I love candles! And I especially love candles at a wedding, both ceremony and reception. I love to line the aisle with gorgeous candles in clear glass vases and have the aisle covered in rose petals! But who will light those candles and at what time? And what happens if a guest kicks one over?
These are all great questions that most brides don't think of, but an experienced wedding planner will think of all of this for you. Your wedding planner, or assistant wedding planner, will light the candles! They get lit about 40 minutes before the ceremony starts. Guest start arriving about 30 minutes before the ceremony start time, so this gives 10 minutes to light the ceremony candles. The reception candles get lit during the ceremony. And what happens if a guest knocks over a candle in the aisle? The wedding planners swoop in for the rescue, of course! Now, we like to ribbon off the center aisle and have guests enter from the outside of the chairs but sometimes this isn't possible. So, we will always have extra candles and vases on hand in case of emergency!
But here is the big question, who does this if you have not hired a wedding planner? Some venues will provide a staff member to take care of this. You may be thinking you can have a friend light the candles, while this is true we think you should let your friends be guests at the wedding! Don't put them to work! For one, they just might forget that they agreed to do this, or they forget to bring a lighter.
So, the moral of today's story? Hire an experienced wedding planner! We think of all the details! We are there to work your wedding and will take care of all the small details for you!
Happy Planning!