Like I stated on the home page, my cousin (my mom's-sister's-daughter) Kathy Granger did ALL of the candies, cookies, truffles, ETC. Over 2,400 pieces of candy or cookies graced the buffet at the Hilton. Here is a look at what went into making all of those goodies.

These photos were taken at my parent's house - Kathy had brought dough (that she had mixed, ready to roll or shape), chocolate, molds, and everything needed to make the candies that could be refrigerated or stored (this was about a week and a half before the wedding - she made many more the week of the wedding). Neil and I went up to help! And while I feel like we only did a tiny bit of work compared to what Kathy did, we had a blast and learned quite a bit about chocolate.

Above is Kathy, melting chocolate (dark, mint, and white) for "painting" plastic candy molds and dipping the rolled goodies.

Bernal, Kathy's husband, was a great help in rolling and dipping (and he's had a lot of practice from helping make those Christmas Cookie Trays) - here he is dipping coconut balls in white chocolate.

Even my dad got into the candymaking! Go pop!

Here is Neil working on chocolate covered carmels - I'm helping by softening the carmel before Neil mushes it into the coated mold.

And here I am painting chocolate into a plastic mold that we used for raspberry or mint filling. There were 14 per plastic tray, and the first time it took me one hour to paint, fill, and cover these 14! There was a lot of putting the tray in and out of the freezer so the chocolate would "set". The key to getting these right was to coat the chocolate thick enough so no light would pass through when held up to a window. This took me forever to figure out, and the chocolate did not help! It was too warm, too cold, too runny, too much on my brush, etc etc... if it was too thin, though, the filling that would be put in later would just ooze out a crack and that just wouldn't be pretty. So, after finishing these 14 raspberry filled chocolates (one hour later), I popped them out and admired them (did I mention it took me an hour?) before starting a new tray. My dad then comes up from watching TV and pops two of them in his mouth! We were horrified at the time (now it's just amusing), and it was at this point that my dad was banned from the kitchen.

Here is Kathy (on the right) filling up baked peanut-butter tart shells with chocolate. Donna (aka my mom, on the left) places a pecan on each after the chocolate is poured.

Above are empty tart shells (and tomatoes from the garden!) awaiting chocolate and pecans.

Here are some truffles (I think), half rolled in nuts and half rolled in chocolate Jimmys.

Here's a few of the candies Kathy and her Krew made at my parents house (those are my raspberry-filled chocolates in the front!).

Here are some of the plates Kathy used to tray all of the cookies and candies. Many were antiques, and some of them belonged to my grandmother (also Kathy's grandmother) or other ancestors of ours.

Here's what one half of the buffet looked like at the reception. Gorgeous!

And here's what the other side looked like. Kathy and Bernal's son Troy bought us the cake knife and server for our wedding present - and the cake was made for us by Kathy and Bernal's daughter, Sonya, who is one helluva cake decorator (obviously). Sonya's son, Benjamin, helped make the cake - here's proof!

That's some fine mixing you're doing there, Benjamin. And by the way, did you know your mom is crazy?

Well she is! But she decorates darn fine cake, I must say!

A close-up of the cake - swirls (inspired by Gustav Klimt, whose art Neil and I both love) to continue the swirlly theme also present on the invitations, aisle runner, and overlays.

Here is a close-up of our topper - it was made by a pastry chef in New York. She designed it so that my dress, our hair and our flowers replicated the real deal! Look, I'm even taller than Neil! hee hee...

Wedding guests seemed to enjoy the dessert buffet! Hopefully those plates are for the whole table (although personally I would be more than happy to eat both plates myself)!

Thank you again, Kathy and Sonya, for helping to make our wedding so special! Your efforts were certainly enjoyed by all who attended. :)