing effect you want candies to appear in tall, short, round, square, pedestal, clear, frosted, textured, and colored containers. The containers you can use are many. Some ideas on containers to use are candy dishes, apothecary jars, fish bowls, cake stands, tiered platters, cocktail garnish trays, cookie jars, coffee and tea canister sets, acrylic dishes and bins, various height and wide vases, large martini glasses, and attractive glass bowls.

You can also decorate your candy buffet in a non-traditional way, not using glass, plastic or acrylic. You can decorate your candy buffet using pails, antique bowls, pottery bowls, office bins, upside down cowboy hat, flower pots, take out boxes, nautical items, lamp shades, upside down umbrella, and florist containers.

You can decorate the buffet table too. On top of your table linens, you can spread around mini wrapped candies or chocolates, decorate with wedding confetti, flower petals, or scatter pictures around the table of the bride and groom at different stages growing up. You can also add a few vases of flowers around the table or for a round table add a reception table centerpiece in the middle or add reception table centerpieces as book ends on your rectangle candy buffet.

Many wedding couples, create a thank you note with their picture to invite wedding guests to take home their favorite candies from the candy buffet and leave a supply of favor bags. There are a number of choices of favor bags, you can supply white paper bags similar to a lunch bag, provide cellophane bags, decorative boxes, favor boxes, organza tulle, satchel bags, take home boxes, or leave little candy dishes.

If candies are unrecognizable, you might set up place cards with the names of the candies in front of the particular candies, make sure the writing looks professional. You can also tape or stick the names of the candies on the candy containers. You can give the empty containers to aunts and grandmas after the reception as a token favor.

For loose candies, supply scoops and for bigger candies, supply tongs. Leave smaller scoops, tongs, and bags if you prefer your guests to take home less candies and leave big scoops, tongs, and bags if you prefer your guests to take a good amount of candy. Candies or sweets that are wrapped, guests can take the candy using their bare hands. Decorate the scoops, tongs, and favor bags using ribbon, yarn, colored string, bows, and you can also decorate using personalized stickers with pictures or initials of the wedding couple.

Make sure you set up the candy buffet in a non busy traffic area and maybe in the area of the wedding cake, dessert table, or coffee bar. You should assign someone to watch over the candy buffet to help young ones to choose candies and to not help themselves to too much candy and to refill the candy buffet when candies start looking a little low, so the beautiful look of the candy buffet is retained.

Make sure someone captures a photo of the candy buffet right before the candy buffet is opened for wedding guests, it makes a great picture for the photo album. Often your wedding guests will request their pictures be taken with the candy buffet in the background. Cover the candy buffet with a color matching tulle or see through fabric, to let wedding guests know when the candy buffet is not open.

There are dozens of places to find containers for your candy buffet. You can find containers in art and supply stores such as Michael's and Hobby Lobby. You can find containers at the Container Store, thrift shops, consignment shops, kitchen supply stores, department stores such as Home Goods, Old Time Pottery, TJMaxx, Wal-Mart, Marshalls, Belk, Macys, Home Depot, Lowes, and Target. You can also find containers at kitchen supply stores, gift shops, candy stores, chocolate shops or borrow containers from family and friends. Containers also can be purchased from online companies. When you visit candy and chocolate stores, you can talk to the store manager about buying containers for your candy buffet and maybe he/she has some in storage or can special order some for you along with decorative wrappings.

A list of reputable online companies are listed below to check out..

• www.allcandycompanies.com
• www.bagsandbowsonline.com
• www.candyconcepts.com
• www.containerpackaging.com
• www.foryourparty.com
• www.modernvasesandgift.com
• www.nashvillewraps.com
• www.papermart.com
• www.pouchmart.com
• www.save-on-crafts.com
• www.shopsweetlulu.com
• www.theglassfox.com/cookiejars.html
• www.wholesaleglassvasesint.com

The candies you order for your candy buffet should be varied, coming in different shapes and sizes. Your goal for your candy buffet is to make it look eye appealing and exciting, something that will capture your wedding guests attention. You can design it a number of different ways, you purchase candies all to your color scheme, you can layer candies using a couple of different colors, you can design your candy buffet into a rainbow effect, start with violet and purple on one end and follow the rainbow, blue, green, yellow, orange and then red. You can design your candy buffet to a wedding theme or design it with old time nostalgia candies.

There are so many candies you can choose from, jelly fruit sweets, jaw breakers, jelly beans, m&m's, Hershey kisses, fire balls, cinnamon hots, gummy bears, skittles, m&m peanuts, candy sticks, licorice, candy buttons, Necco candies, toffee, salt water taffy, pillowed mints, chocolate gold coins, large lollipops or tootsie pops, and the possibilities go on and on. Decide on a color and choose candies from the color you have chosen in various shapes and sizes. Choose candies to make the candy buffet to stand out.

You might think of adding a few goodies for diabetics or any guests that are health conscious. You might add a little bit of cheese cubes, pepperoni, salami, trail mix, diabetic hard candies, nuts, pretzels, cheese its, yogurt covered raisins, or dried fruits. You might create a little area of your candy buffet table for your diabetics and healthy selections.

You could also decide on creating a candy bar of old time favorites or name brand candies. Create a candy bar of all Mars products, Hershey products, Nestle products, Orbit products, Curtiss products or other company. You could also add other treats to your candy buffet, add a cotton candy machine, pop corn machine, or frozen drink machine. You can create shelves of buckets and place popular candies all about, go Mars with m&m's, mars candy bars, milky ways, three musketeers, and snickers or go Hershey with Hershey bars, Hershey kisses, Hershey Peanut Bars, Peanut Butter Cups, Almond Joy, and Mounds Bars, etc.

You could add other treats to your candy buffet include truffles, assorted chocolates from boxes of candy, serve brownies, fudge, marshmallows, peanut brittle, or serve candied or caramel apples, serve a homemade concoctions of rums balls, or create Palm Trees with toothpicks of fruits sticking out.

Jelly Beans are one candy that helps your candy buffet stand out. You could provide a mix of jelly bean candies and provide a list of flavors for wedding guests to try out and take a survey of wedding guests flavors. Here are some flavors you could go for if you want to color scheme jelly bean colors.

Assorted Jelly Belly or Jelly Bean Flavors:

Mix all your jelly bean flavors, get a different taste with every handful of jelly beans.

A&W cream soda, coconut, french vanilla, strawberry cheesecake, and tutti fruitti.

Bubble gum, cotton candy, and pink lemonade.

Cinnamon, pomegranite, raspberry, red apple, sizzling cinnamon, sour cherry, strawberry daiquiri, and very cherry.

Chili mango, orange sherbet, peach, Sunkist orange, and Sunkist tangerine.

Buttered popcorn, cantaloupe, caramel corn, crushed pineapple, lemon drop, Pina colada, Sunkist lemon, or top banana.

Green apple, juicy pear, kiwi, lemon lime, mango, margarita, Sunkist lime, and watermelon.

Berry blue, blueberry, and plum.

Grape, island punch, mixed berry smoothie, and wild blackberry.

Cappuccino, chocolate pudding, draft beer, Sunkist pink grapefruit, and toasted almond.

A&W root beer, cola, Dr. pepper, and licorice.

Below are online candy companies that have a high reputation. Sometimes when you bulk order candies online, once you reach a threshold, you get a discount on your order. Sometimes you can negotiate even a lower discount for your order. Order candies online from companies that have a customer service phone number to reach them should a problem arise with your order or you need to add additional candy or make changes to the order

• www.acandystore.com
• www.blaircandy.com
• www.bulkcandystore.com
• www.candy.com
• www.candyfavorites.com
• www.candywarehouse.com
• www.candycrate.com
• www.jellybelly.com
• www.mymms.com
• www.nuts.com
• www.ohnuts.com
• www.oldtimecandy.com
• www.wrappedhersheys.com

Many companies have cropped up and can set up and manage your candy buffet if you find you don't have the time to create and run your candy buffet. To create your own candy buffet is really not hard to do. For many wedding couples, they find it's fun to setup and you end up with loads of compliments afterward and create a special memory for many of your wedding guests. The important thing is to lay out a schedule of tasks to do in order to set the candy buffet up.

Candy buffet companies can be found at a number of different places. They can be found in wedding directories often found under the wedding cakes category, sometimes candies or sweets category, and occasionally under catering. Sometimes wedding planners and event planners include catering as part of their service that they offer. Some caterers or reception halls are willing to build you a candy buffet or willing to manage your candy buffet.

Should you interview a candy buffet company or a wedding vendor that runs a candy buffet, ask how they operate, what kind of candies and sweets they will provide for the candy buffet, get at least a half a dozen of photo of other candy buffets they have set up. Ask about their experience of how many candy buffets they have set up in the past and see if you can get some referrals and reviews of prior customers in the past two years. Review the contact in detail before signing it.

Also with your candy buffet you can personalize your wrapping of candies, some companies can create wrappers with pictures of the wedding couple, include initials of the wedding company, or put the name of the reception hall and wedding date right on the wrapper. Some companies will decorate your candies with your pictures or add special wording. Some well known companies in which you can imprint your candies include mymms, wrapped Hershey kisses and Necco conversation hearts. Candy buffets are often a conversation piece people will often still be talking about your wedding, long after your wedding is over.