"Life Is Sweet" DIY Candy Bar

When a dear friend reached out to me for help planning a double birthday party for her two boys, I knew the most fitting theme would be "LIFE IS SWEET." 

The back story:
I started babysitting for Katie when I was 21 years old and trying to figure out what the heck I wanted to do with my life.  She was a good friend of my sister's and a new mom who just needed to get out of the house a few hours a week and have some "me" time.  Her little boy, Zachary, was only 7 months old and I fell head over heels in love with him.  I stayed with Zack until he was almost two.  I watched him learn to walk and talk and do all the miraculous things that human beings learn how to do.  And even after I decided to go back to school for my Master's and find a "big girl job," I stayed in touch with Katie. 

I was thrilled to learn a few years later that Katie was pregnant with another little boy!  Xander was a perfect, healthy, bouncing baby boy and Zachary's new BFF.  Then, when Xander was only a tiny toddler, this happy little family got thrown a curve ball no one could have predicted - Baby Xander was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare type of childhood cancer. 

Fast forward 5 years.  A thousand hospital visits, tears, sleepless nights and prayers later, Zachary just turned 8 and Xander, the little cancer warrior, just turned 5.  They are both September babies and love celebrating their birthdays together.  Each year since Xander has won his battle against cancer, Katie has thrown a "Celebration of Life" party honoring another year of survival, health and good fortune for both her boys.  It's part birthday party and part fundraiser for a deserving cancer charity - the Frances Foundation. 

Life is sweet, indeed.

DIY Candy Bar:
A candy bar is such a fun and festive addition to any event.  You can make it work for a kid's birthday party, a wedding, a bridal shower, a class reunion - pretty much any celebration.

A candy bar can also be used for take-home favors or a dessert spread and you don't have to spend a lot of money if you do it yourself.

Materials:

• 7 half gallon mason wide-mouthed mason jars
• 7 different types of candy
• Scoops/Tongs (depending on the candy you choose)
• Cardstock (chevron)
• Black Sharpie
• Ribbon
• Hole punch
• Paper sacks
• 8 x 10 picture frame
• Candy bar poem

 

 

DIY "Life Is Sweet" Banner:
A colorful banner with a sweet little saying is the extra touch to make any candy bar complete.  Banners are super easy to make, too.  I hand-cut the letters, glued them onto card stock and used mini clothespins to secure the letters to ribbon.  Voila!

Materials:

• Cardstock (various colors and patterns)
• Glue stick
• Mini clothespins
• Ribbon
• Scissors

 





DIY Gumball Centerpieces:
In keeping with the "Life Is Sweet" theme, I also made gumball and pinwheel centerpieces for the tables at the party.  Centerpieces don't always have to be floral - you can get as funky and creative as the party theme allows.

Materials:

• 5 half gallon wide-mouthed mason jars
• Gumballs (3 containers of bulk gumballs from Walmart)
• 15 pinwheels (The Dollar Tree - $1 a piece)

Mason Jars: Passe or Here to Stay?

When Brian and I got engaged in August 2012, I had already been secretly planning our rustic, nautical-themed wedding in my mind for quite some time.  You can't really blame me - Brian and I had been to about 20 weddings collectively before our own and I've been a bridesmaid 5 times (M-O-H once).  We're at "that age."

Although I waited to plan most of the details of our wedding during our actual engagement, I knew for years (maybe before I even met  Brian) that I wanted to have mason jars at my wedding.  When I originally hatched this plan, like I said, years ago, mason jars were just beginning to pop up in craft stores and hip restaurants were using them as drinking glasses.  Pinterest didn't even exist.

Fast forward to our wedding this past June (2013).  My dream of incorporating mason jars into my wedding finally came true.  We gave out adorable mason jars with handles and chalk board labels with each guest's name written in chalk as favors and to use throughout the night.  They also acted as place cards with the table number tied to them. 

They were a hit... but they weren't an original hit.  Not a single guest came up to me and said, "Mason jars!  How unique.  You're so clever."  That's because I guarantee that by the time our wedding rolled around, every single one of our guests had been to another wedding with "mason jar mania." 

Here's the thing about wedding trends and pretty much all trends for that matter... at some point, they will become passé.  As a bride-to-be, you will come up with the most fantastic, creative, mind-blowing idea for your wedding and during the year it takes to plan it and get there, odds are some other bride already beat you to the punch.

I say - if you love an idea and absolutely have to have it at your wedding, don't suddenly change your mind or drive yourself crazy just because it has become the latest fad.  If that were the case, pretty much everyone would stop having photo booths (super trendy at the moment) and those are just too fun for your drunk guests to ever pass up.

The jury is still out on whether mason jars are passé or here to stay.  But the good news is that if you find yourself with an overabundance of mason jars because you hopped on that bandwagon and now want to hop off, you can always use them for their intended use as, ya know.... jars.