A wedding brings together the candy industry
Spangler Candy's Sweethearts brand hosted a real ceremony in Vegas.
A crowd waits for the wedding to begin.
The Dum-Dum and Bit-O-Honey mascots escorted the bride.
Kirk Vashaw, Spangler CEO, watches the ceremony.
The bride, Amanda, wore white and seemed nervous. She walked down to the aisle to a string violinist playing The Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun." Santiago, the groom, had been standing in the front with the officiant for a while now, and beamed when he saw his fiancee. The Dum-Dums and Bit-O-Honey mascots seemed pleased to escort the bride down the aisle.
Wait, what?
At this year's Sweets & Snacks Expo, a live (and real!) wedding was held on Wednesday, May 20, at 4:30 pm at the Sweethearts Chapel (an area on the show floor, near an aisle of booths), sponsored by Spangler Candy, parent company of Sweethearts.
All show attendees were invited, and there was already buzz going on in the media room that day, as I took a short break between appointments. "Are you going to the wedding?" people were asking each other, pointing out where it was to take place on the show floor.
I scoped out the area early, and saw there were a few "pews" (benches); I made a few more booth drive-bys and then returned early so I could get a seat with an unobstructed view. This ended up being a good strategy because the event quickly filled up, with people gathering around both sides of the chapel area.
Much like a typical wedding, some flower girls came down the aisle first, followed by the aforementioned mascots, and then the bride who looked pretty in a very Vegas-appropriate dress (short, and cute). The officiant introduced them both, mentioning that they were a local couple who met through their respective Army service, and they were selected through a U R Sweet Nationwide Sweethearts Love Birds search.
The wedding was more than just a gimmick, and the vows were heartfelt. "You make life feel less like something to survive, and something to really live. I can't wait to build a life with you that feels warm, and alive, and uniquely ours," Amanda said during the ceremony.
After the ceremony, other Sweets & Snacks mascots joined in on the fun, such as Cap'n Crunch (see pics above), and a recessional march escorted the newly married couple to the Love at First Bite happy hour event, in the West Hall concourse.
Spangler CEO Kirk Vashaw told the Candy & Snack Today that the Sweethearts Chapel is one of the most popular attractions at Spangler Candy World (in Bryan, OH, where Spangler is headquartered), and so, the company decided to replicate it as a booth this year. "And then we thought, 'Aha! We should marry someone in Vegas in the Sweethearts Chapel!"
The wedding was a fun and inventive idea, and it drew a bigger crowd than I had expected. "This is the most fun I've had at an Expo event in ten years," I heard someone in the crowd exclaim, and I'd have to agree. While the Expo is very fun in general, this was a unique and interesting event, and in my opinion, served two purposes: bringing awareness to Spangler and the Sweethearts brand, and giving the newly married couple a story to tell family, friends, and maybe eventually their children one day, if they choose.
It also united the candy and snack industry: I've never been so happy for a couple I have never met before, and the ceremony was both funny and also touching ... I was even tearing up a little by the end of it. I'd be willing to bet other attendees felt the same, too, based on social media posts I saw about it.
To experience the wedding yourself, check out our reel on Candy Industry's Instagram here.
Related: Sweets & Snacks Expo concludes its first year in Vegas
