From weddings to celebrity bashes, Sweetie Factory founder Janet Marsh reveals all on the revival of sweets and desserts that are feasts for the eye and treats for the tummy.
Imagine walking into a wedding reception or birthday bash to find a giant six foot table adorned with jars of sweets and endless amounts of cake.
Little paper bags and shiny tongs invite you to help yourself to mouth-watering macaroons, cupcakes, fresh marshmallows, caramel apples, brownies…
Behold the marvellous wonders of Sweetie Factory, founded by sweet display artist and stylist Janet Marsh.
Sweet Success and Working Solo
Sweetie Factory provides sweet and dessert tables for both big and small events – from weddings and corporate events to birthday parties and baby showers.
Displays have reached some of London’s most prestigious venues such as the Mayfair Hotel and Claridge’s.
Sweetie Factory caters for a range of occasions, from corporate events, to birthday parties
“We’re a small business, basically just me at the moment, which I’m quite happy with… and we’re gaining a reputation for lavish and luxury sweet displays” says Janet.
The concept for Sweetie Factory evolved from Janet’s initial wedding events company.
However by 2009, orders for sweets and dessert tables were really taking off and so she founded and focused on Sweetie Factory.
“As is turned out, I ended up selling more candy buffets than I did wedding services, so that’s really how it evolved”, she says.
"We’re gaining a reputation for lavish and luxury sweet displays ", says owner, Janet.
“It’s a relatively new concept”, she explains, “and other businesses like this tend to go down the ‘sweetie cart’ route, which is just a mish-mash of all different sweets”.
Flawless attention to detail
Janet makes 80% of the treats in her kitchen at home which allows for impeccable attention to detail for her outrageously tempting Oreo pyramids and chocolate truffles, to classic lollipops and jelly sweets.
Janet makes most of the sweets and desserts in her kitchen at home
She is very particular with the design of the displays and takes every last detail into consideration; from the colour of the sweets and desserts, to the colour of the bags she provides.
“Everything is matched up in a way that tones the colours together”, she says.
A great example is a baby shower that Janet recently catered for, where the colour scheme was pale green, lemon, mouse grey and blue.
A pastel display of sweets and treats for a baby shower
“I would go away and plan the sweets that are the colours to match with that [scheme]; so we had lime jelly belly beans, apple bonbons and sugared almonds”, she says.
“They’re not just sweets on a table, but feasts for the eye and treats for the tummy”.
Sweetie Factory has also catered for an array of celebrities, footballers and well-known corporate events; from Alex Gerrard’s OK Magazine baby shower, to tech giant Shutterstock and two time Brit Awards winner Tiny Tempah.
Janet uses Carrier Bag Shop’s Candy Stripe Paper Bags and polka dotted paper bags to package her sweets and treats, which she then personalises with ribbons and unique Sweetie Factory tags.
Janet uses our candy striped and polka dot paper bags and adds her own personal touches
She believes that it’s important to have personalised packaging as an available option.
However, she says that “it really depends on the clients [and] what they want, because very often it can be down to budget”.
When asked why she uses Carrier Bag Shop for her packaging, Janet simply says “service”.
“I know [my bags] are going to be delivered pretty much in a couple of days”, she says, which is a key factor for her as she often gets short notice on jobs.
“Going back to each job [being] bespoke, [Carrier Bag Shop has] quite a good range, so I can choose different colours”, she says.
We would like to thank Janet for choosing Carrier Bag Shop for her sweet and gift bags.
We’re hoping she sends us back one of our own bags filled some home made treats!
For more information on Sweetie Factory, visit Janet’s website and let her know we sent you!
You can also follow Sweetie Factory on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.