The Secret to Sweetness

Scan all those photos of candy buffets throughout the web, and you'll quickly spot two things. One, buffets are monstrously popular. And two, while some are a feast for the eyes, others seem to fall short of the heights their planners must have hoped for.



So what's the secret?

Here's number one: buying enough candy. Sounds simplistic, but it's key.

"The first thing I tell brides — you really can't do candy as a hard commodity. It's more a decoration," says Jon Prince, president of online candy giant CandyFavorites.com.

"I talk to hundreds of brides. They'll say, 'I'm having 200 guests, and I want to give each guest 3 ounces, so I guess I need about 37 pounds of candy.' Sounds reasonable, and 3 ounces might be enough to actually satisfy your guests, but visually? It won't be enough to make a presence."

Prince suggests that instead of seeing candy by the numbers, brides take an aesthetic approach. "You choose the flowers because they're beautiful," he says. "The candy buffet should be too."

And unlike flowers, Prince adds, candy serves double duty as an edible item. "Still, you have to budget the candy buffet into your wedding expenses. It doesn't work well as an afterthought."

But what about the wedding planners who suggest buying a pound of candy per person?

Prince says buffets work best when you plan by the eye, not the numbers.

"To make it look gorgeous, I'd start with the table, not the guest count. I'd take five to 10 types of candy, and buy 15 to 20 pounds each, whether you actually need that much or not."

He adds, "When it comes to candy, the more the merrier. If you have a large table overflowing with candy, you have presence. The biggest disappointment I hear is that the candy buffet didn't look substantial." www.FavoriteIdeas.com