Candle Bling!

When I bought the crystal beads for my hanging table cards, I had to buy more than I needed, due to sneaky packaging. I felt like Steve Martin in Father of the Bride, ripping open the twelve-packs of hotdog buns so that he only had eight to go with his eight weiners. Ok, actually Didn't care at all, since I was just thrilled to find the perfect crystal, but if I had cared, it might have turned out badly :-)


The shop where I bought them sold them in packs of eight, and I needed nine, so I was left with seven extra beads, too pretty to waste! So I decided to use them elsewhere in the wedding. But where? There weren't enough to attach to the chairs along the aisle, and they were a bit too big and unshapely to put on the bouquets. And then it hit me: Candle Jewellery!


A friend at work gave me a ton of candles, which are sitting attempting not to gather dust even as I type, so I already had them to work with. I had already decided not to do flowers on the head table, because that would end up blocking us from view, and of course it's all about us! So my idea was something like this:

Except in our case the row of candles will be on the outside edge of the table, not down the centre. And they're bigger, and not glass votives. But you get the gist.

So then I figured, since the candles will be at the end of the table, why not give them little crystal "necklaces" to hang down off the edge, and prettify the table a bit? So this is what I came up with:

Excuse the edge of the bed. I don't own a table. Pathetic, right? (well, I do own a table, but the computer and a million things are on it.) Anyway, I think these will add some lovely sparkliness to the table, and match the placecards! So yay!

Free stuff...yeah baby!

I love candles. I want a ton of them at my reception, on every table, reflected in mirrors, lining the walkway, the whole shebang. But, well, they're pricey. And essentially I wanted them to be in little glass votives or big hurricane lamps, because I love the look of a flame in glass, and it's safter that way anyway. But those are even MORE expensive! So the week before last I was chatting to this lady at work about candles, and I mentioned that it might be cheaper if I just bought el cheapo candles and melted them down and set them in little glass holders, rather than BUYING them like that, and she said, "Oh, I have a bunch of half-burnt candles from my daughter's wedding; do you want those?" So I said yes please, of course! Duuuh. But what was great was that when she brought them most of them were barely burnt down at all! Seriously, once they're lit you won't even notice that they aren't new. So I'm just going to use them like that, none of this melting and setting nonsense :-) Three green shopping bags full! I have candles coming out the wazoo.

I could do this on every table if I wanted! Only not in the glass holders...

Then (I love this lady) we got talking about petticoats, and how Bride & Co wants R500 for a petticoat (daylight robbery), and she immediately offered to lend me her daughter's one too! I tried it on the other day and it's perfect! So whoohoo, freebies on two pretty big items (you know, not big like photography or food, but big enough for me to be thrilled!) Anyone else get some awesome free gifts or loans for their wedding?