Home made candles?

One thing to consider if you are having candles, and especially scented ones, is that they can be a major trigger for anyone with respiratory conditions such as asthma, so you might want to think if any of your guests might be affected by this - you don't want half of them vanishing outside midway during the reception!

If you think you will be ok to have these, then pillar candles might be easier. If you are using glass holders that come up round the sides of the candle, you will need to make sure the glass won't crack in the heat. I don't think having two mismatched pieces of glassware would necessarily be an issue by itself, as long as the two pieces looked ok together, but the problem would be making sure that so many mismatched pieces of glass were all heat-safe.

If you go ahead with making your own do give yourself loads of time and materials for practice runs - candle making is a bit like baking: the stuff you make for yourself turns out brilliantly, but as soon as it needs to be suitable to give away, everything goes pear-shaped!

We purchased small brass candles sticks (all the same, but some 7cm high, some 12cm high) and dinner candles about 30cm high I think. You can buy very long dinner candles now... but we opted for some that were not so long. Our flowers were all in simple short glass vases.

We bought the candles on Etsy and they were all the same colour, a kind of oyster/champagne that went well with our flowers. They last for the whole dinner and didn't burn down entirely. We didn't go for Soy as I understand these burn quickly. Our venue had pillar candles, but personally I am glad we went for dinner candles. We had about 50 guests (inc. some children) and 18 candle sticks, if helpful : ) making candles may take quite a bit of time and perhaps they will burn more quickly. I am glad not to have had more to do, but if you feel very inspired you should do it! : )