Jamie Wolfer shares a wedding where hundreds of votive candles sat dark at the start of the reception. He recommends 6-8 hour candles for a 4-hour event and at least five minutes to light them all, since wax-coated wicks take longer to ignite.
Dinner kicks off without a hitch. The tables are great, the candles are all lit. I also forgot about all the candles that were down the tabletops. We had to light all those. It was like hundreds of candles that we had to light. It takes so much longer than you think it does, guys. So I highly recommend getting candles that burn for a longer period of time than you think you need. So if you have like a 4-hour reception, get 6 to 8-hour candles. I'm talking about the little votive ones so someone can light them earlier and then they don't burn out before the evening is over. This is not an area that I want you to skimp on, okay? We need those to be burning throughout the entire event. But if you give yourself only 5 minutes to light 200 candles, it's not gonna go— it's not gonna go well, especially if they haven't been pre-lit, because there's the wax on the outside of the wick that takes longer to melt off to then ignite for the first time.
