Wedding Blog
As I’ve mentioned, Mr. Pineapple and I are not using real flowers for our centerpieces. In addition to the paper flowers we are going to create some sort of candle centerpiece. I love the look of candles so creating candle centerpieces to replace the flower ones doesn’t hurt too much. I made sure to ask about decorating and candle restrictions when we visited venues and fortunately our venue has none. In fact, they supply each table with 4-5 three inch votives.
I have been searching the internet for a few months now for discount pillar candles. There were a few websites I almost purchased from, particularly candlesforless.com. They sell four-packs of pillar candles for $13.99 each. My plan was then to use 3 per table and buy 15 packs for $209.85 + tax + shipping and handling. We are using 6-person rectangular tables rather than the typical 8-10 person round, but it still worried me that 3 candles would be too skimpy.
Then I decided to go to Ikea’s website to find plates or chargers of some sort to put the candles on. Lo and behold they sell 5 packs of pillar candles for $7.99! I could then get 5 candles for each table for only $159.80! Such a better deal. So, I went to Ikea after a so-so trip to pick up my dress…more on that to come. Here is what I left with:
I have until June 20th to return them if for some reason I change my mind.
As far as what to put under and around the candles? I am still not sure. I will probably go with 10″ or 12″ mirrors from saveoncrafts.com ($2.39/each) for under them and of course the paper roses somewhere. I may also go with Michael’s to purchase the mirrors. It turns out they would be $1 each to ship which doesn’t really save on this craft.
I think there still may need to be another detail like ribbons around some of the candles.
Any suggestions on how to dress up the candles? Something vintage-y perhaps?
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How about a double band of ribbon (thicker on botton, thinner on top) of your wedding colors?
Mrs. Lemon did beautiful candle centerpieces: http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/07/24/diy-details-centerpieces/
Maybe you could do the same, but scatter your paper flowers instead of the real flowers that she did!
So pretty 
Hmm… how about buying a yard or two of lace and cut them according to desired thickness and wrap them around the candle… you don’t have to wrap all of them… maybe just the taller ones.. just to give it a little accent… you can also use tiny beads… I don’t know why when I think about vintage look… lace and beads always comes first in my mind….
To dress up the candles you can layer on the bottom: thin ribbon on top, 1.5 inch lace, thicker ribbon on bottom
Check Home Depot for mirror squares, too. I like the idea of adding ribbon low on the candles.
I was going to suggest lace. That is very vintage, what about securing the lace with buttons?
ohhhhhh and thanks for the ikea find! I dont have any around me but I emailed all my friends in cities that do.
I love Mrs. Lemons centerpieces, definitely inspirational.
Do you all think it would be a fire hazard to place the paper roses around the base of the candles?
I don’t think there is any chance of them burning that low ib 5-ish hours.
Isn’t copper one of your colors? (Perhaps I dreamed that and if so, please ignore…) Maybe instead of mirrors, you could use copper trays? Or squares/circles of copper sheeting? And lace! I love the lace idea.
@Lisanne: copper certainly is one of our colors and I would love to incorporate it into the centerpieces. Any idea where I can get cheap copper trays? I googled around for a couple months and didn’t find anything in the $3-$4 range. I bought some flashing for another DIY project, but it would e too thin to make chargers out of.
what about putting the flashing over smaller trays (of any material)? you could even emboss a sort of design in the flashing (if it’s like the stuff i used in art class long long ago). Wear gloves for this, though!
and, for cheap candles for canadians, check Zeller’s. Seriously. They have a vast selection of scented and unscented in all different sizes, and they were only 6 or 7 bucks each for large pillars. Sweet!
Oooh that’s brilliant! You could cover even a thin piece of plywood with copper flashing. I’ll keep looking for cheap copper trays. My first stop was eBay, but they are pricey. I looked around for sheeting and found copper.org, which directed me to MetalSupermarkets.com (there’s one in Pittsburgh). Also - this seems pretty cool: http://basiccopper.com/?gclid=CJuK66izkpMCFQR2gwodaXNWfQ
Though, I don’t know how thick it is…
Even a high quality copper spray paint would look pretty good. You’d be surprised how good spray paint can look. Plus it would be pretty inexpensive. You could pick exactly the shape you wanted in pretty much any material (wood, plastic, etc.) I tried to find a picture online of something with copper spray paint, this is the best I could find.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arspringfield/217795196/
The ideas for copper and lace are great! You could also use beaded trim (ie, the dangley trimmings at fabric stores for fancy pillows and curtains). Those would look vintage, and the beads would glitter in the candle light.
I’m concerned about using the paper flowers too close to the candles…. seems like a fire hazard to me.
you are all so very helpful, really I’m floored.
@Emily: I picked up a couple cans of copper spray paint when they were on clearance, maybe this is a good job for them
Everyone’s ribbon, lace and bead ideas are great. Time to start bargain hunting for them!
What about pearls? Pearls are always pretty with candlelight, and you could incorporate some darker colored pearls as well:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.goldenpearls.biz/images/pearls_sunhaji1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.goldenpearls.biz/&h=300&w=400&sz=23&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=3rtn5oD46KXQAM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpearls%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN
I love the ribbon idea, and what about securing the ribbon with those little pearl pins like they use on bridal bouquets? I’ve seen them for sale online in bulk and I think they were really cheap. It might dress it up a bit and add some vintagey detail.
Candles on centrepiece mirrors is such a brilliant idea and one I absolutely must copy! Thank you
Just as a little warning in regards to putting the candles that close together, bound together. I have done so ,and on some occasions when the candles have been burning for a long time, i.e. 2-4 hours, it get’s this weird effect of making one HUGE flame, i.e. you will have a 40 cm high fire on your charger plate in the middle of your dinner table. Can be quite scary. I no longer place the candles close together, and hence do not get the problem anymore.
So my suggestios are…Don’t bind them together, “scatter” them on the charger plates and use river rocks or reflective class pebbles strewn over the charger plates between the candles…so you get more space on the plates and no problems with fire on your dinner tables. Can put a bit of a dampner on the evening…:-)
Or vintage buttons, you know like fancy crystal buttons you can find on odler fancy cardies and stuff…instead of river rocks…as an addon to my previous message
we got 8″ tall glass with 3.5″ diameter and will use floating candles from candlesforless which burns well over 5 hours — we blew it out after 5 hrs and there was still alot of it left. we used vellum paper with menu & table number and also messages for guest and wrapped it around the glass. also to top it off, we used 1″ color ribbon and wrapped it both on the top and bottom rims.
Hi–I am a Drama teacher and we’re doing “Through the Looking Glass” for our spring musical. I needed mirrors for the show–and Lowe’s had packs of 6 mirror tiles for less than $10 a pack. Just a thought. I’m sure Home Depot would have a similar product. :)
I can’t wait to see this. Everyone always says that they want their wedding to be unique, original-not like every other wedding you go to, but I think you are actually going to pull it off. I can’t wait to see all these ideas executed! I am almost afraid to offer because I know how many projects you have going on but if you need any help let me know. I am sure Natalie and I can mess some things up for you.
@Tina: Tina!! Hi!!!
I think Natalie could make some sweet paper roses. Thanks for the offer and I promise I won’t pull you into anything too scary
@Mandy: The square mirrors from both lowes and ikea are great suggestions! So much cheaper than the $3 i was thinking, plus our tables are rectangular so it will definitely work
[...] an impact, without spending more than flowers may have cost. Eventually, I found a great deal on pillar candles at [...]
What about indoor air quality? If you burn that many candles, pleaqse make sure to use soy candles with coreless wicks, as they are the cleanest burning candles and do not put off all the harmful fumes that petroleum based candles do! http://tinyurl.com/yd9guon
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Mrs. Pineapple, Pittsburgh
Age and Occupation: 24, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Student Affairs Administration
Engagement Date: August 4, 2007
Wedding Date: October, 2008
Blogging Since: April 14, 2008
Venue: The Rivers Club
About Me: Being a transplant from sunny south Florida I am learning to live with all four seasons while playing with our cat collective, line dancing, and doing a ton of DIY projects for our wedding (seriously, like a thousand)!
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