Candy buffets or candy station as they are also know are a very popular item at wedding receptions these days, and no wonder – everyone loves candy! A good candy buffet is reminiscent of a visit to an old fashioned, home town candy store, only better, because for the guests, it’s free. They’ll get to dip into a large offering of whatever candy you choose to serve. There are so many yummy candies that make a nice addition to your wedding reception dessert table.
If you want to have a candy buffet at your reception, you can certainly save some money if you do it yourself, but you’ll have to do some considerable planning ahead of time – and you may end up buying a lot more candy than you think. Hiring a professional may be another way to go.
Here are some candy buffer and candy station ideas and tips keep in mind when shopping for and planning your:
- For an effective and attractive display, you’ll want a lot of candy – plan on at least a half pound of candy per guest (more if you have a short guest list).
- Keep the colors simple – one or two colors at most, preferable matching your wedding colors and/or theme. If you are doing a one color display, the candies don’t have to match exactly, but they need to be reasonably close. Using all white looks really slick and what wedding doesn’t include white?
- Use unusual containers – here’s where you can call around to some of your older relatives with beautiful, large, maybe even antique glass candy containers. If you have fond memories of Aunt Mary’s green glass candy bowl, chances are a lot of your family members do too, and imagine how inviting it will look when filled with gorgeous candy! You can also get large clear containers pretty cheaply from hobby stores.
- Use a wide variety of candies – a minimum of 5 types, preferably 10 or even more. Choose variations in shapes or use all of one shape (round, for example) in various sizes.
- Get some matching fabric, some sturdy boxes to vary the display heights, and start practicing the set up on your kitchen table. You don’t want to figure out the setup on the day of the reception! There are lots of pictures online of candy buffets if you’re stumped about the sort of display that you want.
- Don’t forget the scoops! A 4 ounce size works really well, and if you shop around online, you should be able to get them inexpensively. Better yet, maybe you know someone who recently had a candy buffet at their event, and you can borrow theirs!
You’re only limited by your imagination here. If any of you readers (or wedding decorators, caterers, etc) have ever hosted a DIY candy buffet, or bar, maybe you can share what you did here.