Candy-Themed Party

I thought today I’d share two photos from C’s baby shower that Brian’s work threw us last year (see how well I’m doing with keeping the party theme going?). Brian eats a ridiculous amount of candy (and is SKINNY, too – so unfair!) and it’s a well-known fact up at his work. Knowing this, his coworkers had the theme of our shower be candy. The invitations were made to look like giant candy bars – the invitation was the label wrapped around the bar (foam core). SO cute! They mailed just fine, too. This is an idea I want to incorporate for one of the boys’ birthdays in the future.

Instead of having a large cake, they did cupcakes on a tiered pedestal – each one looks like it has a giant M&M on top of it, only they put “C”, and then used a bowl of gumballs as a topper. So colorful and cheery!

They also had out jars filled with candy, and provided little scoops and miniature Chinese takeout boxes to fill. My favorite part of the decor was the flowers – I thought this was SO clever. They put the flowers in a smaller vase (with water) and then placed it into a larger vase, which they filled with gumballs. This was the end result:

How perfect is that? You could employ this technique using a lot of different things as a filler – marbles, or sand, or whatever small items fit your theme. Did you notice the giant “candies” on the table? Just boxes wrapped in tissue paper and cellophane – an inexpensive way to carry the theme through and add pops of color. J was almost two at the time of this shower, and he was so excited by it all. This would be a really fun theme to do for a child’s party, and is generic enough that it could work for a boy or a girl.  It could also be really inexpensive – you can find great deals on candy at Dollar Tree or even at Walmart & Target! Some other things you could do with this theme:

• Make the cake look like a giant candy bar – it wouldn’t require any complicated carving or anything!

• Instead of using crepe paper, you could string ribbon across windows and tack miniature candy bars along it.

• Follow suit with what a lot of people do for weddings, and make personalized labels for chocolate bars – what a great treat to put in goody bags!

Now I’m really thinking I’ll have to find a time to use this theme for a party. I’m a little hungry for some candy, too. ;)