I’m a big fan of wedding snacks! Even better if they’re fun and interactive. Enter the wedding popcorn bar. You could set up your wedding popcorn bar during pre-reception drinks so guests can have a nibble, or you could bring it out as a midnight snacks. Whatever you decide, here are the instructions for how to create a wedding popcorn bar.
Etsy
Pick your style
My advice is to lean into your wedding theme when selecting your wedding popcorn bar style! If that’s not a great fit, or if you’re lacking inspiration, these are the areas that need to be styled:
- Your popcorn shakers for seasoning.
- Any storage containers for the popcorn.
- The table, bar or structure you are using to create the popcorn bar.
- All the packaging material used to serve the popcorn, including bags, boxes or tubs for guests to hold.
- Signage at or around the popcorn bar.
There are several ways you could customise your wedding popcorn bar to suit your wedding style and theme. A rustic wedding lends itself to vintage-style signage, big metal buckets for the popcorn and a cute, rustic table to display it all on. If you’re hosting an elegant or formal wedding, you might prefer large glass bowls for the popcorn instead.
Hera Printables
Who’s serving the popcorn?
A boring, but practical thing to consider is who will serve the popcorn. Do you want pre-packaged popcorn that guests can pick up and then customise or would you like the entire popcorn bar to be self-service?
Self-service is a fun option but you should appoint somebody to oversee the popcorn bar to make sure it remains tidy.
On the other hand, pre-packaged popcorn bags present a great opportunity to add stickers with guests’ names on them and might serve as a wedding favour too!
Related: Popcorn Suppliers in Ireland
The Ganeys
Pre-popped or fresh?
Another boring but incredibly important question: do you want the popcorn to be pre-popped or popped on site?
For pre-packaged service, as discussed above, pre-popped makes the most sense. If you’re creating a self-service popcorn bar, your popcorn could be pre-popped or you could rent a popcorn machine so guests can have hot, fresh popcorn.
Wedding Chicks
Add some flavour
Some people love regular salty popcorn and they’ll be totally happy with that, but the point of a popcorn bar is to make your popcorn fun!
Get some sweet and salty options so guests can customise their popcorn. Here are some ideas:
- Butter, cheese or salt and vinegar for savoury popcorn.
- Caramel corn for a sweet, dessert popcorn.
- Sweet stir-ins: dried fruit, sprinkles, marshmallows, M&Ms, gummy worms, sour sweets or chocolate chips.
- Savoury stir-ins: peanuts, pretzels, wasabi peas, seeds, cheese puffs or crushed crisps.
- Sweet shake-ons: cocoa powder, cinnamon, sugar or pumpkin spice.
- Savoury shake-ons: paprika, curry powder, garlic powder, parmesan cheese or taco seasoning.
- Sweet drizzles: chocolate syrup, caramel sauce, marshmallow fluff, Nutella or peanut butter.
- Savoury drizzles: hot sauce, olive oil, truffle oil or balsamic vinegar.
Work out how much popcorn you’ll need
In order to do this, you’ll need to know a few things:
- How many guests are you having at your wedding?
- Will the popcorn bar be the main snack while it’s available or will there be other treats served (such as wedding cake, crisp sandwiches or canapés)?
- Is this popcorn bar available to all guests, including children?
With these answers in mind, here are some tips:
- Not everybody will help themselves to popcorn, so you don’t necessarily need to cater for every single guest.
- If the popcorn bar isn’t the main snack, guests might have half a portion of popcorn and then half a portion of whatever other snacks you’ve got available.
- Children won’t require portions as large as adults.
In order to work out your quantities, it is recommended that a typical adult serving size of popcorn is about two tablespoons of unpopped kernels. This will amount to about four cups of popped popcorn. For children, you can halve the amount to one tablespoon of unpopped kernels.
I did the maths for you:
1 person = 2 tbsp of unpopped kernels = 4 cups of popcorn
25 people = 3 cups and 2 tbsp of kernels = 100 cups of popcorn
50 people = 6.5 cups of kernels = 200 cups of popcorn
100 people = 13 cups of kernels = 400 cups of popcorn
150 guests = 20 cups of kernels = 600 cups of popcorn
