How to Light Wedding Candles
It's the little things about a wedding ceremony that make it special and personal. Every moment of a beautiful ceremony needs to be properly choreographed to give it a clean, polished look. The lighting of the wedding candles begins the ceremony and draws people in. Planning the lighting in a precise way will help make your special day all it should be.
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Instructions
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Choose the number and arrangement of your wedding candles carefully. Plan at least one large candelabra in the center behind the minister and a unity candle in front or just off to the side.
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Select enough ushers to light the candles in a timely fashion. Two should be enough for most weddings, but if you have a lot of candles, you'll need four. Always choose an even number.
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Pick music for the candle lighting part of the ceremony. This is a nice time for a solo, or music that the guests will recognize.
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Direct the ushers to walk up the aisle two by two with their candle lighters. Be sure they have pole lighters to match the candelabras. Never use cigarette lighters.
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Carry pole lights with the outside hand when walking down the aisle.
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Take positions at the outside of each candelabra and light from the outside in, lighting each candle simultaneously. The ushers should look like mirror images of each other. In the event that a candle won't light ushers should not move to the next candle until the others are ready.
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Walk back to the middle aisle and out, two by two, the way the ushers came in.
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Tips & Warnings
Other candles that really set the stage off are one diagonal candelabra behind each side of the wedding party and one for the piano. The entire plan should lead the eye to the center above the bride and groom.
Have the ushers adjust each candle stick, light it briefly and blow it out about one hour prior to the ceremony. This will ensure the candles light easily during the ceremony.
Another nice touch is to have the ushers come back in as soon as the wedding party recesses and extinguish the candles in the opposite way they were lighted. This gives the wedding party plenty of time to get settled before receiving their guests or returning for pictures.
