Weddingbee Blog

You may recall from a while back that I intend for candy to play a large role in our wedding. Visions of sugar plums (whatever those are) and other various delicious sugary treats have danced in my head for quite some time. I really wanted to create some kind of swirly lollipop centerpieces, like this:

Image from Real Simple

or this:

Image from DIY Wedding

This turned out to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated. The main challenge was actually finding those delicious swirly lollipops. You might be thinking, “But I saw some just the other day.” Yep, you probably did. But did you check out the price tag? Some of them can be $4.00 or $5.00 each. EACH! Yowsa. That wasn’t happening.

So I searched and searched. I found some, but then I ran into color problems. You see, we’re having lots of different colors, but they aren’t red, royal blue, orange, yellow and green. It’s more like pink, aqua, yellow, sherbet orange and purple. But most swirly lollipops are of the primary color variety. Boo.

But this isn’t a sad post. There is a happy ending. I very fortunately have a bridesmaid who loves to throw epic birthday parties for her daughter, and she recommended I check out Oriental Trading Company. Jackpot. I ordered myself five dozen of these bad boys (for $6.25 per dozen!!):

Available at Oriental Trading Company

They arrived in perfect condition with each lollipop wrapped in bubble wrap. And the colors are thankfully almost what I wanted.

Next came challenge number two: putting the centerpiece together. I saved this task for when MOH L would be in town, because she’s basically a junior Martha Stewart. We cleaned out a pasta sauce jar I had finished and saved (who needs mason jars when you have other jars just lying around), stuck some floral foam in it, and jabbed the lollipops in (there’s not really a more glamorous way to describe this). Then we set out to Target to find some candy to fill the jar.

Our plan was just to get something random to see how it might look. I spotted some Skittles on clearance, so we grabbed a bag and headed back to try it out. First, we tasted the Skittles (delicious, of course). Then, we poured them in. And that produced…

Sorry for the crappy picture. I have since sent this home with Mama Whale, so this is the only picture I have. But do you see how perfect those Skittles are?? They are the exact right colors!! I squealed and did a little dance around the apartment. And then I stopped, as a thought entered my head, “Were those Skittles on clearance because they’re discontinued?”

Turns out they were!! Noooooooooooooo!!!! So I sent everyone I knew out on hunt for Skittles Blenders.

Image from American Sweets

And everyone came up empty-handed. Fortunately, WeddingBee noticed I was doing a lot of googling for candy and suggested I visit Drugstore.com. (Turns out those suggested ads actually work sometimes).

And that is the story of how I ended up with thirty pounds of Skittles being delivered to my door. Whew. It was a close call.

So the short story is…I turned a Prego jar, some lollipops, and some Skittles into our centerpieces!! Has anyone else done candy centerpieces??