Thursday, August 16, 2012

How Sweet it Is

It's finally time to blog about my favorite part of the wedding...
Candy for the Candy Bar
The Candy Bar!
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I started picking up candy bar in February to make use of the after Valentine's Day sales. And did the exact same thing after Easters. (That's why you'll see both Sweethearts and Starburst Jellybeans in this mix.) But most of this candy I bought this past weekend at Albertsons. There's almost 45 pounds of candy in here, and since I've heard the recommendation is half a pound per person and we're expecting around 100 guests we're pretty good. Although I still might pick up a few more options. After all my favorite candy, aka Zours, still aren't in this mix.
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I did look into buying a bunch of candy online wholesale, but the shipping is where I had an issue. I did find some sites that had flat rate shipping. Except that was only for their standard shipping, and I was planning on shipping candy in the middle of the summer in Louisiana. Yes, I could buy ice packs to include as well as insulated boxes, but there's no way I could ship using standard shipping and still expect the candy to arrive in tact. I wasn't even sure next day shipping would work. On top of that overnight shipping for 50 pounds was ridiculous and half of the cost of the candy itself.
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Basically I priced out 50 pounds, on 2 separate websites, at around $300 (including shipping). But the candy I bought above was right around $150. So just because you're looking wholesale doesn't mean it's cheaper. Of course if you are only looking for candy in one or two specific colors that might be the way to go. But I was going more for "candy I enjoy" instead of "candy that looks pretty".
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Then there was the jars and scoops. I bought some jars at Michael's (making sure to use a 40% off coupons) and the Dollar Store. The boy's mom contributed a few. And a co-worker was also getting rid of all the jars she used for the candy bar at her sister's baby shower. In total we spent around $25 on jars.
Candy Bar Mock-Up
I order the metal scoops from Scoops-Scoops based on Mrs. Unicycle's recommendation. Then wound up finding the purple and blue scoops on clearance at Target. In total we spent around $40 on 15 scoops.
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Finally I bought the bags off Coffee Wholesale USA. They look a little plain now, but I'm planning on adding a cute sticker on them to jazz them up a bit. I bought 100 of them for around $25.
Candy Bags
In total I spent around $250 on the candy bar, which is acting as our favor. (The boy actually told me if it gets close to the end of the night and there's still a lot of candy left, we need to start filling bags up and handing them out so we don't bring the leftovers back into the house.) Considering I estimated $200 for this based on absolutely no information, that really isn't too far off.

If you did a candy bar, or even if you'd ever want to, what types of candy would you want to include? And any guesses as to how much candy we'll actually have leftover?

7 comments:

  1. Great shopping. I'd be terrified to have that much candy in the house with me. What temptation!

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  2. Wow. Your candy bar is going to ROCK. Can I come? :P

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  3. We had a Dessert Bar! It had some candy on it but not a TON. LOVED IT. So happy we did that and we got lots of compliments on it too!

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  4. I wish we had done a candy bar at our reception because we LOVE candy, and my husband is the only person I know with a bigger sweet tooth than me!

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  5. Oh my gosh! Your candy bar is going to be AMAZING!! I loved Amber's candy bar. It was so great having sweets to snack on during the night. Plus, due to my gluten intolerance, I can't have cake which usually means no sweets for me, so it was a nice treat to be able to indulge in sweets for a change!

    If I could pick one candy to have, it would probably be gummy bears or those peach o's or starbust! Or m&m's!

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  6. What a great idea. It just dawned on me how close your wedding is getting!! I am going to a Labor Day wedding in North Carolina. Hope you have a wonderful wedding if I dont comment before we leave!!!

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  7. Wow! That seems like it ended up being really cheap for a candy bar. Usually I hear that they cost an insane amount of money. That's great that you didn't have to order it off the internet.

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