Weddingbee Blog

I like the idea of lighting a unity candle at our wedding ceremony. Not only because of its symbolism and tradition, but because it provides a great way for our mothers to participate in the ceremony by lighting a candle. While the common brass or silver candle holders are beautiful, I fell in love with the idea of having a unity candle floral arrangement. With this type of unity candle, we could have a set of simple white candles surrounded by flowers that match the rest of the decor. Because I just can’t get enough of the wedding-related craft projects, I set out to make one myself.

Here are a few arrangements I found for inspiration:

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I had already purchased a lot of silk flowers during a spring clearance sale at Jo-Ann’s, so I hit the craft store to get some other supplies. Here’s what I used:

• Floral foam bricks (2) for dry arrangements
• Floral tape
• Candle holder pick for tapers (2) and a pillar candle
• Foam core board or sturdy cardboard
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Greenery with lots of leaves
• Silk flower bushes with variety of flower heads and accents
• Candles
• Wire cutters

1. Take the two foam bricks and set them side by side. Insert the pillar candle holder pick in the center and a taper candle holder pick on each side, spaced as desired. Add the candles to get a good visual of the spacing. Leave a couple of inches of foam brick on each side of the tapers. If you need to cut the brick down to get good spacing, do so now.

2. Cut a piece of foam core board to fit the dimensions of the floral foam bricks. This will serve as the base for the arrangement.

3. Attach the foam core board to the floral foam bricks with floral tape. To get the floral tape to stick, gently stretch it.

4. Insert the candle holder picks, securing with hot glue.

5. Take greenery and remove the individual leaves using wire cutters. Insert each leaf stem into the floral foam, one at a time, until the entire surface is covered.

6. Remove the flowers and other accents from the floral bush using wire cutters. For my arrangement, I selected the largest flower from the bush and two smaller, similar-sized flowers to be the focal points. Using a glue gun, attach the flowers to the foam. I placed the largest in the center and the other two on each side so it would be symmetrical.

7. Continue adding flowers and other accents to fill in between the three main flowers, using hot glue to secure as needed.

8. Insert your candles and you are finished!

Tip: When you use a glue gun, it’s pretty common for glue strings to appear when you pull the glue gun away from the spot of gluing. To easily get rid of the glue strings, use a hair dryer to heat them for a few seconds and they will shrivel up and disappear.

I am quite pleased with how our arrangement turned out.

What type of unity candles will you be using at your wedding?