Wedding Blog

To reduce the length of my candles!

Mr. E’s sister was kind enough to give us 4 dozen cylinder vases left over from her own wedding last year. I wracked my brain trying to think of how to put these to best use. So I decided to fill the bottom of each vase with some coffee beans and stick in a long candle. Why coffee beans? Because Mr. E and I LOVE coffee. I managed to get him addicted to his daily cup of joe (although we are both good about limiting our intake to just one cup a day). We also love the SMELL of coffee, so we are hoping that by bringing in the beans, we can bring the aroma of coffee into our reception space. However, I have noticed that the smell isn’t too noticeable, so I may have to add a small layer of ground coffee at the bottom since it smells stronger. I could be wrong, considering that we will have 40 of these vases around the ballroom, and I only have one as a mock-up!

But anywhoo, I could not find the ideal size/shape candles anywhere. I wanted something thicker than a regular taper candle since those don’t last long and they drip too much. Luckily I found these 1.5-inch thick and 9-inch tall candles at Hobby Lobby (candles are 50% off every other week!) for $1 each. Score! Unfortunately the bottoms are designed to fit into a candle holder, so I had Mr. E chop off all the ends. Then I am in the process of burning these candles down to the right height. Let me tell you, these things will burn FOREVER!

Here is some evidence of my work!

The original too-tall candle

Mr. E chopping off the bottoms of each

Burn, baby burn… (doing only 5 at a time, I will have to do this to 40 total)

Finished length. Voila!