Hi, this is Kristen from I do wedding essentials and were learning how to create a candy buffet. Right now were going to talk about how to choose your candy. We’ve already talked about picking containers and basically what types of candy, you kind of want to get a good mix. You want to do some smaller things, you might want to do some gummies, maybe something sour, I always really like doing rock candy because it totally gives a different look to the buffet and it comes in all different types of colors. So if you are planning to do something based on colors, usually the easiest things to pick are jelly beans, taffy, Jordan almonds and M&M’s. they come in a million different colors and you can buy them per color but you’d really surprised that the different types of candy you can get per color. Like I brought this Swedish fish, you can get them multi colored or you can get them in just red, really if you go online, you can find all green gummy bears if you want to. So ordering things on line can get expensive, so that’s why I always try to shop locally.
Its hard though when you’re trying to fit a color theme to get things locally. Its easy to find things like M&M’s or jelly beans at any big box store like a target or a lot of the grocery stores like Swagman’s carry bulk foods and you can find those things pretty easily. But if you want to do nine different candies all in blue, you really have to go online to try to find the variety that you want to find. The problem with online that you need to think of is that this are heavy. Basically to fill something like this with jelly beans is going to take ten pounds. Pretty much anytime or where any candy, I order at least five pounds of it regardless of size. Something like this might only fit three pounds of taffy but just to be safe and usually to be most cost effective, you get a five pound bag. That’s kind of how they group things, you can get one pound, five pounds or ten pounds.
So to shift five pounds of candy can get pricey plus you need to think about when your wedding is going to be. If you’re having a wedding in the middle of July, you might want to start ordering things at March because once the summer months hit, you’re going to have to express ship a lot of things. You wouldn’t think that you would need to maybe express ship some time of gummy but if it’s a 100 degrees and its sitting in the back of you know the mail truck, its going to stick together. So you’re going to have to pay to either over night it or at least you know two days ship it especially for doing any type of truffle or M&M or anything like that. you definitely going to have to overnight, so that’s why I try to order things early, try to order as much from one supplier as you can.
There’s a pretty common misconception that candy buffets are cheaper than doing individual favors and that is really not. If anything they tend to be maybe a little more expensive than if you were just going to package a little box and set it at the play setting. You can probably get it to be around 250 per person but usually it tends to get up to like $3.00 but you can be smart about the candies you choose. If you’re using bigger containers, you know use bigger candies like the taffy. This comes in any color, almost any flavor and they’re big, so not only do they fill up the containers but they fill up the guest bags.
You can do to save money you know, I got this at a local store like a target but this are jelly bellies and they’re name brand. You can always choose do a generic jelly bean and it would probably be a third less if not half the cost. Another way that I always tell my brides to save money is with M&M’s. it looks really cute to personalize M&M’s but it can get really pricey. This are just chocolate lentils and its kind of a generic and it looks like an M&M, pretty much almost taste like one and you get that look and feel of the M&M but for probably half of the price.
Certain things you probably will want to stick with it if you’re a jelly belly then you know splurge for the seven bucks a pound to get the jelly bellies. Just be smart and do your research so you know what candy you can get from where and really, if you can buy it locally you need to think about the shipping cost and get it locally if you can. We just talked about picking our candy with the different candy sizes and shapes. Getting different textures and next were going to talk about preparing our containers and candy for travel and setup.
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