Love is Sweet- Santilli/Knight Wedding

     November 6, 2010 we had the AMAZING opportunity to go out and see our candy in action at Angela and Bobby's gorgeous wedding reception! Needless to say, we were absolutely stoked!!!
    This reception was so full of fun, friends, family and love! I was a complete stranger and the family just welcomed me like a long-lost friend. I laughed, I cried... and I had just met these people! Let me tell you, it was the type of reception that every bride wishes for and not that many get. Everyone was eating, drinking, dancing and just having a blast. When I left around 9 the crowd had hardly thinned at all! That is a sign of success!!
     I am going to pump us up a little bit and say that our candy buffet had quite a bit to do with that! (Ha ha ha!) In all honesty, the guests loved that candy buffet. I had to chase them off, request of the bride, until after dinner. Believe me, that was a tough job! However, it was totally worth it when the bride arrived and was able to see the candy buffet all set-up and looking good! I would recommend doing this to any bride who planned to be arriving at the reception later than the guests. The easiest way to do this is to wait to put the bags or containers out until you are ready for guests to get into the candy buffet. I didn't slap people's hands if they took a couple of pieces! This way both the bride and all the guests were happy!  Angela thought ahead and had candy corn and a peanut mix in the bar available to the guests, which was a great idea!
     Every event is a learning experience for us, because every event is different. I took over 100 pounds of candy out and Angela had picked up some stuff that week. I never, ever dreamed that we would go through all that candy BUT WE DID! Angela told me that she only took home a little bit of salt water taffy.
     Knowing your guests is so important! Angela really knew her weddings guests and that made her candy buffet such a success! She picked candies that she and Bobby liked and things that she thought her guests would like. There were quite a lot of children at this reception so Angela made sure to get candies that kids really love. She ordered gummies for the kids and we made sure that cinnamon candies were a little harder to reach so that kids didn't get them by mistake. What I learned is that EVERYONE LOVES GUMMIES! The gummies were the first things that I ran out of. This is something to keep in mind for future events.
     As a little side note, the DJ at this reception was amazing. He had everyone out there dancing all night long! He was taking pictures and was just a blast! He also used these gorgeous lit panels to hide all of his equipment. I know how hard finding a good DJ can be and I would recommend Tony Jones with Purrfect Occassions DJs in a heartbeat!


A gorgeous FALL candy buffet!




 

Gummy Pumpkins (a crowd favorite)



Some adorable guests sneaking some treats!













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Getting some real world experience

    Over the last week and a half we have had some opportunities to get out and see some of our candy buffets in action. We had some great experiences and had a great time getting to talk to people about our great candy!
     On October 21st we went to the Friends of the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Library 30th Birthday Bash. They had decided that a great way to celebrate the occasion would be with a Jumbo Jelly Bean Candy Buffet. The candy buffet was exclusively Jumbo Jelly Beans! There was a couple of jugglers, a hula dancer, a balloon man and a magician. The South Bend Chocolate Company was also there with some chocolates  as well as crafts and face painting for kids. There was also a lady there with her vintage photographs from when she owned a nightclub in South Bend. I wish I had had time to check out her photos. Fun was had by all, that is for sure!! I will say that doing a candy buffet limited to Jumbo Jelly Beans was by far the easiest set up that I have done so far and everyone enjoyed it!
   Then on October 23rd I went to Waynesville, Missouri for my grandparent's 50th anniversary celebration. I was limited to what I could fit in my suitcase so I did just a small candy buffet for friends and family to enjoy. Some of the candy that we selected was sentimental (Bit o Honeys-which my grandpa always used to carry in his lunchbox) and some was chosen for color (candy corn taffy). The best was getting to see everyone having a Jumbo Jelly Bean and giant flavored malt balls. I took Red Licorice (my grandma's favorite) and Pineapple Jumbo Jelly Beans because their colors and flavors were spot-on for a fall celebration. I also took Peanut Butter, Cherry, Chocolate and Pumpkin Malt Balls, They were a smashing success!!! This buffet showed how success a low-key candy buffet can be. This size was perfect for this party!

The BIG question? How much candy?

    If I had one wish, it would be that no one would ever ask me this question. That is the most unrealistic wish that I could ever have but it such hard one to answer. We want to so badly to be a great resource for candy buffets, which we are, but this is one question that I can only give advice on.
    How can this so complicated? There are just so many factors to consider.

• Number of guests
• Type of container you will be providing, if any
• Length of your event
• Other foods and sweets that will be available
•  Length of your event
• Number of children at your event
• Number of varieties of candy

    As you can see there is no easy formula to use to figure out how much candy you need.So I will walk you through some of the tips that I give to customers in store.
    A basic rule that many "experts" recommend is to buy 10-20 pounds of each variety of candy. While this is a good rule of thumb for a wedding, it doesn't really apply to other events which may be smaller in size and shorter in length.
    If you are giving your guests take home containers of a certain size, you will want to make sure that you have enough candy for each guest to fill their containers. However, you also need to keep in mind that they will be eating candy at the event as well.
    Obviously, the more varieties of candy on your candy buffet, the less in poundage that you need of each kind. However, what you do have to keep in mind is that some things are going to be more popular with your guests. So far, I have seen that wrapped high quality chocolates are a particular favorite with guests, and ladies in particular.
    Kids! This can be where things get tricky. Are you going to have someone "work" your candy buffet? The Dime Store can send an associate to set up, serve, and tear down your candy buffet for a small fee. You can also designate a family friend to do this.  Serving can also just mean reminding kids (and others) to use the scoops and spoons instead of their fingers. No one wants to take the jelly beans that someone just had their fingers all over! What you want to keep in mind are the candies that kinds enjoy. Kids love gummies, sour candies and taffy. They are not usually as fond of hot cinnamon and licorice flavors. A recent bride in the store chose a few candies that she knew the children at her event would love and will be putting those in jars that are easily accessible to smaller ones! What a great and thoughtful idea!

   Another tip is to use sugar, brown sugar or even chocolate chips in the bottom of the jars in order to decrease the amount of candy that is needed to make the jars full. The best way to make sure that your candy buffet is attractive is to be sure that your jars will be full. The problem is that some of the jars that are so gorgeous are so tall that it is nearly impossible to get the candy from the bottom. Raising the candy level a bit makes the display look attractive and saves you money because it uses so much less candy.  Sugar can also be used to hold suckers in place.

Something sweet for a SPOOKTACULAR event!

   A couple of weeks ago I created a fall themed candy buffet. This idea could be used for a fall wedding, a Halloween party or any fall event! With all of the great fall candy available it is so easy to get inspired.
   Of course I begin nearly every candy buffet with our World Famous Jumbo Jelly Beans and for this one I layered Red Licorice and our new Pineapple beans. This looks great but for a real event you may want to make sure that all of the flavors are easily accessible for guests, so they don't have to dig down in order to get a particular flavor. You can do this by only having one flavor in each jar or by having perhaps a short jar or bowl with the "buried" flavor available.
   I used this same technique with our flavored malt balls. In addition to our delicious milk chocolate malt balls we now carry PUMPKIN, CHERRY, CHOCOLATE MINT, and PEANUT BUTTER!!! They are amazing and are made by South Bend Chocolates. I took the pumpkin last week to the Vera Bradley event and got a great response from the ladies.
   A new favorite in the candy world is an old favorite-Candy Corn! Candy corn is available in a wide variety of flavors and in colors for nearly every holiday. We currently have caramel and cinnamon in stock but we could help you to find more flavors!
   However, no candy buffet is truly complete without the little extras. Ribbon and little stickers really complete the look and take it to the "next level". I also used fake leaves. What is so great is that Target has fall and Halloween scrapbook items and fake leaves right now in their "See Spot Save" area. It's amazing what a couple of dollars can get you and how amazing it can make your candy buffet look! Lux for less is what I say!! Then you just hot glue your accessories on. It comes right off and holds great!

'Til next time!

Beating Breast Cancer with a Bag!

On Friday, September 24 we had an amazing opportunity to attend the Vera Bradley Breast Cancer Foundation's Two for Tea fashion show at Goshen General Hospital. The foundation had worked with the Quilt Garden Tour to raise funds to help beat this awful disease.
When Deb McNally (our store owner) told me that she wanted to donate a Candy Buffet for the culminating event I was so excited and so ready to check out what the foundation does. What I found absolutely amazed me! The foundation sends 100% of the money raised to fund Breast Cancer research, one of which being right here in the Hoosier state. The IU Cancer Center has identified a protein which exists only in cancerous cells! This means that someday there may be simple testing that can be done to see if someone has this protein in their body and doctors can do something about it much earlier than is possible today! This is exciting news for everyone!
Vera Bradley has a new print every year that benefits the foundation as well. 10% of the price goes directly to the foundation and then on to cancer research. What is really great about this is how beautiful the print is. They are so creative and design fun and uplifting prints that women love to carry! (I've got my eye on the new print that just came out!) Using this fabric a beatiful lap or hanging quilt was lovingly created. Raffle tickets were sold with the money going to the foundation. A matching quilt garden was planted in Elkhart and a mural was painted and hung in Middlebury. The quilt raffle winner was drawn at the Two for Tea event, where the quilter was given the challenge to create another with the new fabric. We are all so excited to see what she creates!
All in all this was just an amazing event to play a small part in. For us, this was a learning experience in the candy buffet business as well. We also really loved the opportunity to get to meet and talk with the ladies and got a good bit of interests in candy buffets for other events. Yay! The best part was when the giant check was presented to the Vera Bradley Foundation. Nearly $8000! Everyone was so shocked and excited and this far exceeded their expectations. I think it is just amazing what this community has done in terms of raising money despite the tough economic times that have hit us so hard. It really shows how generous and loving this area is.

This has been a rather long post and not that much about candy buffets...sorry! I just wanted to share with you something great and inspiring. In the future I'll try to stick to candy a little more!