The sweetie buffet is the sweetest new trend in weddings. Recreating the childish excitement of the old sweet shop with its penny sweets, this trend is inexpensive and stylish while adding a real sense of fun to your wedding.
Image courtesy of The Candy Company
Order a sweetie buffet completely finished to your chosen requirements by the experts or create your own.
How to create your own sweetie buffet
It’s simple to create a sweetie buffet and it’s something you and your groom or your bridesmaids can have fun doing together in the lead up to the wedding.
What you will need:
1. Glass jars – choose from clear glass or tinted glass to match your wedding colour scheme, in varying sizes for an interesting and more eye-catching display or the same shape and size for a neater, more uniformed look. For a home-made look fill empty jam jars or kitchen storage jars and decorate with coloured ribbon to match your wedding colours.
There is a sweetie buffet look and style for the most contemporary of today’s weddings and for the most faithfully vintage.
2. Confectionery – Fill your glass jars with confectionery of your choice. Coloured and pretty foil-wrapped sweets may be a better idea for a hot summer’s day than chocolates that could melt. Colour coordinate and arrange different colours, sizes and shapes to create interest. Retro style Love Heart sweets and Just Married rock are a perfect addition to a wedding sweetie buffet.
Above clockwise from top left at the Confetti shop: metal sweet scoop in white or ivory | large hearts marriage talk candy hearts | ‘just married’ rock in 3 colours | love hearts retro favour box pack
3. Decoration – Finally, decorate your glass jars with coloured or personalised ribbons and trims such as tiny butterflies, love birds or sparkling gems. Add stickers or cards to each jar to let guests know what flavoured sweets are inside each. You could even wrap your sweets in brightly coloured or rainbow foil wraps for a colour-coded extravaganza of sweet style!
Image courtesy of Kandy Kart
How to present your sweet buffet
Specialist sweetie buffet companies and caterers will often provide a presentation table or decorative cart to make the buffet stand out in style. Your own made sweetie buffet can be presented simply on a table alongside a savoury spread or in place of one if you are feeding your guests a catered meal. Make a space for the sweeties next to the wedding cake or at the opposite end of the reception. Just watch out for that sugar rush!
Why stop at sweets when you can go all the way with a chocolate fountain in the centre of your sweetie buffet and offer guests a choice of wrapped sweets or strawberries dipped in melted chocolate for the ultimate sweetie heaven?
Image courtesy of Candy Buffet Hire Kent
Personalised sweetie buffets
To make your sweetie buffet extra special, include personalised sweet wraps for your guests to take home as a reminder of your special day. Have your names and wedding date printed on the wrappers or write a special message to all your guests thanking them for coming or asking them to ‘always be sweet to each other’.
Image courtesy of Candy Buffet Hire Kent
Sweet buffet décor ideas
Make the most of your sweet display, by theming it according to your wedding colours. For instance: with a purple and ivory wedding colour scheme and an accent colour of silver, you could have large, vibrant purple-wrapped sweets displayed against smaller silver-wrapped sweets in tall, ornate Victorian sweet shop style glass jars with ivory ribbons tied around each, the finishing touch being a hand-written description of each sweet treat and/or a message to all your guests.
Above clockwise from top left at the Confetti shop: vintage lace candy bar kit | Vintage Affair chalk sticker labels | ‘sweet’ paper favour candy bag in choice of 4 colours | old time candy personalised sticker
Unusual candy buffets
If you’re thinking of having a sweetie buffet but you like to be different, present your display in something other than glass jars for a totally different look. Giant Martini glasses will add that sophisticated edge while round fish bowls or perfectly square storage jars lend a more simple style.
Finally, why not make your sweetie buffet interactive with a competition to win a prize for guessing how many sweets are in the filled jars or a Willie Wonka style prize for the guest who finds an elusive gold sweetie?
Image courtesy of The Candy Company
The sweetie buffet is here to stay and has become as important as the cutting of the cake, the speeches and the toasts. How you present your sweetie buffet can be as unique as you care to make it, and it’s good to know you’ll enjoy creating it as much as your guests will love eating it. You can even keep the gorgeous jars in your kitchen forever more as a lovely keepsake of your wedding.
Find more great ideas on our Inspiration wedding cake pages.
