Candles bring a certain ambience that just can’t be reproduced with other types of lighting. Here are a few of my favorite ways to decorate with candles:
Everyone loves candles but how do you avoid those messy wax accidents in your design? Find out in tomorrow’s post…
But first, I have a question for you. There are basically three kinds of candle shapes:
- Votive (small tea lights in small glass containers)
- Pillar candles (chunky, sometimes squat shaped candles of various sizes)
- Tapers (tall, thin candles of varying heights)
Do you prefer votives, pillars, or tapers and why?
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George Bernard Shaw once said: “You see things and say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were and say, ‘Why not?’” That quote embodies how Preston Bailey approaches every event.
Rowaida Flayhan
March 22, 2010
Love all your tables amazingly beautiful. For the candle shapes it depends on the theme and mood of the dinner or party and the place.
suenairn
March 22, 2010
My preference is votives and floating candles. Tapers and pillars are wonderful shapes, but too messy – especially tapers. Even though we prelight and preburn every pillar candle until it has a half-dollar sized recess in it prior to any party that uses them, we still come back at the end of the event and find candles that “sprung a leak” and overflowed the pillar coaster at the base. The combination of cylinders with interior flowers topped with floating candles and then accompanied by tabletop votives is beautiful – a very good range of fire height from the table, and at the table level provides an illumination which really spotlights the blooms and stems inside. We also rent many of the taller vases to our clients, so it is also very good for creating a striking tabletop at a better pricepoint. (Does increase installation labor a bit, though – filling the vases has to happen on-site – as you know!)
Shar
March 22, 2010
I definitely have a preference for pillar candles. I love the visual of thicker candles displayed on pillar candle holders of varying heights.
Gloria Brown
March 22, 2010
I love the look of over-sized glass vases filled halfway with cell phones and a large pillar candle in the center. And lots of votives strategically placed on the same table. I’m joking about the cell phones but I do like seashells or round glass orbs surrounding the pillar.
I also like floating candles, too. You can never have too many candles! … LOL
I don’t really care for floating candles used in low bowls for low centerpieces. I prefer over-sized centerpieces… I like everything over-sized in décor.
I never really liked using tapers because I was concerned they would fall over and start an accidental fire. But I have remedied that concern by placing approx. 2” of sand in the bottom of a 6” x 6” round glass cylinder vase and sticking 4 tapers in the sand about 2” apart forming a square. I absolutely LOVE this new discovery. I would be interested to hear from you if you have tried this candle design. The square fits fabulous in the round …LOL
MICHAEL ELLIOTT
March 22, 2010
Votives and Floaters in clusters and groupings. The variations of different heights adds to the depth and texture of the table design. And of course nothing says ROMANCE like a flickering flame.
CarmenLuk
March 22, 2010
These are gorgeous table settings. I love votives as they create a romantic ambience and it’s easy to manage, not like tapers. Pillar candles are very nice too, especially the coloured ones that you can use to go with the colour theme. Taper candles reminds me of the candlelight dinner in the movies.
Melissa Lim
March 22, 2010
I like votives and pillar but not tapers, because according to our chinese culture, red tapers are used for worshiping the god, and white tapers are used for funeral! yeah, we dont want to see the customer’s face having a long face when they see white tapers on their wedding dinner.. !
Unless they are carved with motives or swirled in purple or champagne colours.
Dennis Clarkson
March 23, 2010
I prefer pillars. They not only blend in with a rooms decor through color they can also be decorative and works of sculptured art. Glass candles with plastic photos attached to them are boring. Well designed pillars use a wick that works with the diameter of the pillar. A three inch diameter pillar requires a different wick than a four inch diameter. The wick is the most important decision in making a pillar burn correctly and of course clipping the wick to 1/4 inch each time before lighting insures that the candle will burn the way it was designed to burn
unsuraria
October 21, 2010
thanks a lot for this nice web site. it would be better with other languages, bur thanks
kupit’ viagru dlya zhenwin
Geoff King
December 13, 2010
Hey I found your site to be very informative about candles which in my case is my great hobby.
I love to visit your site again when there are new posts. Thanks…
soy candle-making classes
June 20, 2011
nice web blog on Candle. Carry on. It will definitely help us in our work. Please keep sharing like this.
desertrose
July 13, 2011
Votives in glass containers for me. Love the flicker and security of knowing that the risk of “accidental” burns or fires is minimal. If I use pillars, I ensure they were burned halfway down and I drop a votive down in it and light that = again with safety uppermost in mind.
Frances
January 25, 2012
I came up with an idea which I had patient It is a pillar candle where you pop a tea light in it It looks like and burns like a real candle I can decorate them with lace or anything I was sick of cleaning my candelabras after very function now they come back ckean I have saved time and money I love them