Fall Favor Bags!

About a month ago I designed favor bags for Krista and Dan's wedding!  Their venue of choice was the Inn at Oneonta in Kentucky.  It was a gorgeous day and the favor bags looked super cute up against the wonderful natural coloring of the venue.  Here are some of our pictures from that day! Enjoy :)

Fall Sweets!

Summer has ended, all the kiddo's are back in school, and you may be thinking to yourself that the party is over!  Not the case here :)  Lots of weddings to plan, and lots of gatherings to attend and put on...the fun is just beginning and it should be for you too!  I have a couple of new "sweet" ideas that I found from fellow bloggers and such online.  The first one is taking a marshmallow pop, almost a candy buffet staple now, and making it into a marshmallow candy corn!  It is really cute and sure to make any fall party a hit!  All you really need for this one is Marshmallows ( regular or camping size), pop sticks, and candy melts (you can buy from Michaels).  At Michaels they have a white and orange color.  You can also add food coloring to make it a desired shade if you wish! 
As always, Happy Planning!

Megans Bridal Shower Buffet!

I uploaded most of the pictures to the slideshow but I will also put a few in this post for you all to look at!

Themed Candy Buffet by Glamour Avenue Parties

Themed Candy Buffet by Glamour Avenue Parties, originally uploaded by Courtney Price: Glamour Avenue Parties.

This one is a favorite of mine. I featured her a while back, but the textures, height, shapes, and colors of this one all really work well together! It is super cute and a fun way to present your candy for your event!

This photo is not a representation of my work. It was taken from Glamour Avenue Parties
via Flickr.

Awesome Visual!

candy buffet, originally uploaded by sparkly31.

This person has marshmallows, licorice ropes, chocolate balls, candy sticks and more! This is a set up for a larger event, with lots of textures, flavors, and colors to compliment each other! Nice work!

Disclaimer: This photo or the contents are not my work, taken from sparkly31.

Candy Twist

A tip I found very useful for the candy buffets I design and the candy buffet my mom and I did at my wedding was to add a little "twist" to the candy.  Another words, mix it up a little!  A lot of people tend to like chocolate, but to have just brown chocolate for your candy would be boring visually and would not do much to stimulate your taste buds either!  Likewise, the same amount of people would pick candy that comes out of the candy dispensers in the mall, just because it reminds them of their childhood.  However, these candies all typically have the same textures and the same basic flavors.


So, again I say...put a little twist in it!  If chocolate is your favorite- remember you will pay a huge premium for chocolate- try centering the buffet around two choices that are the loves of your life :)  If you tend to go for runts, nerds, pez, etc...try mixing it up with different textures.

Here's a couple of candy types for candy buffets.  Be sure to include at least 3 varieties in yours!

1. Wrapped candy ( aka blowpops, tootsie rolls, taffy, mints, individual packed chocolates)
    This will let the guests grab some without having to have scoops in each dish.

2.  Hard candy or Soft candy 
     Things like fruit slices and individually wrapped twisty mints are a cool looking compliment
     to each other. 

3. Different flavors
    If you have one type of mints, you most likely will not need another, regardless of if it is a
    hard mint, soft mint, or wrapped mint.  Unless that is the goal of your candy buffet, to have a
    flavor theme running through it, I would not suggest having more than one flavor of
    candy presented.

4.  Shapes
     One of the coolest things in candy buffets is finding candy that fits your personality!  So
     pick different shapes for guests to look at.  You do not want to buy all round candy, which is very
     easy to end up doing!  You could buy round french mints, and then have cylindrical candy sticks.
     You could also buy individual wrapped chocolate squares instead of the regular ball shaped
     chocolate.

5.  Sizes
     The last thing is size!  It is so much fun when you see candy buffets with long candies,
     short candies, skinny or wide candies!  Picking lollipops, rock candy, and flat candies that you
     can display in various ways makes the event fun and unique!

Remember, when you display your candy, not everything has to be in a bowl, dish, apothecary jar, or vase.  Sometimes, if it is wrapped or hard candy, you can lay the candy on the tablecloth to fill up space and add new dimension to the display!

Boy Baby Shower Candy Buffet

This one is very similar to the girl baby shower buffet.  It has two blue "pails" in the front, and a blue version of the wooden rope handle box in the center.  Great addition for a small get-together!

Bridal Shower/ Sweet 16

This is another really cool one! It can be used for a
"Sweet 16" or a "Bridal shower". This one will be listed
within the next day on Ebay! For those girls who love high-heels,
this is a sweet visual treat!

Favor Bags for guests!

Bridal Shower

This is the one we put on Ebay. It's simple and
fun for those that want to have a little "sweet" in
their event, without all the cost!
Ebay Listing

Update!

I have been spending this week getting ready for our product launch, which I will give you an update on today! It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and we almost have our new business CandyShopBuffets set to go.  In fact, several local businesses have started calling us "the candy guys", so it's pretty funny and neat to be able to do this!  The actual website launch will be in mid-February @ Candyshopbuffets.com.  Right now we do have several products and are ready to sell, so we put one listing up on Ebay last night!
Bridal Shower Candy Buffet

It is super cute, and really unique to a lot of Candy Buffets out there today! Each of our designed candy buffets will be uniquely made, so not one is the same.  We are so excited to begin offering this product, first on Ebay and then on our website.  The candy buffet's auction price is 85 dollars, with the "buy it now" of 100 dollars.  It feeds 25-30 people, and $100 dollars it ends up being only $4 a person.  A lot of wedding planners charge around $6-7 a person for a small party.  So, we thought this was a reasonable price and are proud to have this as part of our new product line!

Through our website we are going to sell several varieties of these "small" candy buffets.  Listing later this week on Ebay are going to be our girls and boys baby buffet, and our other bridal shower buffet!

Here are some pictures to show you all what we've been up too!
Enjoy :)

Candy Tip 1: Stock Up!

The biggest expense of a candy buffet happens to be the candy itself.  Most of you already knew that!  However, unless you are constantly out looking for candy in large quantities it’s hard to estimate just how expensive your candy buffet is going to be.   So the best tip I can give you is to stock up ahead of time!  Following holiday is the best time to get candy.  Places like Walgreens, Walmart, or your local convenience store are likely to have candy at 50% off, if not more! 

If your wedding or event is in early spring, go to the after- Valentine sale for heart shaped candies.  If your wedding is later in spring, shop at the after –Easter event for pastel colors and flowery shapes.   Online candy stores will typically not sell discounted candies, so hurrying to the clearance event of the season locally could be worth the trip!  This tip could be useful for do-it-yourself decorators as well.  You can purchase discounted merchandise for your event, along with the candy at local shops.

Unlike decorations, candy does have an expiration date.  Be sure to plan out how far in advance you are able to buy the candy for your event.  Chocolate is a candy with a fast expiration date, whereas gummy bears and mints have a longer shelf life.  Check it out before buying large quantities of candy that will taste bland or have gone bad in the months prior to your event!

Wedding favor

Wedding themes, candy buffet
Originally uploaded by Wedding Favours Warwickshire

This is an example of a candy buffet that has really great jars, but does not have a way to get the candy out of these jars. It also does not have any favor bags to allow the guest to take some candy home. The two tall "martini" glass vases are awesome and visually appealing though and overall a good concept!

Apothecary Jars

candy buffet idea
Originally uploaded by kmjdepalma

These three jars are great for candy buffets. The back two are pretty tall around 15-20 inches, however the mouth on the jar is wide enough to have a scoop placed in there to assist guests with choosing candy!
As a side note, apothecary jars are becoming super popular in the candy world, but are hard to find at a good price. If you choose this route, you should plan on spending around 30 dollars a jar!

Candy Buffets as a guest favor?

The best reason to have a candy buffet at your event is simply because of the versatility of this unique display.  A candy buffet serves as a talking point for guests, creates visual drama, and functions as a highly appreciated guest favor at your event!  The guest favor part is what we're focused on today.  

You want your guests to know how much you appreciate them by making the guest favor distinctive and fun!  The most important part in this, if you want your candy buffet to function as a guest favor, is to have it set up to look like more than just a display.  Here are a couple of tips that will help guests feel comfortable in grabbing a few treats to take home.

1.  Make the jars accessible.  If you desire visual drama as well as a guest treat in planning your candy buffet, you need to consider the functionality of the vases and glassware you buy.  You do not want the candy too low, so kids can lick one and put it back---gross!  You also do not want the candy in tall skinny vases that no one is able to reach.  Choose 1-2 tall “creative” vases for height difference, and surround them with medium sized containers to make this display guest friendly!

2.  Provide scoops to allow the guests to reach into a bowl and take a few smaller treats without worrying whether it’s sanitary or proper etiquette to take a few by hand.

3.  Place enough treat bags on the table so that there is at least one for every guest, maybe a few extra for the unexpected visitor.  You can place these in a cute basket, on a serving platter or just lay them decoratively on the table.

4.  The last thing you can do to make this cute and fun for your guests is to personalize the favor bags.  Create a little saying to stick on or in the bags telling the guests how much you appreciate them being there!   Your guests will appreciate your telling them how much you were thankful for their support at your event!