Here, we will focus on ideas for decorating a wedding with candles tastefully—particularly with candles, as creative wedding décor goes far beyond flowers and lace. A wedding has many parts—the guest list, the gown, the renting of the locale, the decorations and colors, the invitations, the themes.

Candles can most easily be found on sale right after the December holiday season, and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes—small tea lights, votive candles, floating candles, large bar candles, and candles sculpted into different animals and items.

Use votive candles placed inside glass lanterns to create a soft, dreamy ambience. The lanterns themselves look like brilliant pillars of flame, and could be used as wonderful centerpieces. When several are placed together, it is enough to light an entire table and the people sitting at it.

Fill a glass cylinder three-fourths full of water, and place a small floating candle on top. This creates a scattered light effect, as light hits the glass and the water and penetrate and are reflected. As the flame moves, it looks as if streaks of light are rushing through the water below the candle, and brilliant little flames can be seen through the glass cylinder. This effect is truly beautiful, if placed in a noticeable area where guests are not likely to simply glance over the decorations.

If your wedding is outdoors, place a few dozen small floating candles on a nearby pond, fountain, or pool. If water lines a walkway, place many floating candles on there; at night, the effect is absolutely gorgeous—the candles make the water look as if it’s aflame with a thousand leaping lights.

Place pastel-colored floating candles in a large frosted-glass bowl that is about three times as wide as it is tall. Set the bowl in the center of the table, and surround it with three or four wide pillow candles in the same pastel hue that fade to frosted white near the bottom. This setup creates a soft, gentle, and romantic effect, and if the pastel hue is purple, the effect of a sunset can be seen.

For this setup, you need an assortment of different glassware, in different heights. In the regular glass cups, place soft-colored pillar candles. In a taller martini glass, place a spherical candle. Find martini glasses in different heights, and place sphere candles in them, all in the same (or matching) colors. Place one floating candle in a large martini bowl, and set up so that the tallest glasses are toward the center, flanked by smaller glasses on the side. This creates a sophisticated, elegant feel, and can be used as the centerpieces of a rather large dining table.

On a patio or porch outside, place several opaque glass votive candles at varying heights; this creates a beautiful, dreamlike effect, and gives you the feeling that you are surrounded by candles.