Real wax, flameless candles for your wedding

I’ve decorated any number of weddings in which the bride wanted lots of lighting incorporated in their flowers and decorations, including candles and Christmas lights. Both those options had their difficulties — candles are not always allowed or require a permit from the fire department and Christmas lights require a power source, and its not like you can link together 20 table arrangements with normal Christmas lights. I’ve spent many nights loading batteries into yard-long Christmas light strings, wrapping up the battery pack to protect it from water in the arrangement, then taking it all apart at the end, believe me. And let’s not talk about the fire danger of traditional luminaries, where you light a candle inside a paper bag.

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Image courtesy Candle Luminary

However, there’s a Southern California company that is making real wax candles, but instead of lighting them, you use rechargeable lights to light them up. Candle Luminary is making these candles in several sizes and shapes and, as you can see above, there is also a floating option. I got a chance to check them out recently.

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Unique candle decorations for your guest tables

In my time decorating weddings, candles on guest tables are mostly sitting inside a glass votive and sometimes go unlit. What a waste! I’m of the opinion that if you’re going to spend money on it, make it stand out. So I bring you some ideas on how to put candles on your guests’ tables, thanks to Flickr.

Photo by Flickr’s macro girl

Candlelight, if you think about it, already makes itself stand out. So if you do a little to it, it stands out a lot. The caption on this photo even tells you how — use a shot glass instead of a glass votive, put some colorful (in this case, purple) rocks in the glass and sit the candle on top. Voila! Custom candlelight.

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Dress up one candle to be a centerpiece

Jinah’s wedding is fast approaching, so I’m in prep mode. Just this week, I’ve set up time to go pick up some materials from my siblings to decorate with, I’m bugging a florist I’ve worked with before on the pricing of flowers and now I’m fretting a little over the candle arrangement plan we have for her guest tables. Right now, the plan is simply to place a 2×2 pillar candle in one of the vases that we picked up from Big Lots (really!) and surround it with four votives. However, now I’m fretting that this is too simple.

Flickr photo by DrGBB

So I began perusing Flickr for idea. There are a lot of people using candles nowadays for their centerpieces to cut down on costs. However, if you’re not careful, you could end up spending way more on a candle arrangement than on a flower arrangement if you go overboard. Plus, don’t forget that most people are not florists and don’t have access to real wholesale prices. So my thought is — how do you dress up one candle without breaking the bank?

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Save lots on candles at Big Lots

So everyone is trying to save money, right? One way to save money is to go without flowers and just set up a candle arrangement. But if you’re not careful, you could spend just as much on a candle arrangement as you would on flowers. So I suggest you visit your local Big Lots.

Is Big Lots a store you wouldn’t be caught dead in? Too bad…whenever it comes time to do Christmas decorating at my church, Big Lots is my first stop. Turns out, its a good spot to find candles and candle accessories too, for cheap.
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Visiting a wholesale candle store in North Hollywood

Jinah, the intrepid bride trusting utterly in my “expertise,” tasked me recently with finding a place that sells candles for wholesale prices. She wants lots of lights and candles for her evening, outdoor wedding, so candles and hurricanes to enclose the flames are a must.

Now, I realize all too well that “wholesale” is often a misnomer. If a place advertises itself as wholesale, its often to attract people looking for wholesale prices who won’t do too much comparison shopping. Often, if the place is truly wholesale, you wouldn’t even know it. Actual wholesalers require business licenses or some such documentation so they can give you a true wholesale price.

But, we had to go check it out. Via Google, I found General Wax and Candle Company in North Hollywood. So, getting lost just once, I met up with Jinah to check out what the General had to offer.

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Vases and candles at Costco

I was at Costco the other day for a few things when I spotted these vases. My husband sighed in disbelief that I was about to take pictures of Costco products, but you would think he would be used to me whipping out my camera for any little thing by now.

These are exactly the types of vases that are in style for weddings now. Tall, clear glass, plus I believe they come with tealight holders, so you could actually put whatever you want on the bottom, and light a candle midway through. Technically, I think these were labeled hurricane vases.

Anyway, these vases were amazing, but I probably wouldn’t recommend them for guest table arrangements, since they’re kind of pricey. How pricey you might ask?

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