Wedding Blog
Mr. Sprinkle and I finally got around to our lantern-jar project last week. Another task to cross off our list! We turned some of these:
into these:
We managed to make a dent in the 100+ jars we have collected. It takes us about three minutes to finish each jar, from cutting the wire to having a ready-to-light lantern.
Hanging them in my favorite backyard tree reminds me of catching fireflies in a jar when I was little! The finished project will be about 30 lanterns; the other jars are going to various other wedding projects (including another backyard beautification project!).
We are trying to get our backyard prepared for the rehearsal dinner. Sunset on that day in September is at 6:07 P.M., so when our dinner starts at 7 it should be pretty dark.
The fence is lined with lanterns as well, giving the backyard a lovely glow! I recommend this as an easy project for anyone who wants to light up their yard, whether its for a wedding related party or just to brighten a simple evening at home. A word of warning: do NOT use vintage aqua/colored mason jars for this project. I have heard from various sources that they can overheat and shatter/explode. We used recycled jars from foods we eat (um, I love pickles…) and we can safely say that our lanterns have had no overheating or exploding problems!
Are you working on any home projects in conjunction with wedding planning? Do you find it easy to balance the two, time wise, budget wise, or otherwise?
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Share this post: Project: Jar Lanterns!
Those look fantastic. I contemplated using wine bottles or mason jars for something, but it just didn’t really fit with the feel of our wedding and made me sad.
Wow those are great–they look like they came straight out of Martha Stewart Weddings! Are you using the lanterns for just the rehearsal dinner or for the wedding as well? I can’t see our venue having let us use those (not to mention, although beautiful, they didn’t fit our theme) due to the combo of open flame & wood (trees)! I think they’re probably pretty safe in the mason jars though!
@eileen marie: just for the rehearsal! our venue is super strict and all candles need to be in containers at least 7″ above the top of the candle, so these jars wouldn’t work.
Those look awesome! So beautiful, and great how you were able to use the ones you saved from food.
I love they way they turned out! Gorgeous! I wish we were having some kind of outdoor get together at night just so I can have these lanterns! lol
Those have a lot of impact for being so simple. I like them a lot.
Those look great!! How did you find out what time the sun will set on your wedding date?
Fabulous!! I’d love to do this for our (one-day soon, maybe) future home’s backyard. What kind of wire/wire cutter did you use and any other DIY advice you can give?
@Lexatron: from here:
http://www.calendar-updates.com/sun.asp
after you enter your zip it will take you to another page where you can enter whatever date you would like!
@phruphru: sure! we used a 10g wire that we picked up at home depot for about $3 a roll. the roll has lasted us through over 80 of these and is only half gone at this point. we also used some needle-nose pliers to twist the ends of the wire. we bought a wire cutter from the jewelry making section of the craft store, and it has worked well so far, but there are more heavy duty ones you can buy at home depot as well (those start at $20, ours was $8 at michael’s). to get the labels off recycled jars (without chemicals!) i soaked them overnight in soapy water in our sink. most labels just fell off in the water, i used an old credit card to scrape off the stubborn ones. other than that my only advice is to practice a lot with the wire! different lengths of wire look good when they are all hanging together. it takes a few times to get the wire twisted correctly, but once you get the hang of it the project is super easy and goes fast. hope that helps!
Is that link supposed to be to a how-to page? I’d love to see how you did the wire wrapping.
those look so cool! I wish we had a backyard to host a rehearsal dinner
Wow, I love how the lanterns look “climbing” the tree!
These look fabulous! And I love that you were able to use recycled materials 
You should totally do a little DIY post with photos of how to do the wire wrapping. Nice project!
I love the way they look strung along that fence. I’d love to do something like this, but we’ll have small (rowdy) children at our wedding, so I’m a little nervous about hanging fire!
Love these! We’re doing something very similar for our wedding this fall. I have a wonderful friend who has been thrifting vases of all shapes and sizes all for me. Right now we have about 40. I am going to use them on the ground as closely gathered lanterns behind the bridal party for our sunset wedding ceremony. For added height we are gluing some of them bottom to bottom and standing them up so there are two levels of candles. So far it’s breathtaking! Careful you don’t use too large of candles with vases though, they may not be tempered glass and can break if the flame touches them.
Thanks, Miss Sprinkle! Now I can assume that our photographer will kidnap us for some photos along the river at 8:00 p.m. I never realized that there was that big of a difference in sunset time between Montana and California!
very cute!! now i wanna hoard jars and have them up for backyard BBQs 
Ms. Sprinkle, these look just beautiful. How classy but also very home-y. I love it!
Those look really nice. I did my mason jars this weekend.
Those are absolutely adorable! We may be having our rehersal dinner at our house too, so I’ve been thinking of ways to spruce up the backyard. Candles and twinkle lights are definately a must!
I made hanging tea light lanterns from empty baby food jars that I got for free from Freecycle. We just used them this weekend & I can’t wait to post about them! Yours look gogeous! sigh. Love candlelight.
@Julia: @Mandyrosy: @Champagne Wishes: working on a tutorial this week!
[...] few readers requested a tutorial on how to make these hanging lanterns and planters. So I whipped this up this morning. It’s my first tutorial, but hopefully it is [...]
Wow these look absolutely stunning! I love how they are reminiscent of the fireflies…it is so cute!
These are so insanely awesome! I LOVE them! I also have tons of mason jars left over from our wedding- thanks for finally giving me something to do with them (a girl can only have so many drinking jars)
[...] Making jar lanterns to stick in the trees could add a fairy-like atmosphere in the backyard. The jars take about three [...]
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Mrs. Sprinkle, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, Preschool Teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Television Production/Writer
Engagement Date: December 24, 2008
Wedding Date: September 2009
Venue: The Marvimon House
About Me: I'm a Bay Area native trying to create a life for myself (and my fiance, and our three cats!) in the vast city of Los Angeles. I love vegan red velvet cupcakes, pilates ,and mid-century furniture. Mr. Sprinkle and I met when my band toured through his city (we bonded over cake and a mutual love of Morrissey) and we are getting married on the four year anniversary of our first date. When I am not teaching preschool (or blogging!) you can find me perfecting recipes, petting kittens, hiking in Griffith Park, and overusing exclamation points. We are planning a vegan, green-as-possible, DIY wedding, and I couldn't be more excited to share all of the details!
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