Making and storing enough popcorn for 70 people...

[ClarissaTheTeenageWitch]

I'm getting married in an old cinema and need to make popcorn for 70 guests. Have small cardboard cinema style boxes to decant into, but need to make it the day before and store it. Was planning on buying a big wholesale bag of corn, but what's the beat way to make, flavour and store for a day? I usually just buy the microwave bag stuff!

*best way

I would buy a job lot when on offer at the supermarket.

It goes soft/chewy pretty quickly when you make it yourself i find. I'm guessing it needs to be stored airtight somehow. Will you really be wanting to do that the day before? I would buy cheap in supermarket and get a friend to decant it on the day.

definitely buy large bags in the supermarket. Otherwise it will take an age to make (when you'll have other things to do) and it will go soft overnight.

Taking it out of the bags and putting it into boxes sounds like a job for the bridesmaids on the morning of the wedding!

It won't keep very well from fresh - stock up from supermarket and get willing volunteers to decant on the day would be my advice.

It will keep if you make some form of caramel popcorn - added bonus of nice flavours like coffee popcorn and salted caramel etc... But a bit of a faf!!

Wedding in an old cinema sounds awesome btw!!!

Hire a popcorn machine/cart for the event? Have it in the foyer?

Hmmm, OK, so maybe not such a good idea! Would be pretty gutted I'd spent all that time on it and it went soft. Was trying to go for the most budget friendly option, but looking out for offers is a good plan. Popcorn machine hire is a good idea, but don't think I can justify the cost. Thanks Kate. It is a fab venue!

If you can't find an offer. Sainsbury do a big bag in their value range and it is nice.

I would look out for a multi pack and shove the individual packs in the box with some haribo and penguin sized chocolate, personally. It could be done further in advance. Store them in some black bin liners.

Might be worth asking local cinemas if you could buy a huge bag off them? Explain about wedding and say you will tell everyone how they helped (just mention when asked where the popcorn is from) you don't know unless you ask

morrrisons popcorn is ususally 2 (big) bags for 1.50 (maybe £2) so prob better just buying them and putting them into the smaller boxes just before they are needed (or delegate this to someone else to do)

We did popcorn for DS1s cinema party. There were 40 kids. We bought 20 big bags of popcorn at about 89p each and they had half a bag each which was loads. There was masses left over. You could actually get three portions out of a bag easily. Really not expensive to do and the last thing you want to be doing is fretting about how much burnt popcorn you have on your hands.

Do you have one of those shopping centres nearby? All the ones near us, sell popcorn, can also buy it by the very big bag.

Alternatively, could buy a cinema style popcorn maker for less than £40 on Amazon... Could be a job for a teen to do.

Doesn't the old cinema have a machine?