Festival Of Lights

Since yesterday we started celebrating Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, I decided to share with you some great ideas of using candles in your wedding reception.

There are so many things you can do with a wedding candle centerpiece! Whether you plan to include flowers on your tables and use candles only as an accent or if candles are the main focus of your reception tables, they will create ambiance, romance, functional light and can even save you money.
You can just add a few simple clear votive around your flower arrangements (I usually like to go with an uneven number). It will add a great deal of romantic ambiance to your reception tables.
If you want to add some color and texture, an easy way to incorporate candles into your centerpiece design is to use tea lights with decorative votive holders. The votive holders are a must for an outdoor wedding where wind conditions will likely blow any open air candles out. There are many decorative votive holders to choose from such as colored glass, crystal, wood, bamboo, stone, plastic and you can go as simple as a small jelly jar.
I usually recommend to my brides to rule out scented candles for the wedding reception. You don’t want to overpower the space or take away from the dinner experience. Having said that, I do believe you can use some light scent candles during the cocktail hour to fill the air with aroma. You can also decide to use nothing but candles for your table centerpiece. For a balanced pleasing wedding candle centerpiece arrangement that looks interesting, use various heights or shapes of candles. Several candles of different heights bunched together are really all you need for a stunning centerpiece at a nighttime reception.
One of my favorites are taper candles in holders they always create an elegance all by themselves or combine with shorter elements such as small flower arrangements, river rocks, beach glass, shells or dried flowers. Try to find dripless tapers to avoid a waxy mess all over your linens. Also make sure the venue allows you to use open flame.
Floating candles give a fresh and calming ambiance to a table. Consider tinting the water with food coloring or adding glass pebbles, leaves, rocks, sparkles or marbles to the water.

So when you think about your wedding reception just remember adding candles can go a long way.
It’s your wedding do it the way you want!

Happy Hanukkah.