4 Tips For Creating A Budget Wedding Sweet Table

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If you’ve been thinking about a sweet table for your wedding but are worried about the cost, this is the post for you.

Hiring a sweet cart for your wedding can cost hundreds of pounds. However, doing it yourself is pretty simple, makes a great alternative to traditional wedding favours and is much, much cheaper.

I’ve teamed up with Swizzels to show you how to create an amazing wedding sweet table on a budget.

Weddings are expensive, there’s no doubt about that. But until you start actually planning one and begin crunching the numbers it can be difficult to imagine just how expensive they are. If you want to get your dream wedding on a budget, then it’s likely you’ll need to do some of the work yourself and embark on some DIY projects.

Creating A Budget Wedding Sweet Table

Making your own wedding sweet table is one of the easiest ways to save money as hiring a sweet cart can easily run to hundreds of pounds. Doing some DIY and ordering sweets in bulk from the Swizzels Sweet Shop means you could easily create a wedding sweet table for 100 guests for under £50.

1. Get Organized

One of the best things about doing a DIY sweet table for your wedding is you can get it organized well ahead of time. The run-up to any wedding can be pretty hectic so getting this prepared early on in the wedding planning process will mean there’s one less job to do nearer the big day. As many people now opt for a sweet table as an alternative to more traditional favours, it also means you won’t end up spending the week before your wedding stuffing lots of individual bags full of almonds or chocolates.

As Swizzels sweets come with a pretty long best-before date (the sweets I’ve pictured here came with over a year!) it means they can be ordered well ahead of time. This is brilliant if you’re on a budget as it’s something that can be paid for early on. You’ll probably find that the six to eight weeks before your wedding are the most expensive as this is when many of the final bills will be due with suppliers so if you sort your sweet table early it’ll be one less thing to worry about paying for later on.

2. Sticking To Your Budget

When browsing the Swizzels website to choose some sweets for this project, I decided to opt for this 3kg bag of random mixed sweets. I thought it provided great value for money and would be a brilliant way to cater to a crowd while still providing lots of different sweet options. I think buying two of these bags would easily cater  up to 100 guests.

My bag included lots of classic Swizzels sweets such as Parma Violets, Love Hearts, Refresher Bars, Banana Splits, Fizzers and Drumstick Lollies as well as snap crackle sweets, fudge and toffee chews and some boiled sweets.

You could mix things up by choosing two different bags or opt for 3kg of particular sweet if you have a favourite. Of course, you could always top up your sweet table with some of the smaller wedding options Swizzels offer.

Swizzels also offer personalized love hearts in their wedding shop which are a fab addition to any wedding sweet table.

It’s also worth mentioning that there is a mixed 3kg pack that only has vegetarian and vegan sweets in if you’d like to avoid animal products.

3. Finding Cheap Glassware and Paper Bags

Buying glassware for your DIY wedding sweet table doesn’t need to be expensive – in fact, it might not have to cost you anything at all. My first suggestion would be to look at what you already have. Many of us already own mason jars of various sizes, cake stands and large glass bowls. These are all perfect for displaying sweets on your wedding sweet table. Once you’ve decided to take on this project, you could also start collecting jars, for example, Dowe Egbert’s coffee jars are chunky and have lovely glass lids.

My next port of call, before buying, would be to ask family and friends if they have anything you could borrow. Finally, charity shops usually have a brilliant selection of crockery and glassware which is both a fantastic budget option and better for the environment than buying new.

If you do decide you want to buy new glassware for your wedding sweet table, Poundland actually has some fantastic options – including the lidded jar pictured above and large glass bowls perfect for holding a large mix of sweets. Wilkos would be my first choice for brand new mason jars and cake stands on a tight budget.

Paper bags can be purchased very cheaply from both eBay and Amazon. There are lots of colours available so these could easily be coordinated with the colours of your wedding.

Opting for individually wrapped sweets eliminates the need for tongs and stops sweets getting contaminated by children’s sticky fingers. It also means there won’t be any waste – leftover sweets could be taken home and used for children’s parties or Halloween.

4. Setting Up on The Big Day

Most venues allow access the day before the wedding so you can get things set up for your big day. This is the perfect time to get your sweet table ready. If you’re organizing lots of DIY for your wedding it might be worth putting a bridesmaid or family member in charge of getting this setup.

If the venue is literally just providing a table, you might want to take a table cloth to smarten things up a bit. Even a basic white sheet would work for this. If you won’t be allowing guests access to your sweet table until the evening, either see if it can be stored in another room and carried out when you’re ready or bring something that it can be covered with so no-one will be tempted to help themselves to a treat.

Final DIY Wedding Sweet Table Tips

Here are my final tips for creating the perfect budget wedding sweet table:

• Before buying anything, double-check that your wedding venue will allow you to bring your own sweets and has somewhere they are happy for you to set the sweet table up.
• Be aware of any dietary requirements of your guests and if you can ensure sweets are clearly labelled so everyone can enjoy them.
• Some of Swizzels sweets aren’t suitable for children under three (such as lollipops which are a choking hazard, so bear this in mind if you’ll have lots of children attending your wedding)
• If you’re worried about guests taking too many sweets, try displaying half of what you have and then refilling jars as needed. Ask your wedding coordinator if they can do this or put a friend or a family member in charge of keeping an eye on it for you.
• Have some bags of sweets already made up for those who might be leaving early or to hand out to those who can’t physically get to the sweet table.
• Make sure you enjoy some sweets yourself! Wedding days can be very busy, so take some time to enjoy the wedding sweet table you’ve worked hard to create!

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