Tag: candy buffet

Clare + Tom, the party…

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Yesterday, I posted about Clare + Tommy’s morning.
Today’s post is going to focus on their gorgeous wedding reception!
In lieu of traditional escort cards, the couple tied labels to Izze bottles of soda.

For their signature drink, the couple ordered custom stir sticks…

… as well as custom napkins.

I am never a fan of a boring guest book. Clare + Tommy had a gorgeous framed photo made for them on etsy.

The room was lovely! With the long tables, the bride worked with Scarlet Petal to come up with the most gorgeous decor. When guests brought their bottles of Izze soda, it just made the table look more colorful!

A close-up of the flowers. Like me, Clare favors dense arrangements.

I love this shade of sherbert orange used for the card box.

The couple’s cake was very chic and modern.


Since the venue boasted an extra long bar, the couple set the candy buffet at the far end in lieu of favors.

It was a sweet treat for the guests to take home that evening.

Clare + Tommy, I had a wonderful time spending your wedding day with you!

Real Wedding: Liz + Calvin, The Evening

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Yesterday, I posted about Liz and Calvin’s wedding day. Today, I am going to post about the rest of the evening.

After a few hours on the town, the couple came back to the Stardust Suite to rest up and have a few drinks before the ceremony.

The room was dimly lit for a romantic feel. The decor was done by A Perfect Event.

The groom, Calvin, is Hawaiian. To celebrate his culture, the couple wore leis. After being pronounced husband and wife, Calvin moved the flower behind Liz’s right ear to her left ear, signaling that she is married woman.

In lieu of a traditional guest book, the couple had a framed Cubs jersey for everyone to sign. It was quite the hit!


The couple opted to have a Suite Table.

The gorgeous centerpieces. I love that the candles were up high so that they did not interfere with the guests from talking across the table.

Below is a close-up of the centerpiece. It’s modern yet romantic with all of that warm lighting from the pillars.

Liz’s Dad, Ira, cut the Challah and said a prayer.

The couple had a delicious Candy Buffet with bags for guests to take some home as a favor.

The couple cut their cake after the salad course. The cake table was decorated with the bridesmaids bouquets.

After dinner, the couple had their first dance to “Better When We’re Together” by Jack Johnson.

At around 11PM, the Allegro brought out some late night snacks to feed the hungry crowd.

A really cute ring shot!
Thank you so much for letting me be apart of your wedding day!

I Love Candy!

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…but readlly, who doesn’t love candy??  It is the reason that candy buffets are still a major attraction at weddings.  Like a Sweets Table, they are more fun.  Plus, the containers allow guests to take them home.



The only problem is finding all of that candy!  I thought that I would luck out with some red candy on sale from Valentine’s Day.  While we were able to get some red hots that were heart shaped, we still had 12 more flavors to fill our containers to the brim.

In my quest for all red candy, I found Albanese Factory located in Merrillville, Indiana.  An hour drive from the downtown, the factory has everything you could want and more!  Besides your usual red gummy bears, I was able to find all sort of treats including Raspberry Taffy, Berry Bursts, Strawberry Sour Rings, and much more!  The prices are much lower than anywhere else.

I have had many brides ask if they should buy their candy online.  Honestly, if you are buying enough for a candy buffet, then you should probably make the hike out there.  It’s definitely worth it!

DIY: Heat Embossing

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I heard about heat embossing through various forms of wedding media.  This is the type of DIY task that I could handle! I made a trip to Stamp On In in Lincoln Park and bought my supplies:

  • heat gun


  • embossing powder


  • ink pad


  • stamps


The manager was kind enough to show me how to heat emboss. My husband and I practiced later that week. It really is pretty simple.


  1. Wet your stamp with the ink pad.
  2. Stamp the item.
  3. Pour embossing powder over the item.
  4. Shake off excess powder.
  5. Apply heat from heat gun to powder.
  6. Admire your crafty self!

My first adventure in embossing was our candy buffet. A bride gave me her 40 leftover white chinese boxes. I also had about some glassine envelopes that were sold along with the candy buffet. Since that wasn’t enough containers, I bought 40 petite red chinese boxes.

Heat Embossed chinese cartons
Since I did red on red, it doesn’t photograph as well but looks cool in person. 


The finished product!

Real Wedding: Shannon + Rick: The Details

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Yesterday, I posted about Shannon and Rick’s wedding.  Today, it is all about the details!
All photos are by Monika Lozinska Lee from REM Photography.
The couple opted to have use traditional escort cards.  The benefit to having seperate envelope and card is that it is very easy to move “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” to Table 9 by just switching the envelope.

The cocktail hour was held on the patio at the MCA.  Waiters passed glasses of water and wine with their customized napkins by For Your Party.

Shannon’s Clever DIY Project
She had her monogram printed on the corner of pretty velumn paper.  Then, she curled the paper up and filled it with petals.

Shannon and Rick had one table serve many purposes:
gifts and the card box, the guest book, and photos of family as well as the couple.

The couple made their own menus,
which highlighted their gorgeous brown and pink color palette.

The room at the MCA.

A clever ring shot.

After dinner, the bar re-opened for the rest of the night.  There were more napkins from For Your Party announcing the after party at the Sofitel.

Shannon’s fabulous pink and brown candy buffet.  It was a huge hit!

M+D: Mille Grazie y Mangia!

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After the second set of dancing, Denton and I went up to say thank you to all of our guests.  It meant a lot for everyone to be there, especially since our guest list was 80% out of town.  I also reminded guests to pace themselves as there was an after party!

The entree, a duet of a filet mignon and crab cake, was served.   I asked the hotel to serve me two crab cakes.  Of course, I was so overwhelmed that I barely finished my first one!

My “oldest” (read longest) friend, Kim on her way back to her seat.

Everytime we sat down for another course, there was much to be discussed!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we had the candy buffet set out since the beginning of the evening.  By the time dinner came along, everyone had already raided it at least once.  


We had three different types of candy containers: glassine bags, small red chinese  to go containers, and large white chinese to go containers.  To make them look cohesive, we did a very easy DIY heat embossing project.