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Mrs. Lamb, Norfolk Age and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security Consultant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate Student Engagement Date: January 2009 Wedding Date: January 2010 Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera House About Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
About Mrs. Lamb

DIY UnItY Candles

October 19th, 2009 @ 11:31 am by Mrs. Lamb

When I added DIY to the front of Unity, all I could think of removing the n and t - DIY UIY. I’m pronouncing it Dooey Yooey in my head. Carry on.

I’ve seen the tradition at most weddings I’ve been to and didn’t question keeping it for a moment. Lamber-manner-macho-man likes to say that my favorite wedding planning is “breaking the mold.” However, in this tradition, I’ve decided to let my little light shine. The symbolism is just, well, the essence of what marriage means: the joining of two into one. Amen.

AnyDIY, these are the supplies that I collected for this project:

  • 2 taper candles (I used pearlescent ones from Jo-Ann’s)
  • 1 pillar candle (also pearlescent from Jo-Ann’s with a 40% off coupon)
  • Satin ribbon (various that I had already purchased for the bouts and bouquets)
  • Vintage clip on earrings (Etsy)
  • Vintage brooch (I found the matching one on Etsy from a different seller!)
  • Hot glue gun
  • Pillar candle holder (from Michael’s with a 40% off coupon)
  • Pair of candlesticks (from Michael’s with an extra 20% off entire purchase coupon)

The DIY to this is so insanely easy, it’s almost not fair.

  1. Cut a length of ribbon that will overlap itself around the candle plus .5″
  2. Clip the earrings or brooch slightly to either side of the middle of the length of ribbon. I decided not to glue the jewelry at all so that I can either reuse it or sell it later.
  3. Hot glue the backside of one side of the ribbon to the candle.
  4. Tuck the loose end slightly underneath itself to form a crease and hot glue it to the back of the candle, as well.
  5. Unity+C

    See? Overlapping and folded into a nice edge. No rocket science here.

    5. Repeat with each candle.
    6. Stick them into or on their holders. I plan on using this after the wedding in my home.

5 and 6 are really just common sense. If you can pull a trigger, you can do this project!

And here’s the finished product:

Unity+C01

Holy overexposed unity candle, Batman! Sadly, this is what happens in my apartment after dark. The ole point’n’shoot wants to use a flash. Boo. But you get the idea.

Is there a special tradition that you’re looking forward to doing for the ceremony?

P.S. - if you need a good laugh, look up “Unity Candle” on Wikipedia. My favorite line is: “The lighting ceremony may be accompanied by special music, an explanation of the symbolism, or just some period of mutual gazing by the happy couple.” Happy “mutual gazing”!

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22 Responses to “DIY UnItY Candles”

1.
Jessie516
Hostess
Jessie516 (message)  5,281 posts, Bee Keeper

What a cool and EASY DIY!

 
2.
pmerr
Member
pmerr (message)  2,083 posts, Buzzing bee

Cute!
We’ll be doing the cord of three strands braiding at ours-& instead of unity candles we’ll be doing unity flowers-same concept but flowers & vases instead of candles

 
3.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss French Fries (message)  1,409 posts, Bumble bee

Very cute! :) I love how you used coupons for almost everything, too — a woman after my own heart.

 
4.
Sage
Member
Sage (message)  510 posts, Busy bee

LOL - mutual gazing! I love me some mutual gazing :)

You did a great job on this! It looks perfect!

 
5.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Moonbeam (message)  1,470 posts, Bumble bee

Ha ha, mutual gazing. Great candles.

 
6.
tea
Member
tea (message)  4,381 posts, Honey bee

haha, i love wikipedia for stuff like that. classic.

and you did a wonderful job of the unity candles. i like them

 
7.
Mrs. French Bulldog
Bee
Mrs. French Bulldog (message)  6,548 posts, Bee Keeper

Those turned out lovely :)

 
8.
teeleaf22
Member
teeleaf22 (message)  320 posts, Helper bee

I bought the exact same candles at Joann’s last week with coupons!! :) Love what you did with them!

 
9.
kmattso2
Member
kmattso2 (message)  1,044 posts, Bumble bee

Very cute!! I love the brooch and clip ons..they add a nice touch.

 
10.
ColorCoated
Member
ColorCoated (message)  1,111 posts, Bumble bee

Double cute!

 
11.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Mouse (message)  5,161 posts, Bee Keeper

They turned out really pretty!

 
12.
alishaneva
Member
alishaneva (message)  2,112 posts, Buzzing bee

We better see some mutual gazing, yo! And that’s awesome - I love that you made yours - very very cool!

 
13.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Scissors (message)  5,822 posts, Bee Keeper

That’s super pretty!

 
14.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Lamb (message)  682 posts, Busy bee

Thanks guys! I’m hoping our photographer gets a nice close up when we light them :)

 
15.
mrspaetz
Member
mrspaetz (message)  1,780 posts, Buzzing bee

how clever! love the brooches. very simple yet elegant.

 
16.
KMSull
Member
KMSull (message)  6,138 posts, Bee Keeper

Lol mutual gazing…

 
17.
RecessionistaBride
Member
RecessionistaBride (message)  4,232 posts, Honey bee

Those look awesome! Nice work :)

 
18.
LatteLove
Hostess
LatteLove (message)  4,743 posts, Honey bee

they turned out so pretty!

 
19.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Cola (message)  1,492 posts, Bumble bee

Haha, mutual gazing!

 
20.
Guest Icon
Guest
Rachel

This is great! I love that you decided not to glue the jewelry, great idea. I’ll be linking to this.

 
21.
Guest Icon
Guest
Money Saving Monday – Unity Candles and More

[...] A lot of people choose to do a unity candle during their wedding.  John and I did.  I can’t remember exactly how much it cost us, so I did a quick google search which turned up unity candle sets anywhere from $14 to $200!  How do you get around this if you wish to do a unity candle?  DIY of course!  Lots of resources come up when you do a search on DIY Unity candle, but here are a few I found that looked useful:  Road to the Aisle,  DIY Network, and Wedding Bee. [...]

 
22.
marci_607
Member
marci_607 (message)  226 posts, Helper bee

This is a wonderful idea! I never would have thought about using the earrings and brooch. I am going to have to try this now. Thank you!

 


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Mrs. Lamb
Mrs. Lamb Mrs. Lamb, Norfolk Age and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security Consultant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate Student Engagement Date: January 2009 Wedding Date: January 2010 Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera House About Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
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