cost breakdown: candy buffet

One of the biggest "non-practical" elements of our wedding was our candy buffet. (It's also one of the only things featured in wedding magazines that I fell in love with. What can I say? I'm not completely impervious to pretty pictures.) I'm sure that we could have come up with a less expensive cost-per-guest party favor, but I figured that people had earned their sugar comas after all the dancing at our reception!

We had 9 different containers in our buffet: 3 apothecary jars & 2 decorative plates, all snagged at Ross. (I started looking very early in our planning process, in order to take advantage of post-Christmas sales. I basically grabbed anything white or metallic I could get my hands on.) I got creative when I found 2 big mercury class candle holders at Target (I just covered the pointy thing in the bottom with tissue paper), and I made a cake stand from a tutorial on OnceWed.com. At the last minute, I found a giant clear-glass vase that I already owned -- score!

Total: $69.18



For the candy, I realized pretty quickly that while lots of websites out there offer "discount bulk candy", the overnight shipping required to get it to Southern California in the summer, hopefully without melting, was a potential budget-buster. I got as much of it as I could at a local warehouse in downtown L.A.

10 lbs. each grapefruit sour gummies, butterscotch & Hershey's kisses = $68.88.

I got the rest from 2 online resources, and went for the 2-day shipping in protective packaging (still cheaper than overnighting it) just before temps soared for the summer.

10 lbs. each 7-up jelly bellies & white jordan almonds from bulkfoods.com = $99.56 + approx. $60 shipping.
10 lbs. "milkies" (like M&M's, but without the "M" so cheaper) & 5 lbs. champagne bubbles from Groovy Candies = $115.85 + approx. $40 shipping.

I also got 5 lbs. of white mints from Smart & Final for about $10. And somehow I got it into my head that I'd have a) the time, and b) the skill to make a thing or two. Yeah, I know ... overly ambitious = me. Fortunately, after my test run turned out poorly, I found these at Target:

White Oreos! Who knew?! (I didn't.) About $10 for 3 bags.

I made the signs for each container with leftover cardstock from our invitations -- printed at Kinko's -- and attached it with ribbon I found on sale. Instead of buying pricey labels from some online site, I printed some using Word on my home computer:

They seemed to get what I wanted to say across ... and I already had those labels, so they were free.

We decorated the table with the leftover bubble liquid bottles from our ceremony, and some matchbook notebooks that I made. I used the cardstock samples I'd bought when looking for our invitation paper, plus stamps that were in the set used on our invitations & plain computer paper. The upside to doing things yourself = re-purposing your leftovers!


I found the big scoops at a local party supply store (about $10) & decorated them with the same ribbon as on the container signs, and got the bags through a wholesale company. (I ended up with twice the amount I needed, so after selling the extras on Craigslist, they cost a net $13.)

Altogether, the candy buffet cost us about $545. Admittedly, it was kind of an extravagance, and I might have changed my mind if I'd known about the extra $100 in shipping charges from the beginning ... but it turned out beautifully, our guests loved it, and I was really proud of myself for pulling it off. So if anyone out there is planning something similar, I hope you find this useful!

progress report

I have been getting stuff done, honestly I have. Yes, I've been totally distracted this week with getting ready to open a show tomorrow (more on that later) (tomorrow?! holy crap!!) but I finally re-charged the camera battery last night & snapped a few pics of what I've been up to.

First, I finally completed the card box.
I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I followed a tutorial on Once Wed for the basic overall form, but departed from it when it came to the birds' nest.

The instructions called for something called bark-covered wire, which I didn't have. I did, however, have that bundle of twigs & crap that I got in my after-Christmas Target raid. (That's also where I acquired the berry things, which I painted a champagne-y color. Mr. UB thought I should leave them bright red ... he's so cute when he's wrong.) I also liked Lincoln Logs when I was a kid -- hello, grown-up version with hot glue gun! I found the two birds in the clearance section of the discount craft place downtown for $0.38 each. The fact that they both have slightly wonky hair pleases me, too, since the Mr. & I are no strangers to that phenomenon ourselves.

cost of materials:
3 boxes = $4
paper = already owned
birds = $0.76
berries, twigs, leaves = already owned
ribbon = $1
flowers = $1.98
Total: $7.74 + 2 minor injuries (1 hot-glue, 1 exacto-blade) ... not bad. Especially for me.

I was also busy last night with those envelope labels I made. They went from a neat stack of these:
to looking like this:
which then got turned into these:
which made another pile of this:
that finally became a nice, neat stack of these:

Now I just need to make about 30 more lined envelopes. Thank goodness for Law & Order marathons.

Oh, and the piles of sugar in my refrigerator have grown.

I had nothing to do with it ... must be osmosis. Or something.

breaking my radio silence

Yes, it's been about a week since my last post. I've noticed an inverse corrolation between how busy I am and how frequently I blog. (The eternal conundrum: only having the time to write when you have nothing to say.) But some of that busy-ness has actually been quite productive. In the past few days we have:

1) made the official cake decision & put down a deposit

2) "paid" our lovely photographer

3) gotten almost all of the spelling/non-nickname/street address questions about our guest list answered, and begun printing the labels for our envelopes:
The red slash is marking one of the ones I had to re-do ... which is a surprisingly low number if I do say so myself. You can see the swirly design detail better here:
We always knew that hand-calligraphy wasn't right for us -- too formal and too expensive -- but we really like the wrap-around labels that so many people have designed. Problem: none of the free ones available were even close to working with our invite design. Solution: well, since I'd already taught myself how to use Photoshop in order to make said invite design, I just kept going & made these, too. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. They look really cool against the lined envelopes, too.

4) I've been working on a card box.
As you can see, it's still very much a work in progress. You can also see where I got the green paper on the wall to the left of it. I'm following a tutorial found on Once Wed here. (And how much do I love their new site design?!) The basic structure was pretty simple, once I got used to the smell of the mod podge (and opened a window). The "design" elements are proving to be a bit vexing. Oh well, there's no rush and so far I'm only out about $4 in materials, plus stuff I already had. Bonus: it's a pretty good echo of the real cake we're getting, minus one layer.

5) I've done all the reseach I can do to find the least expensive fillings for our candy buffet, so I've started to make purchases. I'm buying locally as much as possible, because anything that we have to get shipped will likely need pricey express shipping. So far:
Butterscotches are sleeping soundly in my fridge (it's not empty -- I cleared a shelf) ...

and gummi grapefruit & Hershey's kisses are nestled in the freezer. (Side note to my mom: if you come by my apartment before the wedding, I'm going to hide these. Just sayin'.) I'd intended to get almond kisses from a website, because they're gold. You know, fitting in with the uber-important candy palette. But those cost almost $60 + delivery, and these were less than $30. So our palette now includes silver, in addition to cream, white & gold.

All of these so far = $66, from Jack's Discount Warehouse in downtown L.A. (They don't have a website, so google 'em if you're local.)

6) I grabbed 6 gold frames from the clearance aisle of my favorite discount craft store, for $2.50 each.
We can use them to label the dishes on our buffet, and toss them into the stuff I intend to re-sell after the wedding.

7) We gave our deposit to the designer at our reception venue. She's already asking about stuff we intend to sell that she'll buy off of us/ take in trade against our balance. Woo hoo!

8) My friend Meg has agreed to make table runners out of the fabric I bought. That's 15 runners out of $5 worth of fabric + one round of drinks & girl talk at The 3rd Stop.

Oh, and this arrived ...
... and it was so beautifully wrapped that I didn't open it for two whole days. It's perfect. It's also my gift to myself for booking that commercial last week (aka outside the wedding budget.) Go and love its maker on Etsy here!

ribbon palooza, etc.

I found an incredible deal on scoops & tongs for our candy buffet. $0.60 each. I went with big spoons instead of fancy candy scoops because I figure we'll actually have use for these in our kitchen. You know, in the several years of being married, after the big fancy party that lasts one day.

$1.70 each. All at Vine American Party Store.

With slightly more than $1 worth of cream ribbon (total, that is), they now look like this: Total cost: $10.30, and no shipping costs. The website for Vine American is pretty rudimentary, and you can't shop online. But if you're in L.A. and can stop by (and have time to dig) they've got some deals that beat craft stores. By a lot. (Also, no hot glue gun injury this time. I'm improving!)

Next up: supplies for our invitations arrived yesterday. (Side note: our UPS guy is really nice. I should really tell him why he's suddenly seeing me so often, and why there's slightly less room for me in my living room each time he stops by.)
They came with a very nice, unintentionally hilarious note from the person who tool our order. Hand-writted "Thank you!" and signature ... and just below it "*no returns ... no refunds" in the tiniest print. With an actual asterisk. Good thing I intend to keep it, I guess.

Here's what the paper stuff will look like when it's all put together: (The text will be printed on the cream-colored paper ... but in a burst of forethought I decided to run off my samples on plain stuff, until I got it right. And I now have the proper tool for getting the stamp aligned properly, too.) I have 2 options for tying the varying pieces together:


I think I prefer the second one, with just the raffia. Which is fine -- I've decided that I want to keep things as neutral as possible, overall (a reaction to the neckties, possibly?), and I'm sure I'll find another use for the green ribbon. Besides, it only cost $1/spool.

I did a little scrounging for something to put on the cufflink bases I bought on eBay, but came up empty. Then I remembered that Gem Faire is coming back to Santa Monica -- next week, even! Hooray for my flyer that showed up in the mail, complete with Free Entry Coupon. If you want to go, they have 2-for-1 entry coupons that you can print on their website. Or just see when it's travelling trade show goodness is coming closer to your area.

Lastly: some love for all things Google. I thought I'd have to buy some special kind of goo in order to clean the candle holders that I found on Craigslist, until I searched "candle wax removal." Turns out you can pop them in the freezer for a few hours, then basically pop the stuck, melted candle end right out. Yay, free solutions.

**Post-lastly: I just got off the phone with Mr. UB. He went out last night to meet some friends, and learned that someone who used to work at a restaurant with his roommate just started her own catering company. Without him even asking, she offered to cater our reception for cost. Excuse me -- I have to go dance around my living room now.

an idea for the look

Why the hell didn't I get married before the economy went into the toilet? Oh, right ... I wasn't asked. Ah well -- I love a challenge.

First, I finally know what I want my invitations to look like. This one. Just with different colors. (Thanks, The Knot!) I can definitely pull this off. Apparently the bride made them herself, using a stamp for the flowery design thing. I think I'll do a gold frame, ivory paper & dark green ink. Does anybody out there know what gets craft glue out of your hair?

As far as the "look" of the whole thing goes, I'm finding myself kind of inspired by these images.

And I found serious reasons to raid Ikea's day-after-Christmas sale this year:
Just the white one of these:


Also, I found a nice, simple guest book at Crane's:


And I love these bags for my candy bar favors:

(That's the pattern, I mean. They're clear plastic bags -- you get the idea.)

In other fabulous news, I stumbled across the fact that both Costco and Overstock.com sell bulk flowers. That may end up being a bit more labor-intensive than I'd imagined, but if I keep it simple and stick to 1 or 2 kinds of blooms + greenery, I just might be able to pull it off. Especially with some help from Jamali Garden Supplies. Some of what I'm digging, and think I can work with:
Bells of Ireland -- 100 stems for $109.99

White hydrangea -- 30 clusters for $85.99


Roses ("green" like above or white) -- 100 stems for $104.99

I absolutely intend to get bouquets that are professionally made. I'm just thinking about reception decorations. On which topic, I've made NO real progress. Grrrr.

In less-fabulous news, I ran into my friend Marija today, and it seems that she isn't rocking her photography business again just yet (she recently had a baby) ... but just because I love her & I think her work is lovely, check out her stuff here. Oh well ... thank goodness I know a few more photographers. (Occupational hazard.)