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This trend has been sweeping the wedding world as sugar-lovin' ides look for a way to include their passion for candy in their wedding while giving guests a small treat to take home. The basic premise is this: Set up a table with a variety of candies, give guests a box or bag as a carrying case and then let them fill 'er up.
To successfully pull off a wedding candy buffet, you'll need a few pieces of equipment, not to mention a whole lot of candy. First, let's talk about what else you need. First, you'll need a table that can hold the amount of candy you want to offer. Usually a long table will do the trick. Cover the table with a linen tablecloth, and then be sure to decorate appropriately with additional draped fa ic. Among the candy, you can include wooden letters spelling out words like "sweet."
You'll also need to decorate the tabletop with the jars that will actually hold the candy. Sure, you can go for one uniform look here by buying 8-10 jars from a discount supplier like Wal-Mart. Another option is to mix-and-match the jars by picking up a few at thrift stores, a couple at craft stores and some at big-box stores. You can choose from glass vases to oversized martini glasses to fishbowls. Decorating with a variety of vases provides visual interest and looks great from an aesthetic point of view.
Now to the actual candy. Start by choosing a color palette, if you so desire. You can easily find plenty of color-coordinated candies for your wedding candy buffet in the hues you've chosen for your wedding. Web sites like candywarehouse.com make it easy to eak choices down by color by offering search categories for specific colors. For example, for a red wedding, the Web site offers packages of red-only Jelly Bellys, Red Hots, Red Swedish Fish and Red Rock Candy Crystal Sticks. For blue weddings, there are Blue Sour Gummy Cola Bottles, Blue Raspberry Gummy Bears, Blue M&Ms and blue saltwater taffy. You don't have to choose by color, though; you can just pick whatever is your favorite. candywarehouse.com offers Everything from chocolate-covered raisins to gumballs to Toosie Rolls.
You can also choose the candy by the type or flavor. You want to get a variety of types of candy to suit everybody. For example, you should have some sugar-free candies for diabetics and a good variety of fruit, mint and chocolate flavors as to appease everyone. Shoot for about 5-8 ounces of candy per person to make sure you don't run out. Go for a lower number if you're also providing other desserts at the wedding. Buying candy online is a good way to get it cheaply because most Web sites offer a discount for buying in bulk. It's also easier to get exactly what you want when you order it online (for example, only pink M&Ms, not a variety of all the colors.
Finally, you'll need to provide your guests a vessel to carry the candy. If you have the budget for it, miniature take-out boxes are a very cute option. For a cheaper choice, you can pick up small cellophane bags with ribbon or twistie ties to close it. These bags can be monogrammed for a personalized touch. Keep the bags on the smaller side so guests don't overload them with candy, as it can cause the wedding candy buffet to run out more quickly. Set up these bags either at each of the guests' table or on the sides of the wedding candy buffet. At some point in the night, have the DJ announce that the guests are free to help themselves to the candy — and you can be sure they will!
